Soup To Nutz

Soup to Nutz

Published January 18, 2016 at 8:49 pm ET

Happy 2016 from all of us at Food Trade News! Wasn’t 2015 exciting? You can bet 2016 will be full of more questions than answers in the ever-changing retail landscape of our market. So, hold on to our paper, this year is bound to be a real page turner! Despite the warm beginning, winter is in full swing but here’s the best news: Phillies pitchers and catchers report to Clearwater on February 18.

The retailers in our markets are extremely charitable all year long, but during the holidays, the need seems even greater and they rally the troops to come through for many different causes. To that point, Giant/Carlisle and Martin’s reported that their customers gave generously this holiday season by donating $630,028 to local Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) Hospitals in their communities. As part of the Giant/Martin’s annual “Candles for Kids” campaign, customers purchased a paper candle at the checkout between November 22 and December 5 for $1 each. “For nearly 20 years, our customers have embraced Giant/Martins’ commitment to help build healthy communities,” said Tom Lenkevich, president of Giant/Carlisle. “Combined with our CMN paper balloon campaign held in June, this year our customers donated more than $1.1 million to support CMN Hospitals in saving lives and bringing health back to children.” The CMN Hospitals in our area that benefited from this year’s Candles for Kids campaign were Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Since 1996, Giant/Martin’s has raised more than $37 million for CMN Hospitals in communities where it operates. Giant/Martin’s is one of the top 10 fundraisers in the country for CMN and ranks second nationwide in per-store fundraising. In addition to conducting annual in-store campaigns, like Candles for Kids, Giant/Martin’s associates also volunteer at CMN Hospital events, including radio and television telethons. Good community service work!

In a totally innovative way to give back to the community, the Temple University men’s basketball program, Learfield Sports’ Temple Sports Properties and The Fresh Grocer of Progress Plaza are working together to give back to Philabundance, the Delaware Valley’s largest food bank. For every three-point basket made during the 2015-16 men’s basketball season, The Fresh Grocer of Progress Plaza will donate one case of non-perishable food and goods to Philabundance. “As part of our ongoing commitment to supporting hunger relief efforts in our community, The Fresh Grocer proudly sponsors ‘Three’s for Hunger’,” said Pat Burns, president and CEO of Burns’ Family Neighborhood Markets, which owns and operates The Fresh Grocer of Progress Plaza. “The food donations made through this program will help feed those who need it most through the great work of Philabundance, our region’s largest hunger relief organization and long-time community partner.” All three-point baskets made during the 2015-16 season will count towards a donation to Philabundance. The last baskets counted will take place during Temple’s final home game on March 3 against Memphis. “We’re proud to partner with The Fresh Grocer to help our neighbors in the Philadelphia area by doing what we love,” said Temple head coach Fran Dunphy. “These young men are driven to be their best, as student-athletes and members of the community. The fact that we can pair these two things so seamlessly feels like a win for everyone involved.”

Earlier this month ShopRite announced that it has partnered with MasterCard to give time-starved customers (more digital natives than digital immigrants to be sure) yet another tool for making grocery shopping easy and seamless. ShopRite will integrate its popular online grocery shopping service, ShopRite from Home, with Groceries by MasterCard, an app that comes pre-loaded in the new Samsung Family Hub refrigerator and allows consumers to order directly from the fridge using a built-in screen. The state-of-the-art refrigerator, which had its debut at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, is due in stores this May. ShopRite customers will be able to use the appliance’s integrated tablet to order groceries from the comfort of their own kitchens by scheduling in-store pickups or at-home delivery, with a few simple taps on the Samsung Family Hub refrigerator. Using the Groceries app’s secure, easy to use interface, customers also have the ability to add products to their ShopRite shopping basket and pay online. Running low on milk? Snow storm reportedly on the way? Place an order right at the refrigerator. Jane Jetson would be thrilled with this technology.

