ATLANTA -- Winn-Dixie Stores, Jacksonville, Fla., has broadened its annual sponsorship of National Child Abuse Prevention Month by including more in-store displays of participating Nabisco products.
Throughout last month, the Winn-Dixie Atlanta division here teamed with Nabisco and the Georgia Council on Child Abuse, also here, to raise funds to help prevent child abuse.
Point-of-sale displays featured life-size posters of Atlanta Brave and GCCA spokesman Tom Glavine, with the heading "Come in for the Save, Help Prevent Child Abuse." The campaign was also supported with newspaper ads.
Participating products included Chips Ahoy! cookies, Snackwell's chocolate yogurt, A.1 Steak Sauce, Icebreakers chewing gum, Parkay squeeze margarine, Ritz Crackers, Planter's mixed nuts and cashew halves, Breathsavers mints and Milk-Bone dog biscuits.
David Hall, customer development manager at Nabisco's regional offices in Alpharetta, Ga., said Winn-Dixie had more in-store displays this year than in the past.
"Rather than having our donation based on actual sales to the customer, we base it on sales or display 'force outs' from Winn-Dixie," Hall said, explaining that "force out" means having the display placed out on the selling floor in each location. Officials at Winn-Dixie's regional offices here could not be reached for comment.
"For every display they 'force out' or every case they put on display during this month we are able to put our POS materials on it. That is how we build the fund to determine what is donated to the Georgia Council on Child Abuse," Hall said.
"Winn-Dixie has accepted this program and tried to embrace it and create an awareness with the customers that they are giving back to the community," Hall added.
Results from this year's campaign were still being tabulated, but look "very good," Hall said. Last year Winn-Dixie and Nabisco raised $10,000 for the GCCA.
Diane Kohler, resource development director for the GCCA, said the campaign continues to grow each year.
"This is the third year and all of the kinks have been pretty much worked out," she said.
Aside from raising cash, the campaign also raises awareness of child abuse, which is a growing problem, Kohler said.
"There might be a shopper at Winn-Dixie who needs help and right in front of them will be a poster for the Georgia Council on Child Abuse," she said.
