Thank you to the hundreds of food retailers, suppliers, brokers and manufacturers who joined us at the Society Room in downtown Hartford on March 1, 2018 at CFA’s annual meeting & installation of officer’s reception.
The Connecticut Food Association promotes initiatives in the food industry from farm to fork while serving as advocates for Connecticut grocery retailers, distributors, manufacturers and consumers. The supermarket industry in the state includes almost 400 stores and generates over $594 million in state and local taxes. We are responsible for creating over 33,000 stable, reliable jobs and over $1.4 billion in wages paid to Connecticut citizens.
The Connecticut grocery industry’s number one community priority is to support organizations that bring food and hope to our hungry neighbors. Last year the food industry contributed over 10.6 million pounds of food and products to the Connecticut Food Bank, Food Share and local food pantries. This is very significant work and I’m not sure that anyone could accurately put a dollar amount on these efforts because the humanity from these companies that comes along with their donations is priceless.
Our sustainability agenda documents the leadership role the grocery industry plays in embracing programs that generate environmental benefits. We appreciate the importance of working with state and local environmental agencies, energy policy leaders and the general public to establish joint goals and create programs that serve our common environmental interests. We have championed initiatives from single stream recycling to programs that significantly reduce the use of disposable plastic bags as well as composting and LEED certification for newly constructed stores.
2018 will be a transformational time in CFA’s 75 year long history. The team is eager to continue our rebranding initiatives, technology enhancements, diversity development and next generation outreach. I’m passionate about the work we are doing on behalf of our members and look forward to the challenges of building a sustainable, best in class trade organization.
I’m excited to lead an organization and work in an industry that is all about feeding people and making a difference in the communities where we do business, live, and raise our families. As I have become fond of saying – “This is fun, it’s all about food”!
Thank you to our Guest speaker Christine Stuart, editor of ctnewsjunkie.com for taking the time to speak at our event. Hope to see all of you at the Golf Tournament on May 17th.
~Wayne
