ARLINGTON, VA – January 14, 2008 – The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) today honored Wakefern Food Corporation Chairman Emeritus Tom Infusino with the FMI 2008 Herbert Hoover Award for his personal and professional excellence in serving the food retail and wholesale industry. FMI President and CEO Tim Hammonds made the announcement at the association’s 2008 Midwinter Executive Conference in Scottsdale, AZ.

     Infusino served as the uniting force behind the Wakefern Food Corporation and its ShopRite member companies during his 34-year career, Hammonds said. “He helped strengthen the cooperative by instituting a democratic system of governance — one company, one vote regardless of how many stores a member owns.”

     Infusino and Wakefern companies have made extraordinary contributions to their communities such as the ShopRite Partners in Caring program, which earned the FMI Neighborhood Partnership Award in the 2005. The program has donated $13 million to more than 1,400 charities since its launch in 1999.

     Among scores of honors, he was recognized by the Community Food Bank of New Jersey for his many years of support, including the donation of a refrigerated trailer to store perishable foods. When he retired as Wakefern’s chief executive in 2005, the food bank put his nameplate on its freezer.

     The Herbert Hoover award was introduced in 1961 and was inspired by industry and government campaigns that President Hoover led to deliver food relief to victims of the Boxer Rebellion, World War I and Great Depression. Infusino is the 53rd person to receive this award.