Jenai Wall is a leading Hawaii business executive who believes in supporting the communities that support her famiy’s businesses.

It’s a tradition started by her father, Maurice "Sully" Sullivan, who started the Foodland supermarket chain in 1948, opening its first store at Market City in Kaimuki.

Now under the "Sulllivan family of companies" umbrella, Foodland Super Market Ltd. has grown to 33 stores statewide, which includes Foodland, Sack N Save and Foodland Farms stores. Also under the umbrella are Food Pantry Ltd. and Kalama Beach Corp., which have more than 114 retail locations in Hawaii and across the mainland, including Accents, Whalers General Store, Coco Cove, Lamonts Gift & Sundry Shops, Oasis Lifestyle, Kohala Bay Collections, Ocean Commotion, Ku’ai Market and Napili Market. The company also operates The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf stores in Hawaii. In total, the businesses employ some 4,000 people, with about 2,500 of them working for Foodland.

Wall, chairman and chief executive officer of the Sullivan companies, said last week that her father, who died in 1998 at age 89, "was very passionate about giving back to the community" — which he accomplished partly by having Foodland sponsor fundraising, including for schools and students, and people in need during the holidays.

Since 1999, Foodland has been offering a program it calls Give Aloha. During September, shoppers can designate up to $249 apiece to as many charities as they want, from a list of more than 670, with their donations to be partly matched by Foodland. Since the program began, donations have exceeded $21 million.

Wall, 55, is a graduate of Punahou School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Wellesley College in Massachusetts and a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University in New York. She is married to Roger Wall, who also works for the Sullivan family of companies, primarily handling real estate matters, and with whom she has two adult children.

Question: So you’re saying I can have donations to my favorite charity matched this month simply by shopping at Foodland?

Answer: Yes, this is a program (Give Aloha) we’ve run since 1999 and, really, what we know is our customers support a wide range of organizations across the state. So for us, it’s about encouraging them to give during this month, and we sign up as many nonprofits as we can.

This year we have over 670 participating organizations. So you just come to the checkout, you can round up your bill, you can give your change, you can give any amount up to $249 (per charitable entity) …

Q: Does it have to be all at once or can it take place over multiple shopping trips during the month?

A: It can take place over multiple shopping trips, every time you come in. Some customers decide to give to a different organization every time they come in.

Q: How does a customer pick the one with so many to pick from?

A: (Laughter) I think a lot of customers may have a favorite organization that they already support in some way. A lot of time people might support their child’s school.

Q: Is there a checkoff list or something?

A: Yeah. A couple things happen. We have a list at the register of all the participating organizations, alphabetically. You can scan it pretty quickly to see what organization you want to support and you tell the cashier and they will put in that code so your donation will go to that organization.

Many of these organizations also remind their supporters to give at Foodland during this month because they know a portion of the gift will be matched. I know at our house and via email, I get a lot things from various organizations reminding me to Give Aloha at Foodland during the month of September, which makes me really happy.

Q: I noticed on the Foodland website that the Western Union Foundation will match each donation. How did Western Union get involved with this?

A: We began the program ourselves, in 1999. … (Later) Western Union approached us … and they said, "Hey, we’d like to do this with you. We think it’s a great program. We have a foundation and we’d like to partner with you to match some of the gifts." So the majority of the match comes from Foodland, but Western Union contributes to that match every year. They’ve been a great supporter of Give Aloha, and we’re one of the organizations, one of the programs that have been fortunate to get their support and commitment over here.

Q: (You) match whatever people give you, right?

A: No. We don’t match dollar for dollar and we never have. It’s typically 25 cents on the dollar.

Q: So it’s not one for one?

A: No, it’s never been one for one. And the reason is, No. 1, we can’t afford to do that. But I think we found that what works is, hey, you’re giving a hundred dollars to an organization and now that number is going to be bigger than it was before because you’re giving at Foodland, and people really like that. The organizations really like that, because it’s a bigger gift than they would otherwise get.

The second thing that’s wonderful about Give Aloha is that, you know, a lot of times people don’t think about writing a $10 check to an organization, they’re worried, "Oh, my gift is too small" or (something like) that. So by giving at the checkout, they can choose to give anonymously, they can choose to take the receipt back to the organization and get a tax deduction for it; there are options for them.

Q: What has been the biggest fundraising year for the campaign so far?

A: It was actually last year. It was the first time over $2 million went back to the community, because with our match it was over $2 million. Which was really wonderful when you think about 30 days.

Q: Which seem to be the most popular of the charities on the list?

A: It’s spread across a lot of organizations. The top two are typically Holy Family Catholic Academy — it’s a private school near the airport — and also First Presbyterian Church.

