The team at the Taylorsville Shopko is more than just about helping customers, although they pride themselves on the service they provide. As such, store manager Mark Pritchett says he wants to get involved with the local community.

On Feb. 25 he proved that, donating $250 from the Shopko Foundation to the nonprofit charity Needs Beyond Medicine.

“It’s just such a great charity,” he said. “Everyone has someone they love that has been affected by cancer.”

Needs Beyond Medicine executive director and founder Philip Brown accepted the donation on behalf of the charity.

“As our name suggests, we try to help cancer patients with some of their burdens. The greatest need is for money for transportation to treatments, followed by groceries,” he said.

Those needs are often dire, too.

“More than 50 percent of the people we help live at below the poverty level,” he said.

Along with providing basic needs for cancer patients, Needs Beyond Medicine does educational outreach about cancer, particularly on college campuses here in Utah.

“The people we are helping are younger and are being diagnosed in the later stages of cancer,” Brown said.

The Shopko Foundation provides grants to community groups that help people maintain or improve their physical health or that help students succeed in school and become self-sufficient adults.