Publix commits to addressing food insecurity

In late February, Publix Super Markets gathered the leaders of 36 food banks in the Feeding America network to its corporate office in Lakeland for what was billed as an inaugural hunger summit.

The summit was meant as an opportunity for the company to discuss what it can do to further help the food banks — which are seeing greater challenges — and for the food banks themselves to talk about best practices.

Publix currently has 1,333 stores seven states in the South. The food banks were mostly from areas the company serves.

Discussions included presentations from Publix officials about the company’s social media practices, transportation and food safety, as well as politicians and federal officials talking about policies in the works, including potential provisions in the federal Farm Bill.

It was also an opportunity for the grocer to announce a $4 million grant open to 40 organizations aimed not at getting more food but at addressing capital needs. The grants were in addition to $5 million in fresh produce the company has agreed to donate to areas where it operates, as well as an annual grant program which gave 328 grants totaling $5.65 million last year to food alleviation programs.

The Business Observer spoke with Publix President Kevin Murphy at the summit to discuss why the company decided to bring the food banks together, what it hoped to accomplish and how, as it grows, it can maintain its culture of giving back. Edited excerpts: 

What was the purpose of the summit?

Over the course of the last three years, with the pandemic, we really have seen a heightened need for helping the people in need. A lot of the programs that we've had in place for quite a long time continue to be asked more and more of. 

So we brought together our 36 Feeding America food partners that are within our operating area. They’re our largest partners and we work very, very closely with them. We brought them in just to have some open and honest conversations today. We want to talk about what we're doing well, what we're doing that is working for them and what type of opportunities and challenges they have. And is there anything that we could do differently to be able to assist them and make their job of feeding people in need in their communities easier.

What have you learned thus far?

They all need more food. I was sharing with a few people earlier, to be in the food business and then just hear about how many people are in need of food, and don't have food, and have to make decisions on a daily basis — whether they're going to pay a simple electric bill, or whether they're going to pay a phone bill, or if they're going to purchase food to feed their family — is just alarming. 

Being located in Florida, it's nothing new to us to have natural disasters, things like hurricanes and stuff like that. But we're seeing that in other operating areas. Whether it be tornadoes, and floods, and things like that. I think it's bringing more and more people to a place in their life where they've never been before, where they have to make a decision about: "Where am I going to get my next meal and how am I going to get food to feed my family?" We’re hearing those stories, and hearing those conversations, from each of our Feeding America partners. They have more residents and people within their community coming to them than they've ever had before. I think it was just important for us to get everyone together instead of hearing individual conversations, instead of hearing individual ideas and suggestions. It’s always a power to bring a group of people together, a group of leaders together, and really try and come up with some solutions that work across the board.

What do you do with all the information you've gathered? What are the next steps?

I think we have a little ways to go. A lot of it has to do with geography and logistics. Most of the Feeding Americas operate large warehouses but how do they get (food) out efficiently to the individual and how do they do that repeatedly. Even in our business one of the most challenging things to do is to be able to repeat, to be able to be open seven days a week and be able to serve customers repeatedly. And these Feeding America food banks and their affiliate organizations have that same challenge. How do they repeatedly and consistently get meals and food out to people — especially in these rural areas and in areas where maybe they don't have public transportation and things like that.

Why did the company decide to award an additional $4 million in grants this year and what do you hope to accomplish with that?

I really have to credit that to (Publix Vice President of Public Affairs) John Provenzano and Todd Jones, our CEO, for just working so closely together with Feeding America. I think hurricane Ian hitting Florida and some other areas, the tornadoes, we just knew that there was a very big need to do more. Todd wanted to do more. 

We had already committed $5 million worth of produce for just the first six months of this year. He just went back to the board, shared some of the stories and some of the communication and some of the asks and the requests that we had from our Feeding America partners. Our board is made up of very charitable, very passionate people about our communities, so it was a pretty easy ask. (We) came up with a really good opportunity to make sure that the monies were being used in multiple ways so that we could solve multiple problems. And so the campaign (is) to help them with their infrastructure and to help them with other areas outside of just providing more food.

As Publix continues to grow, how do you make sure the company’s culture grows with you and that when you enter a new market you don't become just another grocery store?

It’s in our training. We're very proud of our training and our training materials. And we're not shy about talking about our past, and our founder, and what we stand for, and what it means to be Publix. We truly want to be servants. We truly want to be a part of the community that we're serving and that we live in. 

One of the most powerful things is that our associates are also owners. I think when you have the opportunity to be an owner of an organization that does so many great things, there's a lot of pride that comes with that. And so thinking like an owner and behaving like an owner just becomes second nature for our associates. 

And I think that's easily passed on and easily demonstrated. I give all that credit to our store teams — our retail managers, our assistant managers and our department managers out in the stores — for what they demonstrate every day, both leadership and compassion. They're very passionate about their communities, and about helping everybody that comes into the store. And they're very, very involved, in a lot of ways, in the communities and it just becomes natural.