Western Grocer Serving the industry since 1916
Monday December 7th was the perfect evening to gather friends and colleagues from the food industry to celebrate achievements and doing good; in this first virtual event many attendees joked about Calgary’s perfect weather (+8 C) which is not common for this time of the year and way different from the snowstorms that many faced in attending previous Santa Causes.
Santa Cause was attended by people from the retailer and supplier community all over Canada and the monies raised went to the honourees chosen charities The Calgary Food Bank and The Alberta Cancer Foundation -Tom Bakker Center.
Jeff Doucette ,CFDE Director, was the master of ceremonies and started the 20th Santa Cause by welcoming guests, honorees and past Santa Cause honorees.
Bret VanDeWalle (Concord National), introduced the first honouree of the night, for Life time achievement, Tim Moore; he did an amazing speech celebrating Tim’s life and accomplishments to turn Concord into a key company to the Canadian grocery industry. Sandi Moore, Tim’s wife ,accepted on Tim’s behalf and shared Tim’s love to support others specially those suffering from the same disease. Tim’s donation went to the Alberta Cancer Foundation Tom Baker.
Chris Powell followed introducing Jamie Moody; Chris provided an amazing overview of Jamie’s life and accomplishments. He highlighted Jamie’s career until reaching Tree of Life where he spent the past 21 years; today he is part of KEHE board (Tree of Life Parent company in the US).
Jamie acceptance speech showed how proud he is to be part of the industry and leading the team at Tree of Life working to make Canada “Eat well and Live Well”; his passion for the company’s values shows humbly why he was honored with this prize. Jamie donated his share to the Calgary Food Bank who together with other regional Food Banks distribute close to 2.4M pounds of food nationally every year.
Jamie Nelson did a great introduction of Cara Keating; Jamie highlighted all Cara roles that started in the western market, As the First woman to hold most of the executive roles in Pepsico Cara also lead Pepsico Woman’s Inclusive Network from 2012 to 2015. Today she holds the position of President of Pepsico Foods Canada.
Cara started by saying that this award was really meaningful to her as her career started in western Canada and that as a past Director on the CFDE board , she has been fortunate to have been able to work across Canada . She gracefully remembered some of her first years working with her customers in western Canada and how she progressed over the years. She has been with Pepsico Foods for 16 years now.
Cara also chose The Calgary Food Bank as her charity of choice.
Leanne Sears, current president of the CFDE ended the night thanking all for their presence, and closed the 20th Santa Cause/the 1st Virtual Santa Cause with Holiday Cheer.
2021 will be kicked of with AGM meeting on January 14th followed by a Lunch and Learn with Jamie Nelson on January 24th.
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