Supervalu has committed $1 million to sponsor 1,542 youth sports teams in markets where its Acme, Albertsons, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Jewel-Osco and Shaw’s/Star Market stores operate. The sponsorships underscore the company’s commitment to local neighborhoods.
The sponsorships, which began last spring, have helped to offset the cost of local youth baseball and soccer programs for kids between the ages of 4 and 10. All told, the sponsorships have supported 1,542 teams – 761 baseball teams and 781 soccer teams – providing more than 20,000 kids with the opportunity to participate in sports.
“As America’s Neighborhood Grocer, we are continuously looking for opportunities to give back to our local communities, particularly in areas that promote healthy lifestyles,” said Shelly Nelson, Supervalu corporate director of strategic media services. Because diet and exercise are important to well-being, we saw this sponsorship as a complement to our focus on helping our shoppers eat well and a nice way to support stronger – and healthier – neighborhoods.”
We are sad to report the death of Lovena Smith Atwell, who died last month after an 11 year battle against cancer. When Lovena retired from Giant/Landover, she held the position of manager of tech support. As Dave Herriman, also retired from Giant, put it, “She was a very special person and one of the reasons for Giant’s success. She will be missed.”
Locally based Phillips Foods announced the promotions of Brice Phillips as vice president of retail and club sales; Donald Manning as northeast regional manager; and Carol Tippett as vice president of marketing and strategic development.
As the Network of Executive Women (NEW) celebrates its 10th anniversary, the organization announced that Sue Klug, president of the Southern California division of Supervalu has been awarded the Bobbie O’Hare Award for outstanding service to the NEW.
“Sue played an instrumental part in the founding, management and engagement of the Network’s Southern California region,” noted former NEW regional chair Bobbie O’Hare, vice president of sales development for JOH, who helped establish the network’s regional groups.
“She is a servant leader, an individual that leads a large retail business but also gets in the trenches to get work done.” O’Hare presented the award at the NEW Leadership Summit last month in Orlando.
The greater Philadelphia Area chapter of NEW will host a panel of industry experts November 9 to discuss the topic “Leadership Lessons for Today and tomorrow.” The panelists will share their personal thoughts and leadership lessons and how they have incorporated them in their professional and personal lives.
Keynote speakers at the event will be: Meg Ham, president Bottom Dollar Food; Rick Herring, president of Giant/Carlisle; Caitlin Pappas, vice president of consumer sales, U.S., Johnson & Johnson; E. Daniel Vucovich Jr. senior vice president, U.S., The Hershey Company. The moderator of the event will Rosalyn Taylor O’Neale, vice president, chief diversity and inclusion officer, Campbell’s Soup Company.
The event, held at the National Constitution Center at Independence Mall in Philadelphia, begins at 5:00 p.m. To make reservations, go to www.newonline.org, click on the calendar at the left side of the home page and scroll down to Greater Philadelphia.
The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of NEW, in partnership with the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), is hosting a luncheon at the Willard InterContinental (Washington, DC) Ballroom on December 13. For more information on this luncheon contact Yvette Seoane at [email protected].
We are happy to report that retired Baltimore-Washington food broker David Finkelstein, Kluge Finkelstein & Company, is doing very well after major surgery last month.
We were pleased to learn that retired Safeway (Eastern Division) vice president Roger Herding is enjoying his retirement days. We understand he was recently sighted by one of Food World’s roving reporters on a cruise ship which had 6,000 passengers and a crew of 2,200.
Roger, as anyone who has worked with him or called on Safeway’s Eastern Division knows, seldom took a day off, let alone a vacation for any extended period.
Our representative reported to us that Roger was seen on the Zip Line of a major cruise ship, and also on a Flow Rider which shoots water out at 35 mph and then he was spotted doing the rock wall climb. He was also reported bamboo rafting in Jamaica. But most of all, we understand that he really is enjoying himself spending time with his children, grandchildren and his lovely wife, Phyllis.
This year marks the 40th anniversary for Pennsauken, NJ based J&J Snacks Foods Corp., the world’s largest producer of soft pretzels. It was on September 27, 1971 when the assets of J&J Soft Pretzel Company were purchased at bankruptcy auction by Gerald B. Shreiber. At the time, the company had 80 employees and sales of less than $400,000 annually.
Today, as J&J celebrates 40 years of record sales, it has more than 3,000 employees, sales of nearly $750 million and distribution throughout both national and international markets.
Publix Super Markets, Google and UPS have taken the top spots in the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Index, a ranking of the 50 companies with the best corporate citizenship reputations among the U.S. public. Rounding out the top 10 were Kellogg’s, Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, FedEx, Campbell’s, Baxter International and 3M.
However, the index revealed an overall drop in ratings of companies’ social responsibility, suggesting that the public this year is more demanding of companies. Scores dropped across the board, and this year’s top score of 80.59 (out of 100) compares to 82.67 in 2010.
The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, together with the Reputation Institute, developed the index to understand how companies’ reputations are affected by public perceptions of performance related to citizenship (the community and the environment), governance (ethics and transparency) and workplace practices. Rankings in the 2011 CSR Index are based on a survey conducted in January 2011 of 7,790 online consumers. The top-ranked companies last year were Johnson & Johnson, The Walt Disney Company, Kraft Foods, Microsoft, Pepsico, Apple, Hershey’s and SC Johnson. Kellogg’s and Google came in ninth and 10th last year, making them the only companies to make the top 10 two years in a row.
And up Boston way, our friends from Wegmans recently opened a 138,000 square foot store in Northborough, the first of three slated to open in Massachusetts. We understand that the store broke Wegmans’ opening day record, with 25,000 shoppers making their way to the opening. That record was previously held by the retailer’s first Virginia store that opened in 2004 in Ashburn, VA. A mere 20,000 shoppers visited that store on opening day.
Anniversary wishes go out to: Mars Supermarkets’ Ted and Kathy D’Anna, their 24th; International Food and Beverage’s Frank and Sherry Rich, their 44th; and Metromedia’s Ed and Carol Hopkins, their 32nd. A special happy anniversary wish goes out to Food World’s Lou and Mimi Rosenthal, who celebrate their 65th this year!
Celebrating birthdays are: Bernie Ellis, gentleman farmer and industry consultant; King’s Contrivance general manager Richard Ackman; Goya Foods’ Jeff Ghajar; Mimi Rosenthal, wife of Food World’s Lou Rosenthal; Maryland FoodBank’s MikeD’Agro; and my grandson, Richard John (RJ) and his mother (my daughter-in-law) Stephanie Bestany.