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GOURMET NEWS APRIL 2015 www.gourmetnews.com GENERAL NEWS 4 Grant to Reduce Hunger Among Chickasaw Nation Children The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has awarded a grant to the Chick- asaw Nation for a demonstration project de- signed to sharply reduce the incidence of hunger among children. This innovative program will create an experience similar to online grocery shopping, where families visit a website to order nutritious food items that will be delivered directly to their homes. Feed the Children will be delivering the food directly to homes of participants. Chickasaw Nation Governor Bill Anoatubby said the Chickasaw Nation is passionate about fighting childhood hunger. "We hope our collaboration with Feed the Children on this innovative new program will be a significant step forward in the fight against childhood hunger," he said. "We believe it is vital we continue to develop new strategies and methods to work toward our goal of ending childhood hunger in America. Working together through innovative programs such as this, we can help ensure many more children have the nutrition they need to grow into successful adults." Participating families will also receive a benefit check to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables at authorized grocery stores within the Chickasaw Nation. "We are very pleased to be working with Feed the Chil- dren on this project," said Dr. Judy Goforth Parker, Chickasaw Nation Secretary of Health. "They are great partners because the expertise and economies of scale they bring to the project will enable us to pro- vide even more food to participating fami- lies." The total number of eligible students within the demonstration's 18 targeted school districts is estimated at nearly 9,000, and at least half of the students, or approx- imately 2,600 households, are expected to participate. Pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade students eligible for free school meals in participating school dis- tricts are eligible for the program. This grant is part of $27 million in fund- ing made possible by the Healthy Hunger- Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA) and announced yesterday. HHFKA requires that at least one project be carried out on an In- dian reservation serving a rural area with a diabetes incidence rate of 15 percent or more. Other projects will be tested in Ken- tucky, Nevada, and Virginia, as well as the Navajo Nation. Feed the Children's Domestic Program Team worked with the Chickasaw Nation to develop the proposal and the underlying project, named the Chickasaw Nation Nu- trition Services Demonstration Project to End Childhood Hunger. "We're excited to partner on this pio- neering service and delivery model aimed at increasing food access, food security and diet quality for children pre-K through 12th grade," said Kevin Hagan, President and CEO of Feed the Children. "In the U.S., we have the resources to ensure that every child has the nutritious food they need, but we must better leverage the in- frastructure, resources and technology available by working together on the fed- eral and local level to ensure no child goes to bed hungry." GN Newport Avenue Continued from PAGE 1 but over the years, we morphed into spe- cialty foods because that's what our cus- tomers wanted. An awful lot of our products are by customer request," Rudy adds. "Customers traveled and then came back and requested foods that they had tasted during their travels." While both Rudy and Debbie are still very active in the store – his official title is Ring- master of the Flying Circus/Pres- ident, while hers is Pundit of Perfection/Director of Detail, Newport Avenue Market is also presided over by Viris, a full size purple Jersey cow statue that dresses up for the holidays and moves around the store on occa- sion and Francine Bearbottom, a grizzly bear who wears holiday hats, with day-to-day manage- ment in the hands of El Hefe/General Store Manager Spike Bement and Leader of the Pack & COO Lauren G.R. John- son, who is the Dorys' daughter. Johnson joined the business re- cently after a 20-year career as a flight at- tendant and a few other jobs after that, including motherhood, in Portland, Ore- gon. "The stars all aligned. They asked, and the opportunity was perfect timing," she says. She moved right back into her childhood neighborhood, buying a house near her parents' home and only a couple of blocks from the store. "It's my little ball of perfect," she said. "Sunshine is terrific. I am so happy. My friends from Portland are more than happy to come here." Their customer-centered approach, along with deep involvement in the com- munity and a strong touch of whimsy have earned them accolades from both the grocery industry and their commu- nity. In 1994, Newport Avenue Market was named the International Retailer of the Year, and hardly a year has gone by since then that the store or its owners haven't received some kind of special recognition on either the local, state or national level. In 1999, the Market was named the Bend Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year and received an Ore- gon Quality and Excellence Award. Rudy Dory won a United Way Volunteer Citi- zen's Award in 2000; in 2008, the mural on the storefront, painted by local artist Kimberly Smallenberg, won the store Bend Art's Beautification Award. In 2013, Newport Avenue Market became the first Boar's Head Deli of Distinction west of the Mississippi River and Rudy and Deb- bie were honored as the Bend Chamber of Commerce's Citizens of the Year. The list goes on, cul- minating in this year's Visionary Award from Uni- fied Grocers. In Bend, the store competes with the coun- try's largest Safe- way store as well as the largest- volume Safeway store in the country – those are two different stores – as well as two Walmart S u p e r c e n t e r s , Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, a Fred Meyer with more than 200,000 square feet of space and two Albertsons stores that are converting to Haggen stores as a consequence of Albertsons' di- vestiture following the merger with Safe- way. Altogether, Newport Avenue Market has 15 direct competitors in a city that had about 81,000 residents for the 2010 U.S. Census. In spite of that, the store is into its fourth consecutive year of double-digit sales growth. "We need to be on our toes. There are two or three more stores coming this summer that are breaking ground now – new stores with new ban- ners," Debbie says. "We don't lack competition in Bend, Oregon. We very much stay focused on who we are and what we need to do to stay in business." Staying on their toes means keeping up with the latest food trends, connecting with their community, and working hard to make a visit to their store a visually appeal- ing and entertaining experience. Besides the fun with Viris and Francine Bear-Bot- tom, the store also houses a 1953 Farm-All tractor in the produce department as well as carousel pieces around the store and a produce wall that's regarded as a piece of art in its own right. "Visually, we have a lot of fun," Debbie says. "We keep using the term 'experience,' but it runs a little deeper than that," John- son adds. "We have European-style shop- pers, so the relationships between staff and customers are very important. Con- necting, not only with our staff, but with their neighbors and keeping up on what's happening in their neighborhoods." Fos- tering the connections between staff and customers requires the right employees, and Newport Avenue Market has several who've been with the store more than 30 years, including General Store Manager Bement, who's been working with Rudy since 1983 and has been store manager of Newport Avenue Market since 1991. "We understand that our job as managers is to make good decisions so our people can count on their jobs," Rudy says. "It is our job to make sure that we're trying to do the right thing, and, knock on wood, that has filtered down." People often ask Rudy and Debbie how they get so many great employees, and Rudy says he asks himself that question sometimes too. "We try to pay them de- cently," he says. "We understand with staff that they have to make a living." The store still pays 100 percent of health in- surance costs for its employees and has a 401(k) program with employer matching. The store also has a bonus program and offers grocery rebates that can return $2,000 to $3,000 to an employee at the end of the year. "We've always believed in happy employees who can be customers too," Rudy says. "It's really important to know," Johnson adds, "that while we're the face of it, it's re- ally our staff who are pretty amazing and who work hard to make us who we are – and our customers who choose to shop with us." GN

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