Supermarket Chain Will Give $3 Million to School Athletics

In an unprecedented partnership, a major supermarket chain will announce today the donation of more than $3 million to the Los Angeles Unified School District to fund the system’s athletic program, which was threatened by impending budget cuts.

At a time of severe budget crisis in the district, the grant from Food 4 Less Supermarkets Inc. is the first good financial news the beleaguered district has received in months. It will preserve school sports, especially in the inner city, where children generally have few opportunities to participate in sports outside of school.

The supermarket chain, through The Boys/Viva Supermarkets Foundation, has agreed to guarantee funding for the district’s interscholastic athletic programs, which this year were operating on a $3.7-million budget. The details of the donation were being made final on Tuesday, a foundation spokesman said.

Los Angeles City Councilman Richard Alatorre, who serves on the foundation’s board of trustees, said that the panel decided last Saturday to make the commitment to the school district. Foundation trustees believe that sports programs are often the prime factors that motivate students to stay in school and provide for many urban youths valuable lessons in working together.

“This is the largest commitment any foundation has made to the school system, and we felt that athletics was something that is important to a lot of inner-city kids,” Alatorre said. “I just use myself as an example. Sports are what kept me in school.”

Alatorre said that the foundation is prepared to “make a multi-year commitment to save” public school sports programs, but will call on other corporations today to join in their effort.

School officials have appealed to private industry in Los Angeles for nearly two years to aid ailing scholastic and sports programs, which have suffered dramatically as the district has cut $1.2 billion from its budget over the past four years.

Nationally, public school districts are turning increasingly to corporate sponsors and special taxes on tickets to professional sporting events to subsidize athletic programs. Until now, Los Angeles had lagged behind other districts in obtaining such support.

The district estimates that between 500 and 600 students at each of its 49 high schools participate in athletics, and national studies have shown that student athletes tend to have higher grade point averages.

Since 1991, the district’s 22 sports programs have suffered nearly $1 million in cuts, leading to trimmed-down coaching staffs, the elimination of junior varsity football, a shorter winter sports season and scarcity of equipment. Band and drill team performances at away games were cut because of the high cost of bus transportation.

Just last Monday, Supt. Sid Thompson said that sports programs were likely to face another painful round of cuts as the district grapples with an estimated $137-million deficit next year.

“We can all breathe a big sigh of relief,” said Dick Browning, the district administrator who oversees high school athletics. He said he was not yet aware of the details of the donation, but said that restoring transportation for drill team and band is sure to be among the top priorities.

In a statement Tuesday, officials with Food 4 Less Supermarkets Inc. said the firm is “dedicated to supporting nonprofit organizations that contribute to enriching the quality and diversity of education for school-age children.” The company is the second-largest grocery store operator in greater Los Angeles, running Boys Markets, Alpha Beta, Food 4 Less and Viva.