Wegmans celebrates 40th anniversary of its Employee Scholarship Program

(WJET/WFXP) – A regional supermarket chain hits a landmark number of years of giving their employees scholarship opportunities.

Wegmans celebrated the 40th anniversary of its Employee Scholarship Program, awarding over 46,500 employees with over $145 million in scholarships since the program started.

Mary Beth Stalter was one of the 241 employees who received the first scholarships in 1984, she now oversees the team of people that awards the scholarships each year, her son was also awarded a scholarship when he worked for the company throughout high school and college.

“He is now the director of ecology for a lake association in Connecticut, but he had some great opportunities at Wegmans that were very meaningful to him,” said Stalter. “It’s very cool that Wegmans knows that not everyone is going to stay and they still invest, they still want to be part of that story.

A more recent scholarship winner was Elijah Delgado, who started at the Irondequoit, NY, store in 2021 as a part-time cashier and was awarded the scholarship for the first time in the fall of 2023.

He finished his first year of classes at Niagara University and is participating in Wegmans Management Internship Program this summer to explore future roles in the company.

“I want to build my career with Wegmans,” said Delgado. “I’ve had a lot of opportunities already, I’ve never heard of another company doing so much for their employees, they treat us like family.”

Full-time employee recipients are eligible for up to $16,000 over four years and part-time scholarship recipients are eligible for $8,000 over four years, there is no limit on the number of scholarships the company awards each year no restriction on the student’s course of study.

Wegmans had nearly 1,500 new recipients of scholarships this year and the organization expects to award approximately $6.5 million in tuition assistance to new and returning recipients to the program this year.

You can see the full list of scholarship recipients here.

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