By: Allison Evans, Assistant, Health & Wellness/FMI Foundation/Food & Product Safety, Food Marketing Institute

There was a place for everyone at Hy-Vee’s family table during National Family Meals Month™. To reach every customer in their stores, Gold Plate Award-winner Hy-Vee provided customers with tips and tools to make mealtime more manageable, and partnered with other organizations to reach customers outside their stores.

A great example of Hy-Vee’s in-store activations are family meal deals that were highlighted weekly for customers looking for grab-and-go dinner options, such as prepared foods or Hy-Vee Mealtime Kits.

Consumers felt Hy-Vee’s family meals momentum on social media too

Hy-Vee shared on Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, daily dinnertime recipes that took less than 30 minutes to prepare with only a few simple, tasty ingredients. Also, Hy-Vee added star power to its social media messaging with actor and producer Mark Wahlberg.

Hy-Vee’s employee family joined the proverbial family table

From dietitians and chefs, to kitchen and deli employees, to Hy-Vee Market Grille and Hy-Vee Market Grille Express team members – Hy-Vee’s employees had a role to play in promoting NFMM and encouraging families to eat together.

Hy-Vee included its extended family to the community

Hy-Vee partnered with suppliers to bring family meals to more people. In partnership with Hormel, Hy-Vee donated 26,000 jars of Skippy Creamy peanut butter to Harvesters – The Community Food Network, in Kansas City, Missouri. This amount of peanut butter was enough to make more than 370,000 peanut butter sandwiches. Recipe cards with instructions on making meals and the importance of eating with family members were included with the donations.

Congratulations to Hy-Vee on its Gold Plate Award winning National Family Meals Month campaign!

Watch this sizzle reel summarizing all the great Family Meals we saw this past September. Now is the perfect time to start planning for National Family Meals Month September 2019. There is no fee to participate.

Go to www.FMIFamilyMeals.com for ideas on how you and your company can join the movement. Learn more about some of the award-winning programs on our Gold Plate Awards page.