Last week, I joined members of the Food Waste Reduction Alliance (FWRA) – representing the nation’s grocers, food manufacturers and restaurants – to brief staff from the U.S. House of Representatives on the alliance’s mission and progress to mitigate food waste in the U.S. An estimated 40 staffers were in attendance.

It is a rare occasion on Capitol Hill when both parties agree on something. This week, we got a rare glimpse of bipartisanship at a House Agriculture Committee hearing on retailers’ perspectives on USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). FMI was excited that Kathy Hanna, Senior Director, Enterprise Payments, from The Kroger Company testified sharing her expertise and experience from accepting the old paper food stamps to the fully integrated national EBT system that we have today.

Supermarket fresh prepared segments have grown exponentially over the last decade and in order to capitalize on this momentum Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and our research partners Technomic have joined forces to provide grocers with an easy to digest outline of the findings from our most recent webinar series on fresh prepared foods.

With the growing importance private brands play for food retailers, we’re paying special attention to ensure attendees at FMI Connect walk away with the ideas, tools, contacts and more to make their private brand sales increase. Here are three parts of FMI Connect you won’t want to miss if you’re looking to capitalize on your private brands.