Spring 2023
By Kathy Clute
New England Stop & Shop customers donated $1.4 million to pediatric cancer research at Dana-Farber last year during the grocery chain’s 31st annual Help Cure Childhood Cancer campaign, which has raised a total of $77 million for the Institute since 1991.
“Our customers in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and northern Connecticut opened their hearts and their wallets to the children and youth who come to Dana-Farber’s Jimmy Fund Clinic for treatment,” said Stop & Shop President Gordon Reid. “Every penny given at the checkout counter is funding promising research and exceptional care for these kids. I could not be prouder.”
During the month-long campaign, customers were invited to round up their purchases to the nearest dollar or contribute $1, $3, or $5 at checkout — a convenient and easy way to sponsor research into new and better treatments for children with brain tumors. Two young Jimmy Fund Clinic patients, Mia and Johnny, were featured on in-store signage and on social media.
“Every penny given at the checkout counter is funding promising research and exceptional care for these kids.”
Gordon Reid, Stop & Shop
“We are so grateful for this amazing gift from Stop & Shop and its customers,” said Scott Armstrong, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatric Oncology. “This support inspires and motivates our physicians and scientists, who work tirelessly every day to find better treatments for the children and teens who come to us for care. And it gives hope to their families.”
Armstrong noted that researchers are engaged in a number of cutting-edge projects, including a first-of-its-kind multidisciplinary effort to advance treatment and care for brain tumors that occur in infancy. They are also partnering with colleagues around the world to better understand the molecular makeup of high-grade gliomas and learn how to block the tumor cells from hijacking normal brain structures.
During its decades-long partnership with Dana-Farber, Stop & Shop has funded the Stop & Shop Family Pediatric Brain Tumor Clinic and two initiatives, a pediatric neuro-oncology outcomes clinic and adolescent and young adult brain tumor clinic.