Hy-Vee Celebrates National Family Meals Month by Making Meal Preparation Easy

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (Sept. 6, 2017) — This September, Hy-Vee, Inc. is celebrating National Family Meals Month by providing families with weekly meal plans and recipes to make dinner planning easy and fun. To help accommodate the schedules of busy families, the supermarket chain will offer dietitian-led Kids in the Kitchen family cooking classes and the opportunity for children to eat free (with the purchase of an adult entrée) every day in September at all Hy-Vee Market Grille and Market Grille Express restaurants across the company’s eight-state region.

The meal plans will appear in the weekly Hy-Vee print and digital ads throughout the month of September and will direct customers to Hy-Vee’s Family Meals board on Pinterest to view the easy-to-prepare recipes. Additional weekly in-store family meal deals will be highlighted for those customers looking for grab-and-go dinner options.

In recognition of National Family Meals Month, Hy-Vee is also announcing a major charity donation challenge to get families back around the dinner table. In September, post a photo of your family having a meal together and tag with #hyveefamilymeals —or share/like one of our National Family Meals Month posts — and Hy-Vee will donate $1 to Meals from the Heartland, up to $100,000.

“By providing weekly meal plans and recipes, hosting family cooking classes and offering online grocery shopping, our goal is to make meal preparation less stressful and more fun,” said Randy Edeker, Hy-Vee’s chairman, CEO and president. “We want to make it as easy as possible for families to plan and prepare meals that enable them to share more time around the table together.”

Created by 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:

• Hy-Vee Simple FixTM – With this healthy meal prep program, Hy-Vee dietitians shop for ingredients, take care of the cleaning and preparation, and provide the space, bowls and utensils. Your team assembles the meals at Hy-Vee, and take home several dinners that are ready to go.

• Hy-Vee Aisles Online® - Through the Hy-Vee Aisles Online website, http://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 200 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.