October 25, 2017, Lucky’s Market had its grand opening ceremony in Panama City, FL. The new grocery store hired 139 people from the Bay County, Washington, and other counties in the surrounding area. The stores’ Vice President of marketing, Ben Friedland, shared the importance of providing healthy food for the community.
Lucky’s Market has a bags for change program. Every time a customer brings back their reusable Lucky’s Market bag, they are offered a chance to donate a wooden dime for each reused bag. The wooden dime goes to one of the three nonprofit organizations that are chosen every quarter. At the end of the quarter, the dimes will be added up and the donation will be doubled. The three organizations selected for this quarter are the Gulf Coast Children’s Advocacy Center, the Life Management Center, and the Disability Resource Center. The store will also have impact days once per quarter. On impact days, 10% of the sells will be donated to a local organization. Tuesday, October 31st, The after school assistance program ASAP, was the first impact day partner.
During the grand opening, Lucky’s Market donated to two organizations that are doing some incredible things in the community. The first donation was to Girls Inc. they work to mentor and guide girls giving them the right tools to succeed. With a donation of $5,000, they will be supporting the purchase of 10 new laptops for the media lab. The media lab will benefit more than 300 girls and their parents. Nikki Kelly, the Executive Director of Girls INC for Bay County, shared how this donation will help the young girls in the community.
They also donated to The Family Service Agency. They specialize in assisting individuals and families who are in need by providing food and other services free of charge. The $5,000 donation will support the purchase of bus passes for more than 500 people so they can remain employed.
Everyone from the customers, employees, and the food providers appreciates Lucky’s Market’s effort to provide healthy, local food to the community. A few store employees gave their view on how the store will positively impact the community.
Founders Bo and Trish Sharon believe that “Through food, we can all take care of each other.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Deborah Smoots
Student
Deborah Smoots was a student in Digital Media in Fall of 2017.
