FMI Serves Gold Plates to Food Retail Players

The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) presented its inaugural Gold Plate Awards to three grand-prize winners and three honorable mentions at the Health and Wellness @ Retail conference in San Antonio. The winners were honored for creating food retail programs that encourage family meals.

In Category A (1-49 stores), Reading, Pa.-based Redner’s Warehouse Markets Inc. won for its Redner’s “HealthCents” program, coordinated by a registered dietitian, which includes a bi-monthly health-and-wellness newsletter, weekly informative circular ads, and a merchandised “better for you” end cap in all stores.

In Category B (50-199 stores), Price Chopper Supermarkets, operated by Schenectady, N.Y.-based Golub Corp., won for an education and outreach program promoting the idea that all mealtimes can be family mealtimes. Outreach components include recipes, coupons, food demonstrations, informational tips and giveaways.

In Category C (more than 200 stores), Norfolk, Neb.-based Affiliated Foods Midwest Cooperative Inc. won for its “Family Meals” program, which, using a weekly flyer as a primary tool, recommends and promotes simple components to create a family meal. More than 500 retailers use the flyer to guide consumers to products backed by recipes and meal ideas.

Honorable mentions went to Pleasanton, Calif.-based Safeway Inc. for its “Sustaining Meal Solutions” platform, which aims to transform the deli department into a destination for quick service family meals, reaching about 1.2 million households; Scarborough, Maine-based Hannaford Bros. Co. for its chain-wide “Veggie of the Month” program, which spotlights seasonal vegetables with kid-friendly recipes, take-away information on health benefits and fun educational activities; and Columbus, Ga.-based BD&K Foods Inc. for its Fixin’s line of healthy, ready-to-eat packaged vegetables and side dishes, made without preservatives or artificial ingredients, and with each package including a Fixin’s Fact about the advantages of eating family dinners together.

The winners each received a Gold Plate Award trophy, a $1,000 cash prize to further support their programs, and complimentary registration, hotel and round-trip airfare for one to the 2013 Health & Wellness @ Retail conference. FMI, along with its partner and founding supporter Nestlé USA, expect that the award will continue to advance the goals of the “FMI Family Meals” campaign.