Hy-Vee receives Food Marketing Institute’s Community Outreach Award

WEST DES MOINES — The Food Marketing Institute has named Hy-Vee the recipient of its 2018 Community Outreach Award in the Program Addressing Hunger category. The award was announced at the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference this past weekend in Miami, Fla.

Hy-Vee received the award for its response following the destructive tornados that touched down in Marshalltown in July 2018. In response to the disaster, Hy-Vee donated meals, snacks and beverages to impacted residents and emergency workers.

“Community service is such an expected part of the food retailer profile it is easy to take their neighborhood commitment for granted, but each year, the Food Marketing Institute seeks to recognize the oft-overlooked, but numerous unmentioned contributions and gestures of goodwill that grocers make to enhance the communities they serve,” David Fikes, vice president for communications and community affairs for FMI, said. “Food retailers do much more than simply feed families through the food they sell to their customers. Retailers large and small-urban, suburban or rural enrich the lives of their shoppers through thoughtful community programs that often are iconic expressions of the spirit of that particular neighborhood.”

As a result of Hy-Vee’s efforts, more than 20,000 individuals in the Marshalltown area benefited from the food and beverage donations. Hy-Vee distributed 111,000 bottles of water, 31,000 bottles of Gatorade, more than 1,600 cases of dried meat snack products and more than 70,000 snack and protein bars from the Marshalltown Hy-Vee parking lot, as well as from five Hy-Vee Healthy You Mobiles.

The Marshalltown Hy-Vee also worked alongside vendor partner Just BARE® Chicken and partnered with the local food bank, United Way and the Salvation Army, to distribute more than 40,000 pounds of refrigerated chicken to impacted residents in the Marshalltown community in the weeks following the disaster.

FMI chose Hy-Vee for the award based upon store-level, corporate and community participation addressing a community need; breadth and depth of the program; originality and creativity. The Program Addressing Hunger Award is presented to a retailer that is heavily involved in giving back to its communities via food drives, food bank donations and commitments to increase access to fresh food in underserved areas.

This is the second consecutive year that Hy-Vee has received an FMI Community Outreach Award.

MCC is named a 2019-20 Military Friendly School

Continuing its mission to provide veterans and their spouses with the finest choices for post-secondary education, VIQTORY has released the 2019-20 Military Friendly Schools list, which includes Marshalltown Community College.

“At MCC, we are pleased to support the educational and career successes of our veteran students,” Dr. Robin Lilienthal, MCC Provost, said. “Our Collegiate Veterans Association is an active organization for MCC veterans and our entire college works diligently to ensure that our veteran students have a great experience here. Being on the Military Friendly Schools List for five out of the past six years is a thrill for us.”

Now in its 10th year, the Military Friendly Schools list has come to set the standard for higher education institutions to provide the best opportunities for veterans and their spouses. This prestigious list provides a comprehensive guide for veterans and their families using data sources from federal agencies and proprietary survey information from participating organizations.

Institutions earning the Military Friendly School designation were evaluated using both public data sources and responses from a proprietary survey completed by the school. This year 766 schools earned this prestigious designation. The 2019-20 Military Friendly Schools list will be published in the May issue of “G.I. Jobs” magazine. The list can also be found at www.militaryfriendly.com.

For more information about Marshalltown Community College’s commitment to attracting and supporting military students, visit the MCC website at mcc.iavalley.edu/admissions/just-for-you/veterans/.

Great Western Bank named a Top National Bank

Great Western Bank, the wholly owned subsidiary of Great Western Bancorp, Inc. has been named a Top 10 Best National Bank in GOBankingRates seventh annual Best Banks series. This is the second year Great Western Bank was named to the list.

In determining its rankings, GOBankingRates looked at the 72 largest, national brick-and-mortar banks by asset size, according to the FDIC. Banks were evaluated on criteria such as checking account fees, savings interest rates, CD rates and the availability of services. Great Western Bank was selected for its “low fees, high rates and great service.”

“We are pleased to make this prestigious list for a second time,” Cheryl Olson, head of marketing at Great Western Bank, said. “We are proud to be among those listed. This ranking shows that we remain true to our mission of Making Life Great by taking outstanding care of our customers.”

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Potential subjects of these business briefs include announcements of new businesses, branch acquisitions, departures of longtime employees, employee recognitions or new hires. Submissions will be edited and run on a space-available basis. Items must be received by 5 p.m. Thursday for consideration in Sunday’s column.

Submit brief articles and JPEG headshots to: Names & Notes, Newsroom, Times-Republican, 135 W. Main St., Marshalltown 50158, or call Kathy Beane at 641-753-6611 or email news@timesrepublican.com