Local

Last week Philadelphia was the site of the first leg of the National Conversation on Urban and Metropolitan America as officials from the Obama administration met to hear about local efforts to provide fresh, quality food in low-income communities.

While unionized workers at 40 of Supervalu’s Acme Markets subsidiary in the five-county Philadelphia area saw their extended contract expire at 12:01 a.m. this morning, no plans for a strike or a lockout had been announced at presstime, although what happens next remains to be seen.

MOM’s Organic Market will open a store at the newly renovated Hilltop Plaza in Bowie, Md., marking the organic grocery chain’s sixth location.

At a recent health fair held in its parking lot at 56th & Chestnut St. in Philadelphia, The Fresh Grocer offered DJ entertainment, line dancing led by the West Philadelphia YMCA, face painting, health screenings by Health Partners and American Diabetes Association, free healthy snacks and an appearance by the Philadelphia Zoo on Wheels.

The 55th Summer Fancy Food Show, which runs through tomorrow, launched yesterday in New York.

Despite an economic slowdown, more Americans will celebrate July Fourth this year than in 2008, according to the National Retail Federation's (NRF) 2009 Independence Day Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey.

A Cub Foods supermarket in St. Paul has become the first grocer in Minnesota and only one of three in the nation to achieve LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold NC2.2 Certification. Designed in cooperation with project teams from Cub Foods, Supervalu, Oppidan Investment Co. and Kraus Anderson, the high energy-efficient designation was awarded to the store in the Phalen neighborhood of St. Paul, for energy use, lighting, water and material use, as well as the incorporation of other sustainable strategies.

Weeks after their contract expired, thousands of unionized King Soopers grocery workers in Colorado this week are voting on a new five-year labor deal.