Q: Are you still running the Shop for Better Education and Share a Holiday Feast programs that the company used to sponsor?

A: Yes. They just run at different times of year. September is devoted strictly to Give Aloha.

Q: It was your dad who started that Shop for Better Education, right?

A: Yeah. It’s become a scholarship program (now called Shop for Higher Education) because we started out giving computers and books to the schools, and really there was a need at the time. But over time schools, as we communicated with them, they suggested we look at some other things that might be more relevant today. So we decided to focus on providing scholarships for some of the graduating seniors across the state.

Q: How do you do that?

A: We allocate scholarships. We usually give a little over $200,000 — they are $2,000 scholarships, so a hundred students each get $2,000 scholarships. Sometimes it’s a little over a hundred, but they are allocated to the schools based on how much shopping is done with that school designated. The top schools get five scholarships, and they decide who those scholarships will go to, given some criteria from us.

Q: You said top schools — the ones that shop the most?

A: Yeah, and, really, the top schools typically are public schools. They’re often in communities where there’s a significant need, which makes us really really proud that our customers in those areas are really supporting their students by giving back.

Q: I suppose this could be helpful on your company’s taxes, but that isn’t really why you do it, is it? I mean, you could be doing other things with your money to get tax credits or whatever, right?

A: Oh, you know, we don’t even consider that. I think our goal with these programs is that this is our home, we’re a local company, and we really believe that we have a responsibility to support the community that supports us. That’s why giving back is such an important part of our culture. It’s something my dad started and, you know, that all of us here feel very, very passionate about.

Q: Speaking of being a local company, at one time the local supermarkets were, what, just Times, maybe, and Foodland, right? That was pretty much it for a long time, wasn’t it?

A: Well, the local supermarkets were Times, Star Markets, and KTA (on Hawaii island). Times is now mainland-owned. KTA remains locally owned, but has stores just on the Big Island. As far as supermarkets with stores across the state, we are the only locally owned.

Q: So other competitors these days are Safeway, Whole Foods …

A: We’ve got Whole Foods, we’ve got Costco, Walmart — you know, everybody sells groceries, right?

Q: Yeah. There have been so many changes in the grocery business in recent years, especially with the advent of those kinds of companies and others that stress more healthy, dietary lifestyles. How have you been doing at keeping up with such changes?

A: Well, you know, it’s challenging. I think what we focus on is giving our customers the best experience possible. We focus on delivering great service to them every time they shop. We think service is a point of difference, and we want people to feel comfortable in our stores. We want them to feel good about shopping with us. But we also want to make sure that we give them what they want — that being great quality products and great service.

Q: What do you think are the big trends right now in grocery retailing?

A: I think that people are continually looking for more prepared food. I think that a lot of customers don’t cook as much as perhaps their parents or grandparents did, so they’re looking for things they can get quick and get out of the store. … You know, people are busier than ever, so also our commitment as a company is to make sure that we make shopping easy and pleasant and fast for them. So we want them to be able to get through the checkouts quickly so they don’t wait in line.

Q: I noticed that some of these stores in the Sullivan family of stores take you over to the mainland. Did that present any issues?

A: I think you’re talking about our Food Pantry stores. It’s a separate company other than Foodland. … All of those stores — Lamont’s, Accents, Whalers General Store and there are a bunch of other names — they’re all under the Food Pantry umbrella.

Food Pantry was started with Food Pantry in Waikiki. My father had seen an opportunity in the visitor market as Waikiki was growing and he thought it would be great to have a store there to serve visitors. A traditional supermarket with a lot more gifts and things, and over time we got into visitor convenience stores with Whalers General Store, and then we were approached to open gift shops in some of the local hotels, and as we were successful with that, we were asked to take over some gift shops on the mainland.

Q: Like Lamont’s?

A: Right. And so we operate gift shops and apparel stores across the mainland, and, you know, we thought at the time it would be good to diversify the business in a small way, so it’s been a great learning experience for us. We wouldn’t compete in supermarkets anywhere outside of Hawaii.

Q: About the business overall, what kind of changes in the political landscape do you think would be helpful, whether it’s taxes or regulations or whatever. I’m just wondering, if you had to say anything political, what you might recommend.

A: I would recommend that I don’t say anything political. (Laughter)

Q: Going back to Give Aloha, do you have a sense of how many people just say, "No, I’m not interested"?

A: It’s perfectly fine for customers to say no. We believe in giving our customers the opportunity to give. For people  who already give and may make donations elsewhere, we’re totally fine with that, and we would never make you feel bad for not giving through us. But I think there are a lot of people who — and I really believe this — when it’s made easy to give, they want to help others, and Hawaii is an especially giving community, so we’re continually amazed and touched by the generosity of our customers.