Photograph courtesy of Magnolia Jazz Band
The Magnolia Jazz Band will perform Jan. 17 at the Wild Oats Market.
By LESTER CHANG
The Wild Oats Market in Sunnyvale will host special events on Jan. 17 and 18 in part to help raise money to fight cancer and help the needy of Sunnyvale.
On Jan. 17, the food store will host a barbecue that will feature meat from animals that were raised on pesticide-free grain, said Mareya Ibrahim, a regional marketing director for Wild Oats, a Boulder-based company with 40 stores in the United States.
Sunnyvale's Magnolia Jazz Band will perform from 3:30 to 7 p.m. on the same day.
Wild Oats plans to hold similar events--called the Wild Friday Afternoon Club--once a month to help residents "unwind" after working all week, Ibrahim said.
The proceeds from the Jan. 17 event will go to Sunnyvale Community Services.
Expected to be on hand are Suzi Blackman, who heads the Sunnyvale Chamber of Commerce, and Nancy Tivol, who heads Sunnyvale Community Services.
Also expected is Mel Coleman Sr., president of the Colorado-based Coleman Natural Meat, which provided the meat for the event.
On Jan. 18, Wild Oats will stage another barbecue, using meat from chicken grown naturally by Petaluma Poultry, Ibrahim said.
The proceeds from the event will go to the Santa Clara chapter of the American Cancer Society.
The San Francisco radio station KFRC (99.7-FM), meanwhile, will do a live broadcast from the parking lot of the store.
Sunnyvale Mayor Stan Kawczynski and representatives from the Sunnyvale Chamber will also be on hand for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon to mark the grand opening of the store. Wild Oats will distribute free samples of natural food.
"The events will promote Wild Oats, but we also want to help people find out about the nutritional benefits of natural foods," Ibrahim said. "Doing these things is a way to give back to the community."
Toward that end, the store held three fundraising events in the last two months to benefit the Second Harvest Food Bank in San Jose and the Sunnyvale Community Services.
Wild Oats has made a commitment to donate the equivalent of 7.5 percent of its pre-tax profits to environmental and social causes each year.
The Sunnyvale store is located at 1265 S. Mary Ave. For more information about the events, call 730-1310.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, January 8, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.