Associated Grocers held its Fall Food Show for member retailers Sept. 21 at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales, Louisiana.
Themed “Harvest Festival of Savings,” the event drew more than 1,000 vendors, manufacturers, retail members and store representatives. The event featured new items, merchandising ideas and current services available.
The night prior, the company hosted retailers, vendors and employees at a casino-themed kick-off cookout event. Vendor partners provided grilled oysters, prime rib, fried shrimp, fried fish, roasted pigs, beef tenderloin sliders, gumbo, cheesy chicken pasta, crawfish cornbread, crawfish etouffee and a variety of desserts.
For Associated Grocers, this event was also an opportunity to impact the community with bulk food, product and floral donation.
“We are excited and humbled to be able to impact our community with such a large food donation to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank through our Food Show program,” said Roeshawn Peters, Associated Grocers’ corporate marketing manager.
“We have the opportunity through this show, which is held twice a year, to make this abundant contribution with the coordinated support of our retailers and vendors.”
The company was able to donate 24,865 pounds of food – equivalent to 20,721 meals – to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.
“We appreciate Associated Grocers for their continued support of our efforts to feed the hungry in the Greater Baton Rouge area with this generous donation from the Fall Food Show. This demonstrates AG’s commitment to making the community a better place for all of us,” said Mike Manning, president and CEO of the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank.
In addition, all of the flowers at the show were packed up and delivered by the AG team to nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospitals in Gonzales and the Baton Rouge area.
During the show, Associated Grocers also announced the recipients of the GMRA Scholarship Fund. The Associated Grocers/GMRA partnership scholarship program benefits students working within Associated Grocers retail member stores. The recipients will receive $1,000 the first year and $3,000 for each of the following three years that they remain working within an Associated Grocers member store.
The recipients of the scholarship are Paris Busch, Murray’s Superette in St. Amant, Louisiana; Kohl Champagne, Champagne’s Marche in Leonville, Louisiana; Izabella Frederick, Rees Street Market in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana; Mason Phillips, Calvin’s Bocage Market in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Ashlynn Robin, Benny’s Supermarket in Opelousas, Louisiana.
Associated Grocers is a wholesale distributor to more than 180 independent retailers spanning the Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas regions. AG provides retail operations support and solutions to its members, which allow independent supermarkets to compete with the national chains.
To see a list of Associated Grocers retail stores, visit agbr.com/store-locator.
To view the photo gallery from the event presented by The Shelby Report, click here.
