When the lights suddenly go out at the Baker household my family knows the plan. My wife grabs the candles, I get out the batteries and flashlights, we conserve our cellphone power and keep the refrigerator door closed. But, the most important thing we do when the lights go out at home is call the power company to report the outage — this helps identify the issue in our community and returns power faster.

The guacamole you enjoy during football games most likely is made with avocadoes from Mexico and the lamb chops you throw on the grill could come from Australia or New Zealand. Sixty years ago, these products would not have been readily available to most consumers or would have been prohibitively expensive; but expanding trade and opening new markets has helped the U.S to create and maintain the safest, healthiest, most affordable food supply in the world. It has also offered U.S. producers new populations and markets to purchase their goods, creating a boon for consumers around the world.

According to the 2019 Power of Foodservice at Retail report, in a typical week, an average of 4.5 dinners are prepared at home, whether cooked from scratch or using semi/fully prepared items. When preparing dinner, 63% of consumers incorporate time-saving solutions in the form of semi- and fully prepared items including bagged salads, heat-and-eat mashed potatoes or ready-to-eat meat. There is an opportunity for food retailers to capture more mealtime solution shoppers with foodservice offerings, but to do so we need to learn a few lessons. Here are three lessons about foodservice grocers could learn from Starbucks.

The food retail industry is rallying around National Family Meals Month™. Here are some of the activities we’ve seen encouraging families to get back to the table.