Tops Markets celebrates 10 years of giving back to local schools

Tops Markets, a leading supermarket chain in western New York, is celebrating the 10th year of its Tops in Education Program (TIE). The program has raised $1.3 million for local schools so far, and is funded in part by purchases of the chain’s private label products.

“This program provides a great value for our customers while helping to provide funding for educational needs in the communities we serve,” said Kathleen Allen, senior manager of community relations for the company. “As we at Tops strive to help eradicate hunger and improve the quality of life for children, we couldn’t be more proud of this achievement of donating more than $1.3 million dollars back to local K-12 schools over the past nine years, through Tops in Education.”

The program was launched by Tops in 2012 and has donated more than $1.3 million dollars, a significant milestone for the program, in the last decade. Last year, over 1,000 schools participated in Tops in Education and during the 2020-2021 school year alone the program raised over $146,000 for local schools. The concept is simple and easy to follow and what Tops officials attribute to the success of TIE.

Shoppers can participate in the program by logging on to topsmarkets.com/education where they can quickly register the Tops BonusPlus card for the program. Here, customers can select up to three schools in grades K-12 of their choice from a list of schools that have registered to be the benefactor of their Tops shopping. Then, it’s as easy as purchasing participating Tops Brand, Full Circle, TopCare, Tippy Toes, Simply Done, That’s Smart, and Best Yet products with the Tops BonusPlus card throughout the 2021-2022 Tops in Education program year. Tops will contribute up to 5% of the purchases to the school(s) chosen. 

The program runs September 1 – May 31 every year, and purchases can be made at any of the 157 Tops Market locations throughout New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. Schools can be enrolled into the program here.