CGA member Northgate Gonzalez Market was one of four winners of the Food Marketing Institute’s 2014 Community Outreach Awards. The awards recognize the creative, charitable programs established and carried out by food retailers to enhance the lives of those in the communities they serve.

“In an industry experiencing tumultuous change, the generous spirit and community-focused attitude of food retailers remains a constant,” said David Fikes, FMI’s vice president of communications and consumer affairs. “Our 2014 awardees, and all nominees, demonstrated great creativity and dedication in finding new ways of fulfilling the food retailer call to feed families and enrich the lives of those they serve.”

Winners were selected across four categories: programs addressing food insecurity, youth development, neighborhood health improvement programs and community engagement. FMI added a community engagement category in 2014 in order to recognize the retailer who best engaged their online social community and received the most fan support for their program on Facebook.  FMI’s judging criteria included participation, community need and impact.

Each winner will receive $1,000 from FMI to further their program:

Neighborhood Health Improvement Programs: 
Northgate Gonzalez Market Viva la Salud 
Northgate Gonzalez Market created “Viva La Salud Program a Community Partner” to provide affordable, quality health products and services, including in-store mammograms and health screenings.

Programs Addressing Food insecurity: 
Food Lion Feeds 
Food Lion launched “Food Lion Feeds” with a commitment to donate 500 million meals to families in need by the end of 2020. In 2014, over 40 million meals were donated.

Youth Development Programs: 
Hy-Vee/Sanford Legends
Since 2005, the Legends Grants Program has helped local nonprofit sports organizations build facilities, purchase equipment and improve their programs. The program has raised $1,298,000 to date.

Community Engagement: 
Russ’s Market Russ’s Community Rewards 
This program allows customers to use points earned through in-store shopping to support local organizations. 2,700 households have used their community points to redeem over 11,000 offers for community organizations.