Lucerne®, Safeway's Exclusive Dairy Brand, Crowns Winner of Annual Lucerne® The Art of Dairy™ Art Contest

PLEASANTON, Calif., June 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Safeway Inc. (NYSE: SWY) and its exclusive Lucerne® dairy brand congratulates Amy Chen of Lake Oswego, Oregon for winning the $30,000 grand prize in the Lucerne® The Art of Dairy™ "Red, White, & Moo" art contest. Students from Sparks, Nevada and Longmont, Colorado also took home prizes in one of the most unique and interactive art contests in the country.

Amy, a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School, receives $20,000 for her school's art department, plus $5,000 each for herself and $5,000 for her art teacher.

The Lucerne® The Art of Dairy™ contest, now in its seventh year, promotes creative growth,  encourages the artistic ability of the students and highlights the importance of art education in schools. It also gives high school students the chance to display their talents on an unconventional canvas — a life-sized fiberglass cow.

Using the theme of "Red, White & Moo," entrants were asked to illustrate their visions of American ingenuity using an outline of a cow as the canvas. From the more than 9,200 entries, nine finalists were chosen to transfer their designs to giant fiberglass cow sculptures. Then the contest took a new twist this year with America, rather than a panel of judges, deciding the ultimate winners. Voting was done online and via text message from April 16 through May 15, 2012 while the finalist cows were on display in Safeway stores across the country.

About the Winners

Grand Prize Winner Amy Chen titled her design "Imagine What Moo Can Do." Her vision of American ingenuity was a patchwork of images of Americana, including the faces of Benjamin Franklin and Martin Luther King Jr., the Golden Gate Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and the Hollywood Hills. The images were interspersed with words synonymous with the American spirit, including Liberty, Justice and Freedom. In an essay about her unique design, Amy wrote "Using American ideals, moments, inventions and inventors, my theme focuses on what America stands for and what Americans can accomplish."

The First Prize Winner is Anne Mueller of Sparks, Nevada who titled her design "Amazing Americows." The Edward C. Reed High School junior painted images of historic Americans depicted as cows. Inventor Alexander Cowbell talks into his amazing invention, the telephone. Legendary physicist Albert Holstein rewrites his infamous Theory of Relativity with a drawing that proposes Milk + Cookie (Square) = Love. In an essay explaining her design, Anne proclaimed, "May we do for future generations what the great minds and ideas of the past have done for us - shine, inspire and lead!" Anne won $5,000 for her school's art program and $2,500 each for herself and her teacher.

Honorable Achievement recipient Lindsay Droege of Longmont, Colorado covered her cow sculpture with a giant depiction of the historic moon landing. However, in this unique adaptation, titled "One Small Step for Cow, One Giant Leap for Milk-kind," Astronaut Neil Armstrong holds an American flag in one hand and a carton of milk in the other. Lindsay, a graduating senior at Silver Creek High School in Longmont, won $1,000 for herself and $1,000 for her teacher.

The following finalists will receive $500 U.S. Savings Bonds:

• Ariana Enriquez – Chandler High School – Chandler, AZ
• Yeonsoo Kim – Bellevue Senior High School – Bellevue, WA
• Janet Kintner – Mother McAuley Liberal Arts High School – Chicago, IL
• Lori Lopez – Olympian High School – Chula Vista, CA
• Emilee Martin – B.F. Terry High School – Rosenberg, TX
• Gustavo Ramirez – Overbrook High School – Pine Hill, NJ

In addition, as part of a new Teacher Incentive Program, the school with the most entries per capita wins $1,000 for their art department. That school is Northstar School in Arlington, Texas with a 47.5% submission rate.

About Safeway Inc. 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 1,678 stores in the United States and western Canada and had annual sales of $43.6 billion in 2011.

CONTACT: Teena Massingill, 925-467-3810, [email protected]

SOURCE Safeway Inc.