The Cup comes home!
The competition was intense and spirited, but in the end the Hy-Vee Show Ponies (hey, don’t look at me, they named themselves) prevailed to take home the first Meals from the Heartland Hy-Vee Cup.
Meals from the Heartland is a non-profit organization that brings together individuals, businesses, schools, churches and organizations to package meals for distribution to hungry people throughout the world. On September 2-5, Meals from the Heartland is holding its annual mass packaging event at Hy-Vee Hall in downtown Des Moines, where an expected 15,000 volunteers will assemble 4 million meals to be sent to Haiti, Jamaica, several African nations and other areas with critical food needs.
Each meal package contains enough rice, soy flour, dried vegetables and vitamin powder to make a nutritious meal for a family of six. Volunteers work in assembly-line fashion, adding the dry ingredients to plastic bags which are then weighed, sealed and packed into cardboard boxes for shipping.
As a prelude to this weekend’s event, Hy-Vee sponsored the Hy-Vee Cup, a friendly competition between teams of businesses and other organizations supporting Meals from the Heartland. Twenty teams raced against each other to determine which team could package the most meals in 5 minutes. The four teams tallying the most meals packaged moved on to the final speed round, where the first team to pack a case (36 meals) was declared the winner.
The best of Iowa, courtesy of Hy-Vee and WHO Radio
Each year, Hy-Vee supports the Iowa Foundation for Agricultural Advancement by purchasing the Grand Champion livestock exhibited at the Iowa State Fair. And for many years now, WHO Radio in Des Moines has partnered with us in promoting the Iowa livestock industry by helping give away that award-winning beef, pork and lamb to some lucky WHO listeners.
Hy-Vee + Caribou = Great coffee, every time
After 45 years in the food service business we’ve discovered a number of truths, but none more fundamental than this: Coffee matters.
More than half of all adult Americans drink coffee on a daily basis. Like connoisseurs of any beverage, they can’t be fooled — they know the difference between a run-of-the-mill cuppa joe and a coffee selected and brewed with care for maximum freshness, aroma and taste. A restaurant that serves a great cup of coffee can turn a sometime customer into a regular, and a regular customer into a diehard fan.
That’s why Hy-Vee set out to find a partner that can provide our customers with the quality and consistency they expect from a great cup of coffee. After months of research, interviewing and testing brews from several very fine companies, our quest for the world’s best cup of coffee brought us to Caribou.
Questions on egg recall?
Hy-Vee has not been affected by a multi-state recall of eggs produced by an Iowa company. Click here for more information from Hy-Vee.com.
State Fair brings out the best “Best Baggers”
A special report from Hy-Vee’s Larry Ballard, live at the Iowa State Fair:
4th place winner Kelly Anderson
Kelly Anderson of Des Moines No. 2 took home fourth place and $100 today at the Iowa Grocery Industry Association’s Best Bagger contest at the Iowa State Fair.
Anderson was the best of six Hy-Vee competitors who battled stifling heat, nerves, and a talented contingent from Fareway in a multi-round contest on the Budweiser Stage that tested speed, weight distribution and overall bag appearance.
Jeremy Mescher, a quick-handed courtesy clerk from the Spirit Lake Fareway took top honors, which included $750 and a trip to Las Vegas to compete in the national bagger finals later this year.
Anderson, who said before the championship round that she would donate a portion of her winnings to the Animal Rescue League of Iowa, survived three preliminary battles to make it to the finals. Each competitor faced a table laden with 20 items, everything from eggs and bread to celery, eight cans of soup and a four-pack of light bulbs.
Will back-to-school bring shoppers back to stores?
How will the sluggish economy afffect back-to-school spending this year? The answer appears to be anyone’s guess.
The International Council of Shopping Centers predicts a modest increase of 5.4 percent in the estimated $55 billion back-to-school market. According to the National Retail Federation, the average family with school-age children will spend $606 on clothing, supplies and electronics in preparation for school this fall, a 10 percent increase over 2009.
Starting this fall: Best. Holiday. Season. EVER.
Call it Imagination Fest 2010 …
More than 2,000 Hy-Vee folks from throughout the Midwest traveled to Des Moines this week for Hy-Vee’s Holiday Show, a two-day extravaganza filled with ideas for turning the holiday season into an extraordinary shopping experience for our customers.
WSJ, GMA highlight Hy-Vee nutrition
Did you catch the article on the front page of the Personal Journal section of last Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal? Reporters Timothy Martin and Ilan Brat profiled Hy-Vee and other supermarkets using the NuVal nutritional scoring system to aid shoppers in making healthy food choices. The story also mentions the services provided by Hy-Vee’s 140 retail dietitians and quotes CEO Ric Jurgens:
“It’s not our responsibility to tell shoppers what to eat, what not to eat or how to eat,” said Ric Jurgens, chief executive of supermarket chain Hy-Vee. Still, “we need to provide them with as much information as we can, to help them make good decisions and provide as many options as possible.”
Following up on the WSJ article, ABC’s “Good Morning America” ran a 5-minute segment yesterday on NuVal, also mentioning Hy-Vee. Read the entire WSJ article, and watch the Good Morning America segment it inspired.
BREAKING NEWS: Hy-Vee expands with acquisition in Sioux Falls
Hy-Vee will add two more stores in Sioux Falls and replace its store in Windom, MN as a result of a deal struck with Sunshine Foods of Sioux Falls.
Read all about it on Hy-Vee.com: Hy-Vee acquires Sunshine stores in Sioux Falls, Windom
How does your shopping list score?
Those little numbers on Hy-Vee shelf tags have found their way into Hy-Vee ads.
This week’s Hy-Vee ad circular is the first to feature NuVal scores printed next to many of the sale items. NuVal is a scientific scoring system that rates the nutritional value of foods on a scale of 1-100. The higher the NuVal score, the more nutritious the product.