This innovative partnership is part of ShopRite’s ever-expanding slate of consumer-friendly digital tools such as ShopRite from Home, www.ShopRite.com, the ShopRite Mobile App, and other online and offline health and wellness initiatives, all designed to help customers eat well and live less stressed and healthier lives. “ShopRite is a supermarket leader in digital commerce, making it easy for our customers to shop for their groceries online with our ShopRite from Home service,” said Joe Sheridan, president and COO of Wakefern. “By partnering now with Groceries by MasterCard, we can make life even more convenient for our customers with this latest innovation in on-demand grocery shopping. This new technology incorporated into the Samsung Family Hub refrigerator allows families immediate access to our ShopRite stores the moment they run out of food or need ingredients for a recipe or planned meal.”

While January seems to be off to a slow start socially, please take note of our Trade Calendar on page 12 (or online at www.best-met.com/trade-calendar/) to make sure you don’t miss out on the many events coming up in the next couple of months. The Academy of Food Marketing at Saint Joseph’s University (SJU) is celebrating an “Evening of Community and Giving” with Acme Markets’ Dan Croce and his leadership team and industry partners on February 26 at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown. Formerly known as the Citation Dinner, the evening is being marketed as a networking event on a Friday evening and the new dress code is business attire, as opposed to black tie. The event benefits the Food Marketing Educational Program at SJU. For more information, contact Bob Higgins, executive director of the Academy of Food Marketing, at 610.660.1600.

The circle of life continues as we learned that industry veteran Edward G. Groves of Laflin, PA passed away January 6. He was 72 years young. Born in Philadelphia, he was the son of the late Edward and Eleanor (Brown) Groves. He was a graduate of Father Judge High School, Philadelphia, and Villanova University. Ed also completed post graduate courses at Hofstra University. He was a member of the board of directors of Saint Vincent de Paul Kitchen, Wilkes-Barre, where he volunteered for more than 10 years, and was honored with the volunteer of the year award. He was also a volunteer spokesperson for CARIE, where he spoke to senior groups regarding Medicare fraud. Ed was a previous member of the Philadelphia Mummers Association, and was an avid fan of the Philadelphia sports teams. He was also a member of Saint Maria Goretti Church, Laflin. During his long career in the food business, Ed was employed as a food broker having worked for Armour Grocery Products Company, Bonstedt Coale Inc., Delbert Craig Company, Brown Del Grosso Morrison Inc. and JP Sales and Associates. Ed is survived by his wife of 50 years Rita (Dougherty) Groves and daughter Beth Groves. The family requests memorial donations be made to Saintt Vincent de Paul Kitchen, 39 E. Jackson Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701.

In my holiday haste last month, I neglected to send my monthly birthday shout outs, and one was very important. Pennington Quality Market owner Larry Rothwell celebrated his 90th birthday on December 3. His family threw him a fabulous party at the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in Hopewell, NJ on November 28. More than 110 family and friends as well as some store personnel were in attendance to fete the one and only Larry. Longtime friends, Joe Procacci, Tom Furia Sr. and Tom Genuardi Sr. and their wives came to celebrate this wonderful milestone. Larry is the youngest and only remaining of eight children. He has six grandchildren and three greatgrandchildren, all boys! One grandson, Todd Henderson, who is a filmmaker in Los Angeles, made a beautiful film as a tribute to his grandfather. A young singer from Larry’s parish sang some songs from back in Larry’s day which he totally enjoyed. And to sing Happy Birthday, all nine grandchildren and great grandchildren brought in the cake with a bagpiper heralding their arrival. Now, that’s a great party! Cent’ anni, Larry! May you live to see 100 years!

More belated December birthday shout outs go to: Paul McGurkin, ESM/ Integrity; Jay Gordon, Sales Management Partners; Dorothy Hamilton, Acme Markets; Linda Naddeo, HP Hood; and Lane Gordon, Key Impact Foods. I also want to send “we finally have winter” January birthday shout-outs to: Linda Doherty, NJFC; Eve Gigis, Acme Markets; Tom Muller, Wakefern; Ruth “Momma Dietz” Eni, Dietz and Watson; Gary Larkin, JOH; Frank Paone Jr., Procacci Brothers; David Patragnoni, Wellshire Farms; George Latella, Saint Joseph’s University; Tim Musgrove, Herr Foods, my Food World/Food Trade News colleague Karen Fernandez, and Food Trade News alums Meg Major, Bob Ingram and Scott Lichterman. Buon compleanno a tutti!