EAST LONGMEADOW – Big Y celebrated the completion of a $2.3 million renovation at its store at 441 North Main St during an event on Dec. 4, at which the company gave back to the community by donating $500 to each of the schools in the district.

Superintendent of Schools Gordon Smith said each principal would examine how to utilize the funds to best support existing programs.

“I think that’s ultimately Big Y’s goal – how do we support the community’s students,” he added. “We’re just really appreciative that Big Y’s in our community and they’ve been such an incredible supporter through the years of public education.”

Each of the district’s five principals received a check donation and a cake in celebration of the renovation. A larger cake-cutting ceremony also took place in lieu of a ribbon-cutting event.

“It’s a good chunk of money [with which] we can get something that we really need and it will definitely benefit the kids directly,” Birchland Park Middle School Principal Timothy Allen told Reminder Publications. “I’ve shopped at Big Y all of my life and they’re such a local company and we certainly really appreciate their support. They always sort of reach out, which is nice.”

Meaghan Tetreault, employee services specialist for Big Y, said during the event some of Big Y’s education related programs include school tours, annual scholarship programs and the Education Express program, which has helped more than 2,000 local schools earn at least $13 million in free educational equipment since it began in 1993.

Michelle Crawford, the store’s manager since 2007, said the renovations include new décor, flooring, fixtures, the addition of a sushi department, a Living Well Eating Smart section with at least 1,300 organic, natural, and gluten free products, a hot soup bar, a café, and an updated Little Y Kids Club.

She added the renovation took place during the last two and half months with “very little disruption to customers” due to construction taking place at night. The store opened in 1968 and its last renovation took place in 2001.

Tetreault said the Springfield-based company hired 14 new full-time employees at the store, bringing total staffing to 198 people.

“Big Y’s a company that likes to invest in stores it already owns,” she noted. “What makes me happy is the customer responses to the [renovated] store.”

Tetreault said Big Y operates 63 stores throughout Massachusetts and Connecticut and employs more than 10,000 people. Paul D’Amour established the company’s first store, located in the Willimansett section of Chicopee, in 1936.

“Because the small market was located at an intersection where two roads converged to form a Y, it was called the Y Cash Market,” she explained. “The Y Cash Market was only 900 square feet, tiny in comparison to our newly renovated 59,000-square-foot East Longmeadow World Class Big Y.”

State Rep. Angelo Puppolo Jr. also congratulated Big Y on renovating the East Longmeadow supermarket.

“When you look at the history of Big Y in terms of what they’ve been able to accomplish as a family I think that’s one of the most important things,” he explained. “It’s a family-owned ºbusiness and really all of the customer service employees, the representatives, the managers, everybody on down to the stock people that work in each in every store – they’re considered family as well.”