The Safeway Foundation presented grants totaling nearly $105,000 to approximately 40 Mid-Atlantic region non-profit agencies during a recent ceremony at Safeway’s Eastern division headquarters. Included among the recipients are the Alzheimer’s Association (National Capital Area), the Arthritis Foundation of the Mid-Atlantic Region, Bread for the City, the Food 4 Families Fund, the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia, the Maryland Food Bank, the Mary’s Center for Maternal and Child Care, Neediest Kids, Cooperation Peanut Butter and Jelly, Rob’s Barbershop Community Foundation and
the St. Ann’s Center for Children, Youth and Families. (A complete list of the charities included can be obtained by contacting Greg TenEyck at (301) 918-7077 or Craig Muckle at 301-918-6803.)
Safeway established the foundation to assist deserving charitable organizations with their work or special projects in a much more comprehensive manner. fhe Foundation’s resources are provided through annual employee payroll deductions with staff members designating the amount they wish to contribute during an annual pledge campaign. Funding decisions made by the foundation’s board are influenced by Safeway’s contributing employees, who are asked during the campaign which causes they wish to see supported (i.e., hunger relief, health and human services, education, special needs and local community).
Each Safeway division operates and manages its own foundation. As a result, all monies donated by Eastern division employees will be distributed solely to non-profit groups located in the division’s territory of Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Delaware.
Mark your calendars for the 9th Annual Dinner Dance as the Mid-Atlantic Food Trades Organization honors Rick Herring, president of Giant/Carlisle November 1-3, at Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City. For more information visit the MAFTO reservation site http://mafto.org
We received a nice note from a former food broker Ron Fish (The Joseph Riley Company) who for the past eight years has been and today still is president of Reading Consumer Products in Reading, PA. Ron was a 23 year employee at The Joseph Riley Company, a large Mid-Atlantic Food Brokerage headquartered in Philadelphia. Ron is still on the PFMA Board of Directors and keeps in touch with many of the food people in the area.
If you’d like to contact Ron, his address is: Ron Fish, President, Reading Consumer Products, 80 Witman Road, Reading, PA19605 and his e-mail is [email protected]
Sincere sympathy is extended to Deborah Michalski, companion of former Giant/Landover buyer Tony Street, on the recent death of her father, Eugene Michalski.
Mr. Michalski was a U.S. Navy World War II veteran and taught science and biology in the Detroit, Michigan public school system. He ended his career as an elementary school principal. He had a master’s degree and had done some PhD course work at EasternUniversity in Michigan.
The Ahold USA annual vendor meeting originally scheduled for October 29 has been changed to Tuesday, March 11, 2014. The location will still be the GiantCenter in Hershey, PA.
MOM’s Organic Market will open a 15,000-square-foot store at the RotundaShopping Center in North Baltimore. MOM’s, the Rockville, MD based grocer, has long been considered the front-runner to replace Giant at the Rotunda.
The Rotunda is currently being redeveloped by Hekemian & Co. to include luxury apartments, shops and restaurants. An opening date was not released.
Here’s good news: the maker of Little Debbie cakes announced it will expand its snack line by bringing back the 125-year-old Drake’s cakes brand to store shelves.
McKee Foods Corp. announced last month it will start shipping Drake’s most popular varieties –Devil Dogs, Coffee Cakes, Ring Dings and Yodels – to grocery and convenience stores in the Northeast.
The return of Drake’s snacks comes two months after Hostess’s best known brand, the Twinkie, returned to store shelves by investment firm Metropoulus & Co., which bought the Twinkie brand in March.
We were saddened to learn last month of the death of Daniel “Bud” Roche, who founded the Roche Chain (Roche Bros.) in the Boston, MA area along with his brother Pat, who died last year.
The two formed Roche Bros. in 1952 with a loan from their parents. Today they operate 18 very successful stores. Jeff and I knew both Bud and Pat from our days in Boston and both were on Food World’s mailing list.
Here’s a worthwhile event: the 8th Annual Oktoberfest fundraiser for the USO-Metro will bring together corporate sponsors, donors, volunteers, and military personnel and their families in an evening of food and fun. The buffet dinner and dance will be held Friday, October 18, 2013 at The Four Points by SheratonBWIAirport.
Live music and a silent auction are all part of the fun. Proceeds from this event support the complimentary amenities and services enjoyed by the guests of the USO International Gateway Lounge at BWIAirport, the U.S. Armed Forces and their families, many of whom are returning state-side from deployment or are being deployed. Amenities and services include United Through Reading program, electronics, games, food items and toiletries. For more information contact John Plumhoff at (410)-962-6009.
For those readers who might be fall foliage travelers to New England, I found a great Italian restaurant in East Longmeadow, MA. Patsy’s Ristorante, owned since 1981 by the Liguori family, serves some of the best Italian fare I have had since the days of Boccacio in Little Italy.
If any of our readers are involved in any charitable or religious organization and would like their events published in Food World, please e-mail to [email protected] or office @best-met.com Attn: In and Around Food World.