By: Ashley Byars
At the Engage for Good conference this May in Minneapolis, Hy-Vee and Feeding America’s 100 Million Meals Challenge campaign won the Best of the Best Halo Award, a distinction recognizing nonprofit and corporate partnerships that demonstrate excellence in their engagement and impact. This incredible campaign helped raise donations for 57 million meals in the program’s first year, benefiting 1,000+ food agencies and helping millions who are food insecure. The work continues with a multi-year partnership to reach the 100 million meal goal by 2026.
For Momentum sponsored this year’s Best of the Best Halo award and wanted to know—and share—more about why this campaign has been so successful. We’re excited to give you a behind-the-scenes take from the team that brought the 100 Million Meals Challenge campaign to life.
Partnerships and Collaborations
Q: How did the partnership between Hy-Vee and Feeding America develop?
A: Hy-Vee has long supported Feeding America and its partner food banks to help alleviate hunger. After several successful register round-up campaigns in 2022, Hy-Vee came to Feeding America National Office with the 100 Million Meals Challenge campaign idea.
Feeding America National Office was thrilled by this big goal and the amazing brand awareness opportunity through Hy-Vee’s NTT INDYCAR SERIES partnership. Hy-Vee’s leadership decided to go very big, not just with the goal but with the resources dedicated to this campaign. Feeding America National Office understands this privilege and has worked closely with Hy-Vee to support the campaign, think outside the box and engage all local stakeholders.
Q: How does the 100 Million Meals Challenge fit into Hy-Vee’s social impact goals?
A: Fighting food insecurity has been one of Hy-Vee’s core focus areas for several decades, and as a grocer, Hy-Vee is uniquely positioned to help support this cause. Hy-Vee’s 100 Million Meals Challenge is the company’s boldest hunger-fighting commitment yet. It unites customers, employees and suppliers around the cause, reinforcing Hy-Vee’s focus on community and people experiencing hunger.
Q: What inspired Hy-Vee to partner with Feeding America for the 100 Million Meals Challenge?
A: Hy-Vee wanted to launch a bold initiative that would make a big impact in the communities it serves and across the country. The launch of this campaign came when the hunger crisis began to rise at an alarming rate. With Hy-Vee’s commitment to fighting hunger, the company has developed strong relationships with 18 Feeding America partner food banks and countless Feeding America-affiliated food pantries across its eight-state region.
Q: What other organizations or businesses have collaborated on this initiative?
A: Dozens of Hy-Vee’s supplier partners have joined the Challenge with support in the form of both food and funds. Hormel Foods, Smithfield, Delta Dental of Iowa, Gallo and Kellogg’s have supported the campaign.
Campaign Goals and Impact
Q:What is the ultimate goal of the campaign beyond the 100 million meal target?
A: The goal of the 100 Million Meals Challenge is to reduce food insecurity and increase awareness about hunger in Hy-Vee’s local communities. By localizing 100% of the funds raised at the register, customers shopping at Hy-Vee keep their donations in their local area.
Q: How do you measure the success of the campaign? What metrics are you tracking?
A: Since the main objective is to raise to 100 million meals, we equate all food and funds donated to meals. $1 helps provide 10 meals, and 1.2 pounds of food equals a meal based on the USDA. Throughout the campaign, we track what is raised at the stores weekly, as well as monthly food rescue pounds from each of Hy-Vee’s food bank partners. We also look at earned media coverage to ensure the message stays pertinent and continues to resonate.
Q: How has the campaign impacted the communities served by Hy-Vee and Feeding America? Can you share specific examples?
A: The Challenge has provided more than 81 million meals to local communities across the Midwest since March 2023. The campaign has also raised awareness of food insecurity, helping to eradicate the shame that often comes from engaging with food banks and other resources. Additionally, the Challenge has put a stronger spotlight on the importance of food rescue. This year, Hy-Vee is projected to donate more than eight million pounds of food. That equals 6.6 million meals to families experiencing hunger.
Campaign Strategies and Implementation
Q: How did Hy-Vee involve its employees and customers in the campaign?
