FMI Bestows Community Uplift Awards
FMI – The Food Industry Association has revealed the recipients of the 2021 Community Uplift Awards, following the evaluation of 21 program nominees. Hy-Vee Inc., Northgate González Market and Cub Foods received the honor for their unique and impactful youth development, food insecurity and neighborhood health improvement programs, respectively.
“Food retailers and suppliers revere the communities they serve and nourish them in more ways than one,” said Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO of Arlington, Va.-based FMI. “The exemplary contributions of today’s winners highlight the essential role food industry players have as champions of feeding their communities, supporting neighborhood welfare and addressing the critical issues of the places they call home.”
The winners are as follows:
Food Insecurity Programs Winner: Hy-Vee
In collaboration with industry, supplier and nonprofit partners, Hy-Vee has contributed significantly to communities in its eight-state region over the past year through various programs addressing food insecurity.
Neighborhood Health Improvement Programs Winner: Northgate González Market
To help protect the health of its customers and that of its associates, Anaheim, Calif.-based Northgate, which operates 42 stores in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Diego counties, created an internal COVID vaccination committee and provided bilingual education, resources and vaccination events to associates and community members.
Youth Development Programs Winner: Cub Foods
While rebuilding its Northside Cub location in North Minneapolis, Cub also created the Northside Community Center @CUB, which gives local community members and nonprofits access to a space for mentoring, life skill coaching, job training and more.
“In a particularly stressful year, we’re pleased by the number of nominations, each one demonstrating an innovative and thoughtful way the food industry is uplifting its local community,” added Sarasin.
The three winning programs will receive a $1,000 cash prize and a commemorative plaque in recognition of their efforts.
Employee-owned Hy-Vee has a team of more than 86,000 employees and operates more than 280 retail stores across eight Midwestern states, with sales of $11 billion annually. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based company is No. 34 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Stillwater, Minn.-based Cub is an 80-store retail division of Providence, R.I.-based UNFI, which delivers a wide variety of products to customer locations throughout North America, including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, e-commerce retailers and foodservice customers. The largest publicly traded grocery distributor in America, the company is No. 47 on The PG 100.
