Hy-Vee Celebrates National Family Meals Month by Encouraging Families to Eat One More Meal Together Each Week

PRESS RELEASE WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (Sept. 2, 2016) — This September, Hy-Vee, Inc. is celebrating National Family Meals Month by encouraging families to eat one more meal together a week. To help accommodate the schedules of busy families, the supermarket chain will offer in-store family cooking classes with its dietitians, easy pickup and delivery meal options and the opportunity for children to eat free (with the purchase of an adult entrée) every day in September at the more than 90 Hy-Vee Market Grille restaurants across the company’s eight-state region.

In recognition of National Family Meals Month, Hy-Vee also is announcing a major charity donation challenge to get families back around the dinner table. In September, for every family who posts a photo of themselves eating a meal together on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and uses the hashtag #HyVeeFamilyMeals, Hy-Vee will donate $1 to Meals from the Heartland, up to $100,000.

Hy-Vee Chairman, CEO and President Randy Edeker is the 2016 chair of the National Family Meals Month campaign, which is sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute.

“We want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to find that special time to sit down and have a family meal again,” Edeker said. “By having recipes already prepared or offering cooking classes that families can take together, our goal is to cut back on the stress of meal preparation so families can enjoy more time around the dinner table.”

Created by the Food Marketing Institute, National Family Meals Month is an industry-inspired movement to raise consumer awareness of the health and societal benefits of sharing frequent family meals. More than 76 percent of people report that conflicting schedules are a primary barrier to cooking and eating together on a regular basis. However, research shows that children who share regular family meals benefit from better grades, improved nutrition, stronger family relationships and higher self-esteem, and they are less likely to use drugs and alcohol. According to a 2013 Harris Poll, only 30 percent of American families share dinner together every night.

Mealtime struggles are shared by families of all sizes, which is why Hy-Vee offers the following convenient resources to help eliminate the barriers that keep families from eating together:

• DISH (Dinner is Solved at Hy-Vee) Hy-Vee’s meal-prep program, DISH, is a fun, quick way to prepare healthy meals. A group of customers, friends or family members gather at their local Hy-Vee store and work with Hy-Vee chefs or dietitians to prepare recipes. Each customer goes home with a cooler full of take-and-bake meals.
• DISH To Go Streamlining the easy DISH process even further, DISH To Go offers already prepared take-and-bake meals in the freezer case at select Hy-Vee stores.
• Hy-Vee Aisles Online® Through the Hy-Vee Aisles Online website, www.hy-vee.com/grocery, customers can shop for their groceries, pay electronically and choose to pick up their order or have it delivered to their home.
• Hy-Vee Dietitian Services Hy-Vee’s more than 225 in-store dietitians consult with customers regarding their dietary needs, conduct store tours to help shoppers make better nutrition choices and lead courses on topics such as kids’ nutrition, lifestyle management and various cooking classes.
• Hy-Vee Chefs Hy-Vee’s in-store chefs conduct cooking classes, develop and prepare recipes that are offered in stores and collaborate with Hy-Vee dietitians to share healthy meal ideas with customers and various community groups.