ShopRite and Wakefern Food Corp. Volunteers Clean Up Sandy Hook Beaches During Clean Ocean Action Beach Sweeps

Keasbey, NJ (October 27, 2021)  On October 23, a team of 50  volunteers from ShopRite, Wakefern Food Corp., Terracycle, Colgate, and Tom’s of Maine joined nearly 500 volunteers at Sandy Hook Beach in New Jersey to pick up litter as part of Clean Ocean Action’s (COA) Beach Sweeps event. The team spent the morning removing debris and litter from the beach, helping protect wildlife and keeping the famous stretch of New Jersey shoreline beautiful.

The Sandy Hook Beach Sweep was one of 70 sweeps that took place at Jersey beaches and waterways with more than 4,000 volunteers taking part. The COA Beach Sweeps program is designed to rid beaches and waterways of harmful materials while collecting valuable data about debris, which is used to advance federal, state, and local programs to reduce litter and pollution. Over 36 years, nearly 150,000 volunteers have contributed more than 864,688 volunteer hours to remove and record debris from New Jersey’s beaches and waterways. Across all cleanup sites, more than 7.5 million pieces of debris have been removed from beaches and waterways thanks to Clean Ocean Action and partners like Wakefern and ShopRite.

“We are proud of our long-standing partnership with Clean Ocean Action to help keep harmful litter out of our oceans and are thankful to our other incredible partners who have joined us to help in our sustainability mission,” said Robert Zuehlke, Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility for ShopRite. “The COA Beach Sweeps event is one of ShopRite’s many sustainability efforts that are designed to promote a greener, cleaner and more beautiful environment for future generations.”

In just one day, volunteers helped remove 25,000 pieces of debris and litter from the Gateway National Recreation area at Sandy Hook. Removing litter from the beaches helps protect countless marine wildlife from coming into contact with the materials and potentially getting trapped, injured or sick from contaminants.

“We are most grateful for partners like ShopRite, Wakefern, Colgate, Terracylce, and Tom’s of Maine who supported this event,” said Cindy Zipf, Executive Director, Clean Ocean Action.  “Without the feet on the beach help from communities and corporate partners we would be unable to make the positive impact we have had on our oceans and waterways over the last 36 years.”

For more than four decades, Wakefern Food Corp., the retailer owned cooperative that includes nearly 280 ShopRite stores, has worked to protect the environment, conserve natural resources, and assist communities where our stores operate.  Last year alone, Wakefern donated 5,000 tons of food to local food banks, composted more than 8,200 tons of food waste, and since the late 1970’s has recycled more than 2.6 million tons of materials.

For more information on ShopRite’s sustainability efforts, please visit https://shop.shoprite.com/sustainability.

About ShopRite

ShopRite is the registered trademark of Wakefern Food Corp., a retailer-owned cooperative based in Keasbey, NJ, and the largest supermarket cooperative in the United States. With nearly 280 ShopRite supermarkets located throughout New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware and Maryland, ShopRite serves millions of customers each week. Through its ShopRite Partners In Caring program, ShopRite is dedicated to fighting hunger in the communities it serves.  Since the program began in 1999, ShopRite Partners In Caring has donated nearly $50 million to food banks that support more than 2,200 worthy charities. As a title sponsor of the ShopRite LPGA Classic Presented by Acer, ShopRite has donated $37 million to local organizations, hospitals and community groups. For more information, please visit www.shoprite.com.