A: Since its launch in March 2023, the campaign has been front and center across Hy-Vee and its stores. Hy-Vee also promoted the campaign on national TV by sponsoring the NTT INDYCAR SERIES and Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend on NBC in 2023 and 2024 to further the message and encourage support beyond its region. Hy-Vee also engaged its 75,000 employees and many supplier partners around the cause while deepening its relationships with local food banks. The goal was to make everyone feel a part of the initiative and make it easy to support the campaign through several different avenues and at various levels of investment.
Q: What role did technology play in the campaign’s success?
A: While this was an integrated campaign across all mediums, technology played an important role in ensuring Hy-Vee was reaching customers consistently on several channels. Hy-Vee used a robust social media strategy that included paid and organic posts on Facebook, Instagram and X with a call to action to donate via Feeding America’s online platform. Additionally, a critical part of fundraising efforts has been the use of technology at Hy-Vee’s checkout lanes. Hy-Vee implemented a prompt on every one of its staffed checkouts and self-checkouts— for customers to round up purchases with donations.
Q: How did you overcome challenges or obstacles during the campaign?
A: By working together! Feeding America and Hy-Vee spoke weekly (and sometimes daily) to handle challenges that popped up. We had deep trust already established, which helped encourage honest conversations and next steps. With our alignment to support families experiencing food insecurity, our shared goal helps us navigate any challenges, together.
The biggest challenge with this campaign is its longevity. We need to keep the strategy consistent, but also keep it fresh to ensure we’re not saturating the audience. Hy-Vee has been successful at this by localizing efforts with mini-campaigns across their region that feed up to the ultimate 100 Million Meals Challenge.
An example of this was Hy-Vee’s “Pack the Pantry” initiative in the Central Iowa region. This was a campaign where Hy-Vee asked customers to purchase high-need items and donate them to pantries in the same neighborhood as their Hy-Vee store. They promoted donation through a local TV station to ensure the message was localized. In addition, the media partnership provided guaranteed news coverage. While Pack the Pantry directly benefited local pantries, all donations counted toward Hy-Vee’s 100 million meals goal.
Q: How has the campaign contributed to Hy-Vee’s corporate social responsibility efforts?
A: Fighting hunger is paramount to Hy-Vee’s corporate social responsibility and inclusivity initiatives. As a grocer, we want to ensure families in their communities have access to nutritious food. While we know 100 million meals is an ambitious goal, we hope it creates a ripple effect to help reduce the hunger crisis and work to build thriving communities.
Customer Engagement and Response
Q: How did you engage customers to participate in the campaign?
A: Hy-Vee encouraged donations through in-store register roundups, online donations, supplier donations, in-kind donations and food rescue. Promotional efforts included in-store signage, print/digital ads, an online landing page, national TV spots, social media and activations at the 2023 and 2024 Hy-Vee INDYCAR Race Weekend.
Additionally, Hy-Vee partnered with several food manufacturers to donate food and funds to food bank partners throughout the campaign. One example is Hormel Foods, which generously donated more than 87,000 pounds of hams for Hy-Vee’s annual Hams for the Holidays giveaways during Easter and Christmas. All hams were given out to food bank clients during several events across the Midwest.
Q: What kind of customer feedback have you received?
A: Hy-Vee customers have been incredibly supportive throughout this initiative, which is evident by the continued contributions at the register. With 100% of register donations at stores going to the food bank in that area, customers are more likely to donate knowing they are helping their neighbors.
Lessons Learned
Q: What lessons have you learned from this campaign that can be applied to future initiatives and that social impact practitioners might learn from?
A: Regional initiatives can make a huge impact, especially with companies that are so thoughtfully engaged in their community. Hy-Vee is known for putting its customers and employees first and being one of the best places to work and shop in America. By having that brand trust already established, Hy-Vee was able to rally multiple groups to support its initiative from the onset. Meanwhile, Feeding America was able to provide campaign resources to support turnkey engagement. Lastly, leadership from all parties prioritized this initiative. Having invested resources has been a very important part of the success of the 100 Million Meals Challenge.
Leave a Reply