SpartanNash Names 3 Bag Design Winners
As part of its Earth Week activities, SpartanNash revealed a trio of winning designs in its Reusable Bag Design contest.
Laurel Allen of Omaha, Neb.; Janelle Lomsdal of Moorhead, Minn.; and Alivia Murphy of Harbor Springs, Mich., will each receive a $500 cash prize, and their designs will be featured on limited-edition reusable grocery shopping bags sold in SpartanNash corporate-owned stores this fall.
“At SpartanNash, we love Earth Week, because it allows us to engage and educate our associates, store guests and communities while celebrating and promoting environmental stewardship,” said Meredith Gremel, VP of corporate affairs and communications. “As a company, we are committed to being socially responsible and environmentally sustainable, and this bag design contest brings both of those commitments together while celebrating what it means to be from the state you love. We hope that our customers will enjoy using the reusable bags that showcase local talent, have a fun design and reflect the places where they live, work or vacation.”
Buying Local
Allen’s entry captures some of the best scenes of farmer’s markets and roadside stands from many seasons of the year in Nebraska. Hidden inside the picture are symbols of things that she says make living and buying in Nebraska great.
A resident of Omaha for 19 years, Allen is an art teacher at Omaha Homeschool Learning Center and an administrative assistant at Grace Fellowship Church. “I’m excited that I could help design a bag that can be used when shopping, especially when it has so many colorful images that represent buying locally,” Allen said. “I want to create things that are useful and meaningful to others, and it’s very rewarding as an artist to know others are receiving the same type of enjoyment I do from my art. It’s great to have your work reproduced when it means so much to you.”
Farming Focus
Lomsdal’s design represents the state of North Dakota; the fields and sunflowers pay homage to the state’s prominence in agriculture (North Dakota is the largest producer of sunflowers in the U.S.). The bison and the badlands capture other iconic images of the state.
A graphic artist by trade, Lomsdal is originally from Minnesota and lived in Fargo, N.D., for several years after college. She now lives in Fargo’s twin city, Moorhead, Minn. A SpartanNash associate for the past 21 years, Lomsdal works as a promotions assistant at the company’s Fargo Distribution Center, laying out weekly advertisements. “It was exciting to do something a little out of the norm for this bag design contest,” she said. “It’s awesome to know that others appreciated my design.”
Natural Beauty
Murphy’s design displays “Northern Michigan in a nutshell – our beautiful bridge, lakes, beach grass and amazing Northern Lights.”
Murphy, who works for Mitchell Graphics in Petoskey, holds a degree in arts management from Adrian College. Her father, Joe, and stepmom, Debra, are both SpartanNash associates in the North Dakota area.
“I love my home state of Michigan,” Murphy said. “I’m really excited to have so many people vote for my design. I also love supporting SpartanNash, because the company has done a lot of great things for our family.”
For the Reusable Bag Design contest, SpartanNash asked its store guests, associates and communities from across the U.S. to submit designs representing local state pride in Nebraska, North Dakota and Michigan. In total, SpartanNash received 81 submissions, which were narrowed down to the top three for each state.
Voting was then opened to the public, who decided the winning designs in an online survey. More than 2,600 votes were cast, with Allen, Lomsdal and Murphy earning the majority of votes for their respective state contests.
The reusable bags contain up to 20 percent recycled material and will be available in September. The bags will be sold for $1.49 in SpartanNash stores, including Family Fare Supermarkets, Family Fresh Market, No Frills, SunMart and Supermercado Nuestra Familia stores in Nebraska; Dan’s Supermarkets and Family Fare Supermarkets in North Dakota; and D&W Fresh Market, Family Fare Supermarkets, Forest Hills Foods, ValuLand and VG’s stores in Michigan.
In addition to the reusable bag design contest, SpartanNash is teaming up with Goodwill Industries for the seventh consecutive year to offer Earth Week donation drives in partnership with 80 of its corporate-owned grocery stores in five states.
On April 22 and 23, anyone who drops off a donation to a participating Goodwill organization – located in the same community as a participating SpartanNash corporate-owned store – will receive a coupon for $10 off a $25 or more purchase at SpartanNash-owned stores.
Grand Rapids, Mich.-based SpartanNash’s core businesses include distributing grocery products to independent grocery retailers, national accounts, its corporate-owned retail stores and U.S. military commissaries.