Feb 3, 2021

By: David Fikes, Executive Director, FMI Foundation
Supper Bowl finalists

Football’s crown jewel contest Super Bowl LV takes place this Sunday, but the food world recently had its first-ever Supper Bowl determining the best of the best in family meal menus. Super Bowl LV pits the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the Kansas City Chiefs, but the Supper Bowl had the powerhouse Hy-Vee, Inc. competing against the jammin’ J. M. Smucker Company in the championship round. The Chiefs will again have Patrick Maholmes at the helm trying to outmaneuver the Buccaneer’s seasoned veteran Tom Brady, but the Supper Bowl had Hy-Vee Chef Beau Ketchum matching culinary wits and kitchen craftiness with Smucker’s Chef Ken Edwards.

And while the Super Bowl anticipates an entertaining half-time show headlined by The Weekend, the Supper Bowl had appearances by celebrity Chef Robert Irvine offering expert commentary, plus FMI CEO and President Leslie Sarasin providing a dazzling half-time presentation of the 2020 FMI Foundation’s Gold Plate Awards. These annual awards highlight outstanding programs implemented by the food industry to help families stay strong with family meals. Details are available at www.FMI.org/GoldPlateAwards and this year’s winners include:

  • Category A (retailers with 1 to 49 stores): Coborn’s, Inc., “Kids Cook at Home for National Family Meals Month™!” program.
  • Category B (retailers with 50 – 199 stores): SpartanNash Company, “Family Meals at Home” program.
  • Category C (retailers with 200 or more stores): Wakefern Food Corporation, “Just Add Family” program.
  • Food Manufacturer Category: Campbell Soup Company, “Campbell Helps Families Stay Strong with Family Meals” program.
  • Community Collaborator Category: National Pork Board and the U.S. Dry Pea and Lentil Council, “Powerful Pairings” program.
  • Rising Star Category: The Grocery Gal, “The Grocery Gal Presents Family Meals Month,” social media campaign.
  • COVID-19 Heroes Category, a special award created to recognize charitable programs designed to help all families share meals together during the pandemic had two winners:
    • Hy-Vee, Inc., 2020 National Family Meals Month™ campaign, built on the theme of “coming together.”
    • The GIANT Company, “For Today’s Table,” campaign.
  • The FMI Foundation also recognized special Gold Plate Partners, Produce for Better Health and Common Threads for their support of the Family Meals Movement.

In the end, after all the stirring and prepping, mixing and cooking, tasting and talking, the voters declared Chef Beau’s stuffed pork chops, seasoned Brussels sprouts and homemade apple pie russet to be the winning combination pushing Hy-Vee into the Supper Bowl winner’s circle. Our congratulations to the Supper Bowl Champs, Hy-Vee, Inc. quarterbacked by Chef Beau Ketchum. Victory never tasted so good… for everyone.

Videos of all the Supper Bowl contestants’ dishes are available on the FMI Foundation website. Serve any of these on Sunday evening and you’ll be the Super Supper Bowl Champion in your family.