FMI’s Gold Plate Award Winners Achieve Excellence and Extend a Movement

January 29, 2016 – SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. – The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) Foundation is proud to recognize the members of the food retail industry who are encouraging shoppers to share more family meals together around the table. In September 2016, 56 food retailers, 15 suppliers, and 37 allied organizations helped the FMI Foundation amplify National Family Meals Month™ to consumers by implementing innovative in-store and media campaigns. The 2016 Gold Plate Award recognizes the best of National Family Meals Month programs.

“2016 was the second year for National Family Meals Month, and the FMI Foundation acknowledges the extraordinary efforts by the retail food industry to help consumers make family mealtime easier,” said Sue Borra, RD, chief health and wellness officer for FMI and executive director of the FMI Foundation. “According to a Nielsen analysis of National Family Meals Month, 85% of shoppers who saw the campaign, reported healthier behaviors as a result, so these programs can make a difference in the well-being of the customers we serve.”

The 2016 Gold Plate Award winners are:

Gold Plate Award Category:  Retailer 1 – 99 stores

Skogen’s Festival Foods

Program: Festival Family Meals

Festival Foods offered samplings from its Dine at Home Deli items to help consumers gain awareness of National Family Meals Month and offer meal solution on busy nights. The company also ran paid ads highlighting the #FestivalFamilyMeals Twitter chat, National Family Meals Month and the in-store Festival Foods Oven Mitt Giveaway. The campaign garnered 4,332 clicks to the website and 688,886 ad impressions. Facebook advertising received 4,511 clicks to the website and 438,023 ad impressions.

Gold Plate Award Category:  Retailer 100 – 199 stores

K-VA-T Food Stores

Program: Make Family Meals Happen with Meal Solutions from Food City.

K-VA-T Food Stores’ Food City’s promotion of National Family Meals Month included initiatives in-store, online, on social media, in television and print were geared toward both customers and associates. In-store activities included digital signage, recipe booklets for customers at all 134 stores, and an insert in the weekly ad both in-store and by mail to promote the benefits of family meals.

Gold Plate Award Category:  Retailer 200+ stores

Hy-Vee, Inc.

Program: #HyVeeFamilyMeals

Hy-Vee celebrated National Family Meals Month by accommodating families’ busy schedules. The company created numerous educational materials and offered in-store family cooking classes with its 228 dietitians, easy pickup and delivery meal options and the opportunity for children to eat free (with the purchase of an adult entrée) every day in September at the more than 90 Hy-Vee Market Grille restaurants across their eight-state region. For every family who posted a photo of themselves eating a meal together on social media and used the hashtag #HyVeeFamilyMeals and for every person who shared or retweeted Hy-Vee’s social media posts about National Family Meals Month, Hy-Vee donated $1 to Meals from the Heartland (a nonprofit dedicated to feeding the hungry), up to $100,000.

Gold Plate Award Category:  Wholesaler

Merchants Distributors Inc.

Program: Taco Night—Family Meals Program

For National Family Meals Month in September, the MDI team established the “Taco Night” meal solution event for families across over 300 retailers and multiple states along the East Coast. The goal was to create an occasion and reason for families to come together, put down their mobile devices, and enjoy, not only a great meal, but each other again. The “Taco Night” meal solution initiative was promoted with print ads, digital coupons, social media, digital web banners, and in-store displays across multiple store chains.

Gold Plate Award Category:  Supplier

Campbell's 

Program:  Fruits, Veggies, and Family Matter

Campbell’s combined two September campaigns, National Family Meals Month and Fruits & Veggies—More Matters month to emphasize the importance of family meals and encourage consumption of fruit and veggies.  The campaign provided creative ideas to make vegetables the center stage of the meal, to add fruits to desserts and to try ethnic-inspired dishes.  Families were encouraged to use social media to share photos of their family having dinner and of their veggie –centric meals and inspire others to do the same.

Gold Plate Award Category:  Allied Group

Rosie Applications

Program: National Family Meals Month Powered by Rosie. 

Rosie’s goal was to create more family meals across America by encouraging families to share meals more often by providing the necessary resources to make the process simple. Rosie recruited 11 independent grocer partners to participate and utilizing omnichannel marketing and digital marketing tactics. In total, the campaign earned over 200,000 online impressions, engaged nearly 300 unique website visitors, and received 15 submissions for the Rosie Family Meals Photo Contest. Rosie gave away $500 to families to use toward creating family meals together. Overall revenue from online grocery sales increased 12 percent from August to September among the 11 retailers who partnered with Rosie on this campaign.

In addition, these companies were awarded honorable mentions for their 2016 National Family Meals Month™ campaigns:

• Martin's Supermarkets – “National Family Meals Month Family Meals Champion Contest”
• Price Chopper Supermarkets - “Family Mealtimes Matter”
• Kroger – “We’re in! With delicious, easy ideas. Kroger bringing families together”
• Meijer – “Be a #FamilyFoodRockstar”

Follow the 2016 Gold Plate Award Winners' stories on social media with #FMIGoldPlate.

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