Food Lion received top honors in the “Social Impact” category at the 2019 Loyalty360 Awards, for the retailer’s loyalty program engagement with its Food Lion Feeds hunger-relief initiative.
The awards recognize industry leaders across several categories centered around building trusting relationships with their customers in a proactive, meaningful and measurable way.
Loyalty360 awarded finalists in 12 categories, each representing a key facet of a brand’s customer loyalty focus.
Food Lion’s MVP Customer Rewards Program and its innovative Shop & Earn personalized monthly rewards program, enable customers to engage with Food Lion Feeds, the brand’s hunger-relief initiative, through promotions such as “Be a Hero, Serve a Hero” which provides meal donations to military members and their families based on customer purchases.
Food Lion’s MVP Customer Rewards Program, Shop & Earn, vendor partnerships and customer support helped drive Food Lion’s recent milestone achievement of donating 500 million meals to help nourish people in need.
“At Food Lion, we take our commitment to nourishing our neighbors to set them up for success in life very seriously,” said Deborah Sabo, senior vice president of marketing at Food Lion.
“That’s equally true whether we’re helping families with limited means in the towns and cities we serve put three meals on the table instead of two through our everyday affordable prices and weekly sales or whether we’re donating meals to our local food banks to help families in need. This award recognizes the unique and innovative ways we engage with our customers through our loyalty program to help eliminate the difficult choices our neighbors are forced to make when they are hungry,” added Sabo.
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Since Shop & Earn was launched across the banner last year, the reward program has integrated a number of opportunities to engage customer support in Food Lion Feeds.
During the Shop & Earn launch, the brand linked customer activation to a meal donation for Food Lion Feeds donating one million meals to local Feeding America food banks in its 10-state footprint; and Shop & Earn helps to drive customer support for in-store campaigns, such as “Be a Hero, Serve a Hero,” Holidays Without Hunger meal boxes, and others.
In addition to receiving Loyalty360’s top honors for social impact, Food Lion’s Shop & Earn customer rewards program was named one of the top 10 loyalty programs of 2018 and received additional recognition for its design and dedication to customer service and the loyalty industry.
Food Lion launched Food Lion Feeds in 2014 with a commitment to donating 500 million meals by the end of 2020. On May 9, 2019, Food Lion Feeds announced it had donated its 500 millionth meal nearly 18 months ahead of schedule.