National Family Meals Month Wraps Up

National Family Meals Month, the annual observance begun by FMI – The Food Industry Association and celebrated throughout September, took on particular significance during a year that presented many challenges to retailers and consumers alike.

“Our updated consumer messaging for National Family Meals Month during COVID-19 is ‘Stay strong with family meals,’” noted David Fikes, executive director of the Arlington, Virginia-based FMI Foundation, in a blog post. “Ironically, the totality of these trade activities has illuminated the fact that our industry also is staying strong with family meals! Our business partners have realized consumers didn’t need to be reminded to have one more family meal at home per week. Consumers already are doing that due to circumstances. Instead, our National Family Meals Month collaborators are shining a light on the emotional and physical benefits we continue to get from family meals – especially in life’s difficult moments – and they are giving consumers lots of tools and tips for achieving more family meals.”

Among the retail examples Fikes offered:

• Family Fare, a banner of Grand Rapids, Michigan-based SpartanNash, rolled out a month-long campaign including digital advertising, family-friendly video recipes and blogs.
• ShopRite built upon its previous family meals campaign with a new theme for this year, “Just Add Family,” with a focus on togetherness. The Keasbey, New Jersey-based supermarket chain supported the campaign with social media, broadcast TV commercials, weekly circular promotions, digital ads, dedicated online pages and outdoor billboards.
• West Valley City, Utah-based Harmons marked the occasion with blog posts on the grocer’s website and special recipes developed by the cooking school chef, with recipe cards for in-store distribution. Additionally, the “Taste of Harmons” podcast featured National Family Meals Month, and the retailer added a dedicated landing page to its website to feature all of the recipes and information developed for the campaign. 
• Hannaford’s extensive month-long campaign consisted of a dedicated video on YouTube; nutrition education discussions by all registered dietitians at most stores; end cap displays in 99 store locations; reference to the celebration in local radio spots and small community newspapers; and a flier distributed to 2.5 million shoppers.
• Food City, based in Abingdon, Virginia, joined forces with the National Pork Board and USA Pulses on their Powerful Pairings promotion. All 125 of the grocer’s stores featured signage promoting featured recipes, as well as a kids’ scavenger hunt worksheet. Food City promoted Family Meals Month in its advertising and distributed coupons for the products. Also, merchandising displays and digital boards in stores highlighted Powerful Pairings information and recipes. Additionally, there were weekly social media videos and posts promoting kids cooking and family meals, as well as weekly local TV segments and radio spots spotlighting National Family Meals Month and Powerful Pairings.

More than 600 organizations actively promoted National Family Meals Month this year, according to Arlington, Virginia-based FMI. A national survey conducted by the trade organization’s foundation found that three-quarters of Americans have been eating the same amount or more family meals both in-person and virtually, and that these shared meals have been helping people feel more connected to their families since the pandemic began.

Scarborough, Maine-based Hannaford operates 184 stores in five Northeast states, employing more than 26,000 associates; its parent company Ahold Delhaize USA, a division of Zaandam, Netherlands-based Ahold Delhaize USA is No. 11 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer's 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in the United States, while ShopRite, SpartanNash and K-VA-T Food Stores/Food City are Nos. 25, 40 and 74, respectively.