Public Voting Opens In Eighth Annual Lucerne The Art Of Dairy Art Contest

PLEASANTON, Calif. — Lucerne®, Safeway Inc.'s exclusive dairy brand, invites the American public to vote for their favorite cow in the Eight Annual Lucerne® The Art of Dairy™ Art Contest. Nine student finalists were chosen to compete for a $30,000 grand prize with an unconventional canvas for their legendairy designs – a life-sized fiberglass cow. America will crown the winning artist in the contest that joins nutrition with artistic talent and ingenuity. Voting will take place on www.artofdairy.com through May 17.

Every 100,000th voter will receive a $100 Safeway gift card (up to the one millionth voter). Plus, now through May 17, people can show their love for Lucerne® on Twitter by tweeting a picture of their favorite Lucerne product to hashtag #artofdairy, along with the reason they love that product, for a chance to win one of ten $100 Safeway gift cards. More details about the giveaways and official rules can be found at www.artofdairy.com.

Since the inception of the Art of Dairy™ contest in 2005, Lucerne has contributed over $373,000 to schools, teachers, and students. This year, over 6,400 entries were received from schools across the country.

The Lucerne brand is proud to be committed to promoting the creative growth of young artists, supporting their talents along with underfunded art programs in schools. The Art of Dairy contest has been going strong for eight years, garnering thousands of creative, inspired design entries.

About the Contest
Safeway's Lucerne® brand has been providing students with a wide variety of wholesome dairy products for over a century. Delicious nourishment before, during, and after school not only feeds the body, but also helps fuel creative minds. Leveraging a brand new theme – "ImaginDairy Places" – students were encouraged to express their love of dairy by creating an imaginary world made up of Lucerne dairy products on a cow-shaped template. An elite panel of judges reviewed the thousands of entries received and selected nine finalists who transferred their designs on to life-sized fiberglass cow sculptures. Now, America will decide the winner via online voting thru May 17, 2013. The finalist cows will be on display in stores, and winners will be announced in early June.

In May, Safeway's YouTube page will chronicle the artistic process of each of the finalists. These videos will allow the talented young artists to express how art has impacted their lives and its importance to their schools.

The contest winners will share approximately $46,000 in prizes with their art teachers and their schools' art programs. The Grand Prize winner will receive $20,000 for his or her school's art department, plus $5,000 each for the winner and his or her art teacher. The First Prize winner receives $5,000 for his or her school's art department, plus $2,500 each for the student and teacher. In addition, one Honorable Achievement winner and their teacher will receive $1,000 each. The remaining six finalists will receive $500 gift cards. Plus, the high school that sent in the most entries per capita won $1,000 as part of the Teacher's Incentive Contest. This year's winner, Kearny High School of San Diego, CA, took the prize with an impressive entry submission rate of 7.84%.

This program is a fun and unique way to promote creative growth and encourage students to artistically express themselves; the contest not only gives students a national platform to unveil their talents, but also helps illustrate the importance of art education in schools.

For past contest winners, entry forms, delicious recipes, information about Lucerne® and Official Rules, visit www.ArtofDairy.com.

The Art of Dairy 2013 Finalists

Gissella M. – Weber Institute – Stockton, CA
Hagen A. – Northwest Career and Technical Academy – Las Vegas, NV
Rachel R. – Sehome High School – Bellingham, WA
Sierra N. – Sandy High School – Sandy, OR
Kayla A. – Northwest Christian School – Phoenix, AZ
Yul J. – La Veta High School – La Veta, CO
Melissa P. – Tinley Park High School – Tinley Park, IL
Riley K. – Loudoun Valley High School – Purcellville, VA
Nhung (Julie) L . – South Grand Prairie High School – Grand Prairie, TX

About Safeway  www.Safeway.com

Safeway Inc. is a Fortune 100 company and one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America, based on sales. The company operates 1,641 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $44.2 billion in 2012. The company's common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SWY.

Source: Safeway Inc.