Specialty Distributors & Brokers

Cedar’s Foods Donates $100K to World Central Kitchen for Ukraine Relief

Published April 11, 2022

Cedar’s Foods, a Haverhill, Mass.-based company with national distribution of hommus and Mediterranean products, has donated $100,000 for Ukraine relief, to World Central Kitchen to help feed refugees.

Since military operations began in Ukraine, millions of Ukrainians have fled their homes to stay in western Ukraine or other countries and WCK is serving millions of fresh meals to displaced families. Working at a 24-hour pedestrian border crossing in southern Poland, WCK began serving hot, nourishing meals within hours of the initial invasion, and are now serving round-the-clock dishes at eight border crossings across the country.

Additionally, WCK is supporting local restaurants preparing meals in cities across Ukraine including in Odessa, Lviv and Kyiv. WCK teams are also on the ground serving thousands of meals every day in Poland, Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia, and Spain.

As part of Cedar’s with Heart, the company’s non-profit initiative to invest and honor its employees, communities, and consumers, the national leading hommus brand in the natural and organic grocery channels is committed to fighting food insecurity both in its community and around the world.

“At Cedar’s, we believe in the power of sharing better in the form of authentic, honest foods. Cedar’s with Heart extends that mission to not only share better with the world, but do better for the good of our community and our planet,” said Charles Hanna, CEO and president. “We hope to lead by example through our acts of service and our commitment to promote positive change for the next generation and generations to come. The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is one of the worst that we have seen in decades. Our commitment to fight food insecurity transcends borders and when we heard of the great work WCK is doing, we wanted to help.

“Knowing better means doing better not only for our community, but for our global community as well. No family should have to worry about where their next meal will come from, especially after fleeing their homes and making the daunting journey to refuge,” Hanna said. “Food is a human necessity, a common ground among us all. It provides comfort and a sense of hope and stability. As a leader in the food industry, we are proud of the work WCK is doing on the frontlines and honored to be able to support them in feeding Ukrainian refugees.”

World Central Kitchen is first to the frontlines, providing meals in response to humanitarian, climate and community crises. When disaster strikes, WCK’s Chef Relief Team mobilizes to the frontlines with the urgency of now to start cooking and provide meals to people in need. By partnering with organizations on the ground and activating a network of food trucks or emergency kitchens, WCK provides freshly made, nutritious meals to survivors of disasters quickly and effectively.

Is your specialty food company contributing to Ukraine relief? Let our Senior Editor, AJ Flick, know by emailing her at aj_flick@oser.com and subscribe to Gourmet News for updates!

Southern Glazer’s Matches Employee Donations for Ukraine Relief

Published March 14, 2022

Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits will match 100 percent of all employee donations made to three charitable organizations supporting Ukraine relief during the next 90 days.

Southern Glazer’s has chosen to support World Central Kitchen, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere through its matching campaign for Ukraine relief. Employees are able to contribute through the company’s internal giving platform, VolunCheers Online, in order to be eligible for the donation match.

“Southern Glazer’s stands in support of the Ukrainian people,” said CEO Wayne E. Chaplin. “We are deeply saddened by the crisis and our hearts are with those who have been impacted by this terrible situation. Our family values represent a spirit of inclusiveness and giving back that is part of our cultural DNA, which is why we’ve chosen to support three organizations that have stepped in to provide much-needed aid. Our employees never hesitate to lend a helping hand in times of crisis, and we are happy to amplify their generosity through this campaign.”

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Study: Americans See Food Inflation Rate Higher Than Reality

Published March 1, 2022

U.S. consumers are more worried about rising food prices, the economy and their own personal finances than they are with getting COVID, according to a new study by dunnhumby.

Perhaps most concerning for retailers and the government is that U.S. consumers surveyed reported that the food inflation rate now stands at 17.7 percent, when it stands at 7.4 percent, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The ninth wave of the dunnhumby Consumer Pulse Survey was conducted from Jan. 25 to Feb. 8, just past the peak of a major outbreak of coronavirus, driven by the omicron variant.

“Americans’ belief that food prices are rising more than twice as fast as they actually are should concern retailers, manufacturers and the government alike,” said Grant Steadman, president for North America at dunnhumby. “We not only see this mismatch between sentiment and reality in the U.S., but also in every country we surveyed.

“Consumers are now more concerned with their finances and the country’s economy than they were five months ago. We need to revise our thinking about how consumers consider inflation. Likely, we have not yet seen the full extent of how consumers will react to food price increases. This could diverge further, particularly if the security situation in Europe worsens and further impacts energy and commodity prices globally.”

Key findings in the food inflation study include:

Fifty-one percent of U.S. shoppers surveyed are concerned that their money doesn’t go as far as it used to due to rising prices, marking a 10 point increase since September 2021, and a 12 percent increase since May 2020. Eighty-three percent said food prices have gone up some and half say they have gone up by a lot.

The majority of U.S. consumers (58 percent) believe the economy is weak, a three point increase from September 2021, and the same percentage from February 2021. And 40 percent of consumers continue to report their own finances are weak, consistent with the prior two waves of the dunnhumby study in 2021.

Walmart was again cited for providing the best value for the money by 54% of respondents, an increase of 25 points from September 2021. Aldi (18 percent), Kroger (10 percent) and Amazon (10 percent) finished in the top three for best value.

Americans’ worry about the pandemic is at an all-time low (13 percent) and 20 points below consumers’ worry in Chile, the country with the highest Worry Index. The continued reduction in worry comes at the same time as more Americans than ever now know someone personally who has had COVID, at 44 percent compared to 37 percent in September. The U.S. remains in the lower half of countries that are not very worried about COVID-19, followed closely by Slovakia, Denmark, France, and China all tied at 11 percent. Countries that remain very worried about the pandemic include Chile (33 percent), Japan (31 percent), Brazil (29 percent), Portugal (27 percent), Malaysia (27 percent) and Mexico (25 percent).

The surge in cases from the Omicron variant slightly reduced the number of trips consumers made to stores in late January through early February and reversed consumers’ belief from September 2021 that things were starting to return to normal. Only 19 percent of consumers reported that things were returning to normal in stores compared to 24 percent in September.

While online shopping numbers have varied from wave to wave, they are essentially flat from where they were in May 2020. Thirty-three percent of U.S. respondents have ordered more online since Covid-19 began. Fifty-five percent of respondents made at least one online shopping trip during the week they were surveyed, up 17 percent since March 2020. Consumers also reported they make an average of one trip per week using click-and-collect making that channel as popular as delivery.

Only 39 percent of U.S. consumers surveyed are satisfied with the instore shopping experience, a 3 percent drop since September 2021. Only 36 percent of those surveyed felt stores are doing a good job with COVID. Although consumers’ satisfaction with how stores are addressing the virus is low, it is nearly triple the approval rate U.S. consumers have for how government has dealt with the pandemic (22 percent). In every country surveyed, consumers felt stores are doing a better job than the government.
Although economic pressures have increased over the last five months, the percentage of respondents using key value-seeking strategies has remained flat (53% of respondents compared to 52 percent in September 2021). Value seekers see inflation rates as even higher (18.4 percent) than those not actively seeking value (16.9 percent).

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