Celebrating Family Meals Month with IGA's Family Meals Made Easy

September is National Family Meals Month™, a movement created by the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) five years ago so that food retailers and suppliers could do their part to help consumers come together for more family meals. But for many reasons, this year is different, as more families are already spending more time together as we adjust to new routines and safety measures brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In fact, the FMI Foundation's new study, Home Cooking in America 2020, shows that during the COVID-19 pandemic, 40 percent of American adults say they are now cooking more. In addition, 23 percent say they are planning more meals in advance and 18 percent say they are trying more new dishes.

So how can we help families that might be struggling to provide healthy and stable meals during these unprecedented times? IGA is excited to roll out a new online and in-store campaign called Family Meals Made Easy, designed to provide shoppers with mealtime solutions that are quick, easy, nutritious, and tied to national savings this September and beyond.

How Family Meals Made Easy Works in 3 Easy Steps

Step 1:

Order your Family Meals Made Easy! POP Kit

Cost: $75

ORDER TODAY

Order TODAY to make sure you receive your reusable Family Meals Made Easy! hanging sign and individual recipe POP in time to promote the upcoming IGA Exclusive Brand offers.

What's included in your POP display kit?

Step 2:

Display products linked to original recipes featured in the National Digital Ad

Each week from now through October 3, your IGA National Digital Ad will feature a new recipe tied to IGA Exclusive Brand offers.

Build 1 display per ad featuring IGA Exclusive Brand recipe ingredients.
Use the adaptable Family Meals Made Easy! signage to draw attention to your display, and each week change out the recipe card to correspond with the recipe in your National Digital Ad (see schedule here). The recipe card's dedicated QR code takes the shopper to the corresponding savable/printable recipe on IGA.com, where they can sign up to get recipes delivered to their inbox.
Tag the products featured in the National Digital Ad using savings shelf tags.
Don’t have an IGA Exclusive Brand product that's featured in the ad? Substitute with national brand products, and add in more items to round out the meal and display, i.e., seasonings, cooking oils, freshly baked bread, etc. And don't forget the beverage pairings!

Step 3:

Start Planning More Recipe Promotions

Stay tuned for more recipes/offers/display resources highlighting both national and IGA Exclusive Brand products, coming your way each month through 2021.

Designed for the Long Haul

IGA retailers are busier than ever before. That's why the Family Meals Made Easy campaign was designed to be tailored to fit retailers' individual needs. If a retailer doesn't have an Exclusive Brand product featured in the ad, no worries. Fill in with a national or local brand. Want to run your recipe display outside the ad time frame? Grab a recipe from IGA.com and go to town. Want to create your own recipes to use in the display? Or just throw some pasta, spaghetti sauce, bread, and wine on the end-cap and call it a day? Do it.

Not only is the Family Meals Made Easy campaign a great way to address shoppers' need for quick and easy meal solutions, but it's also an opportunity for retailers to keep the 'food away from home' dollars they've picked up. The data tells us that an offer doesn't have to be attached to see a sales increase with a meal solution. Simply creating a display in a way that makes it easy for shoppers to grab it, put it together quickly, and get it on the table is all you need.