FMI – The Food Industry Association has named the recipients of its annual Gold Plate Awards.
The association established the Gold Plate Award in 2013 to highlight outstanding programs implemented by the retail food industry to encourage family meals. Examples include healthy family meals, quick and easy family meals and recipes, cooking with kids, themed dinners, breakfast with the family and MyPlate meals. The award recognizes programs that food retailers and suppliers have implemented, to encourage families to share more meals together at home.
2025 Gold Plate Award Winners
Best In-Store Signage and Displays – Coborn’s Inc.
Coborn’s Inc. celebrated National Family Meals Month with its “Protein Powered Meals” campaign. Across 56 stores and online platforms, the campaign featured weekly recipes, engaging in-store displays, digital ads, email promotions and interactive social media reels that encouraged family mealtime participation.
Partnering with brands, the initiative reached thousands of families and drove notable sales growth – with one featured brand seeing a 29 percent increase in sales. This multi-channel effort highlighted Coborn’s commitment to helping families gather, cook and share more meals together.
Best Digital Marketing Campaign – K-VA-T Food Stores
Food City’s “Together at the Table: Meals Made for Sharing” campaign celebrated National Family Meals Month by featuring free in-store recipe booklets, themed “Weekend Meal Deals,” and engaging social media, online and print content. Highlights included more than 43,800 recipe booklets distributed, over 265,000 social media impressions, 3,281 emails sent with a 90.67 percent open rate and more than 5,700 National Family Meals Month landing page views.
Best Charitable Giving Effort – Southeastern Grocers
The “A Century of Winning Family Meals” campaign by Southeastern Grocers honored Winn-Dixie’s 100th anniversary. In partnership with Feeding America, Southeastern Grocers donated $100,000 to hunger relief programs and an additional $100,000 in product donations through mobile food pantries providing over one million meals.
The company also supported 10 families facing childhood cancer through a special shopping spree and celebrated its Blue Zones Project recognition with in-store community events promoting healthy eating. Messaging across ads, signage and digital platforms emphasized affordable meal solutions and savings through the Rewards app and Own Brand products.
Most Significant Community Engagement – Hannaford Supermarkets
The “Nourishing Families” campaign celebrated National Family Meals Month by expanding food access, nutrition education and mealtime engagement across Hannaford’s five-state footprint. Key initiatives included the launch of the 200th Fuel Kids @ School pantry, a lobster roll fundraiser that generated almost $300,000, and more than $630,000 invested in programs to provide fresh produce to families in need through virtual classes, in-store demos and family-friendly resources like Snack Pals and Good 4 Me.
Best Civility Program – Hy-Vee Inc.
Hy-Vee celebrated National Family Meals Month by supporting hunger relief across the Midwest. Through meal giveaway events, community ice cream socials and partnerships with local food pantries, Hy-Vee distributed 5,000 meals to those in need and launched new school pantries to fight food insecurity. The campaign reached more than 9 million people through in-store events, media coverage and social engagement.
Retailer with the Most Stores Participating – Weis Markets
“The Weis Dietitian 2025 National Family Meals Month Campaign” encouraged families to gather around the table through engaging, multi-platform programming focused on nutritious, easy-to-make recipes. Throughout September, Weis Markets reached more than 138,000 customers via in-store, online and media channels, including TV segments, HealthyBites magazine, social media reels, email promotions and live online cooking classes.
The campaign featured the National Family Meals Month logo across all activations and included in-store radio messages and brand partnerships to highlight wholesome meal ideas. Participants enjoyed interactive cooking experiences, recipe inspiration and shopping incentives reinforcing the value of shared family meals. The campaign exceeded its goal of 100,000 reach.
Strongest Retailer/Supplier Partnership (Supplier) – The Campbell’s Company
“Meals Made Easy: Feeding Families for Less” featured basket-building promotions, meal deals, print ads, in-store displays and digital media across retailers such as Southeastern Grocers, ADUSA, Schnucks and Food City. Recipes like E-Z Chicken Tortilla Bake and Sheet Pan Shakshuka highlighted simple, budget-friendly meal ideas using Campbell’s brands. With strong engagement, sales growth and a 13 percent click-through rate on nutrition newsletters, the program successfully provided practical meal solutions while promoting the value of shared family meals.
Strongest Retailer/Supplier Partnership (Retailer) – Associated Wholesale Grocers
AWG’s National Family Meals Month campaign engaged more than 2,900 member stores nationwide, promoting the benefits of shared meals through coordinated digital, print and in-store strategies. The initiative delivered more than 6.7 million impressions through integrated marketing efforts and organic content across social and email platforms. AWG’s advertising and innovative marketing team also created four weeks of themed meal ideas to help retailers inspire families around breakfast, lunch and dinner, strengthening community connections through food.
Most Notable Youth Engagement – Festival Foods
Festival Foods celebrated National Family Meals Month by inspiring families to create customizable meals together through their “DIY & Dine” campaign with themes like smoothies, pizzas, burrito bowls, pasta bars and sheet pan dinners. Featuring Festival Foods associates and their families, the campaign emphasized creativity, connection and affordability. Promotion spanned social media, email, in-store LED boards and weekly ads, reaching more than 97,000 people with 470 engagements.
The program also supported the Food for Neighbors initiative, encouraging donations to local food pantries while showcasing Festival Foods’ commitment to helping families share mealtime moments together.
Honorable mentions
- Best Charitable Giving: Associated Grocers – Associated Grocers partnered with Ochsner Eat Fit for National Family Meals Month, promoting healthy, shared meals with their own communities and employees. Through recipe videos and approved shopping lists, Associated Grocers reached more than 73,000 viewers and engaged 55 retailers. Employees supported the initiative by purchasing family meal kits built from vendor donations, whose proceeds benefited the local nonprofit, AGives.
- Best Digital Marketing Campaign: Rouses Markets – “The Gather Around the Table” campaign, led by Rouses Markets’ registered dietitian April Sins, celebrated National Family Meals Month by inspiring families to cook and eat together. The campaign featured an Eat Right with Rouses newsletter, an in-store Eat Right Flavor Fest sampling event, a local news segment and Facebook Live Cooking with April episodes showcasing easy meal ideas. The campaign’s newsletter reached more than 10,800 subscribers with a 37 percent open rate, while Cooking with April videos received more than 173,000 views across social platforms. With in-store flyers, digital promotions and engaging meal content, Rouses encouraged families to make mealtime a priority and enjoy cooking together.
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