By: Allison Febrey,&nbsp;&nbsp;Assistant,&nbsp;Health &amp; Wellness/FMI Foundation/Food &amp; Product Safety, Food Marketing Institute<br /> <br /> <p><img src="https://www.fmi.org/images/default-source/blog-images/goldplate2018.tmb-large-350-.png?sfvrsn=dffb4e6e_1" data-displaymode="Thumbnail" alt="GoldPlate2018" title="GoldPlate2018" style="float: right; margin-left: 10px;" />September 2018 was the best&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fmifamilymeals.com/">National Family Meals Month&trade;</a>&nbsp;(NFMM) yet! In the fourth year of the campaign, NFMM far exceeded expectations in the level of participation of the food retail industry. We&rsquo;re still hearing examples and accounts of Family Meals activities, but it&rsquo;s safe to say that our partners reached more consumers in new and original ways than ever before. One creative method featured state-wide proclamation.&nbsp;Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin all proclaimed September to be Family Meals Month.&nbsp;In addition, more and more kinds of groups are getting involved each year, including food associations, food and nutrition bloggers, and state departments of health. Groups even team up to amplify their messaging to their respective audiences.&nbsp;For example, American Heart Association (AHA)&rsquo;s Healthy for Good teamed up with Coborn's to support NFMM. They&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fmi.org/blog/view/fmi-blog/2018/09/24/two-fmi-gold-plate-winners-collaborate-for-national-family-meals-month-2018">collaborated on a pilot program</a>to deliver heart healthy recipes and meal plans in-store to support consumers in enjoying simple, nourishing meals at home.&nbsp;</p> <p>We want to celebrate you and all of your accomplishments during the month of September!&nbsp; We know that you've participated in unique and substantial ways and we want to learn all about it.&nbsp;</p> <p>Please share with the FMI Foundation everything that you did throughout the month and nominate your company for the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fmi.org/family-meals/award" target="_blank">Gold Plate Awards</a>.&nbsp;The&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fmi.org/family-meals/award/gold-plate-awards-application" target="_blank">application</a>&nbsp;is short &ndash; it shouldn&rsquo;t take more than 10 minutes - and it will help us get a better understanding of how you celebrated this September.&nbsp;</p> <p>There are five categories again this year:</p> <ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li>Food Retailers with 1-49 stores</li> <li>Food Retailers with 50-199 stores</li> <li>Food Retailers with 200+ stores</li> <li>Food Manufacturer/Supplier Category</li> <li>Community Collaborator</li> </ul> <p>When you&rsquo;ve submitted your nominations, we will send an email confirmation to you. If you don&rsquo;t receive a response within a day, please reach out to us at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:familymealsmonth@fmi.org">familymealsmonth@fmi.org</a>. Thank you for all you did to make National Family Meals Month 2018 successful. We are sitting on the edge of our seats in anticipation of how you continue to grow the program in 2019!</p>