On July 7th, the Kroger Houston division notified CMN Hospitals that they will no longer host an in-store campaign benefiting CMN Hospitals, primarily for business reasons. Our contacts did provide a few insights on why they were making this change. First, Kroger will be scaling back the number of register campaigns they host in order to align with business goals for customer transaction experience. And, this shift in charitable focus will align with their core business by focusing on hunger-related initiatives.

The Kroger Houston division raises funds for the Houston, Beaumont-Port Arthur, Waco-Temple-Bryan, and Lake Charles CMN Hospital markets.

Regardless of these developments, CMN Hospitals remains focused on stewarding and maximizing growth with our remaining Kroger divisions. A visit with our Kroger Michigan contacts at the beginning of August is scheduled to discuss opportunities to increase fundraising with them. We are also currently implementing a plan to bring on new divisions, as well as continuing to work to engage Kroger headquarters to discuss ideas to bring Kroger on as a national partner.

If you have questions regarding this announcement, please contact Emily Cawley, Manager, Partnerships at ecawley@cmnhospitals.org or Shirley Rogers, Senior Vice President, Hospital Relations, at srogers@cmnhospitals.org.