Fond remembrances of golden penguin awards, kick-off events, people in penguin suits and lasting friendships.

There were about 350 of us sitting bleary-eyed at sets of tables that morning, nursing coffees and waiting for the start of the seminar that would be a part of this March Frozen Food Month Kick-Off event in Hilton Head, S.C. Some of us had partied hard the night before, and nobody was moving very quickly.

Murray Lender, of Lender’s Bagels fame, was standing at the dais with a faintly perceptible grin that told us he had something — a penguin, a brass band, who knew what — up his sleeve.

Suddenly the doors at the front of the room burst open and before you could say “Peter Penguin,” a high school marching band stormed in, playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” They marched right between our tables, within inches of our noses, playing LOUDLY. Cymbals. Trombones. Drums. It was deafening. About 15 people in penguin suits paraded around the room in the middle of this pandemonium, while Murray stood to one side and appeared to be having the time of his life.

Mission Accomplished

The mission, he said later, had been accomplished. “Everybody’s going to be wide awake for the rest of the program,” he explained. That moment in 1997, part of the kick-off hosted by the Southeast Association of Frozen Food Councils, was for many of us the most memorable of any during the years of the kick-offs held in different cities nationwide.

Kick-Off events, of course, have been only a tiny part of Frozen Food Month which, amazing to relate, turns 25 this month. The annual event, the longest-running promotion in the food industry, is organized by the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association, Harrisburg, Pa. It’s been a terrific run, and from all indications it is well on its way to 25 more years.

Display contests throughout the country have helped stores promote their departments and provided critical mass to grow consumer interest. Since its start in 1984, dollar sales for March Frozen Food Month have been ahead 22 out of the past 24 years. Units posted gains in 14 of those years, and public awareness of the frozen food aisle as a meal destination has grown significantly. This year’s results are anybody’s guess, but there’s no denying the promotion’s solid impact on the frozen food industry.

In the past two years, NFRA has raised the event’s profile via tie-ins with the blockbuster movies, Ice Age: The Meltdown and Happy Feet. And this year, the association worked with 23 brands to drop a three-page FSI to more than 37 million homes featuring the new “Frozen Foods – Fresh Ideas. Great Taste.” logo/theme. In addition, a $10,000 Sweepstakes is hosted on EasyHomeMeals.com, where consumers can also find recipe ideas, interesting food facts, and food prep segments through streaming video. The online sweepstakes has generated more than four million entries since 2001.

Funny thing is, nobody ever expected the promotion to get so big or last so long. Sure, Lender loved to talk about “penguinizing America,” but even he didn’t figure Frozen Food Month would last more than ten years or so.

Roots in 1980

The roots of Frozen Food Month actually go back to March of 1980, when a promotion was held to celebrate the industry’s 50th anniversary. Lender chaired the celebration committee, and the first penguin was introduced and used as a symbol for frozen foods.

The event, in Springfield, Mass., was so successful that work began on a national program. Nevin Montgomery, now president of the NFRA, recalls that a core group of people began meeting, ultimately selecting the Golden Penguin design that is awarded to winners of Frozen Food Month competitions each year. A porcelain penguin was briefly considered, but the crystal “Golden Penguin” won hands down.

By the time the first annual March Frozen Food Month was launched in 1984, the core group included well-known industry luminaries such as John Rotelle, Frank Cassata, Bob Rich, Jr., Ron Lunde and Dave Burke.

The original committee established ground rules about who could win Golden Penguins, and how, Cassata recalls. “We agreed to include local associations by having a kick-off event in different markets,” he says. “The kick-off event would include an informative work session and then a luncheon or a dinner.”

Some local associations already existed, doing frozen food promotions in October. Soon more associations were formed in different parts of the country, and the event was planned for March — historically a slow time for frozen food sales.

The first kick-off event, in Washington, D.C., was a great success, with Los Angeles and New York also acting as hosts in the early years. (Cassata recalls that political speakers droned on forever in New York, before finally getting around to mentioning the proclamation honoring Frozen Food Month.)

The Frozen Food Month promotion itself often raised money for charities. When Cassata was with Food Associates, the brokerage was able to structure the promotion with its principals in a way that produced several hundred thousand dollars over the years for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Indy in 1992

When Indianapolis hosted the Kick-Off in 1992, Jerry Carter, then of the brokerage Dugan-Doss and now business development specialist for InnovAsian Cuisine, remembers “an opening reception at an ice rink on Pan Am Plaza with skating penguins and an evening meal on a dinner train that went 20 miles out of town and back.”

“The next day we had a workshop at the local zoo, where everyone got to see the penguins that were bought by the local association and donated to the zoo,” he says.

(We can’t help but recall that when Lender was inspecting the penguins up close and personal, one of them deposited “a present” on his shoes.)

That evening, Carter says, there was the Kick-Off dinner at the Indiana Roof Ballroom, “with all the movers and shakers in the industry in attendance.”

Host towns for the Kick-Offs tied in special interest locations to help draw the crowds, such as Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Seattle’s Boeing plant tour. (It was in Seattle that this writer was somehow left behind by a bus departing after a store tour, and rescued 15 minutes later after Larry Booth of Nancy’s Specialties noticed his absence — a fact that still earns Larry a beer every year.)

Booth also has a fun memory of the Kick-Off in San Francisco. “Murray (Lender) insisted that all the food for dinner that night be frozen. The chef at the Fairmont was furious — he didn’t want to do it. As you walked into the room that night, there was a huge replica of the Golden Gate Bridge and, true to Murray Lender, every piece of food served had been frozen.”

Naturally, Booth had his turn at wearing a penguin outfit, in San Francisco: “They asked me, so the next thing I know I’m running down the aisle shouting ‘The Penguins Are Coming!’ all the while hoping I wouldn’t fall flat on my face, because you really can’t see well in that outfit.”

Over the years, some of the smaller associations have disappeared, perhaps the victims of industry consolidation among brokers and retailers. But observers say Frozen Food Month remains as strong as ever, what with national FSI drops and activity on the internet to keep consumers involved.

Extended Family

Booth adds that the event has, over the years, built a special camaraderie among frozen food people from all over the country. For many, it’s become an extended family, with shared joys and sorrows.

Donnie Holbrook, who chaired that memorable Kick-Off event in Hilton Head, still gets a laugh out of remembering the marching band. Greviously wounded in an armed robbery two and a half years ago, he has bounced back enough after 14 months in the hospital to run his own company, Accelerated Sales & Marketing, in Newton, N.C. He misses his association involvement, and says to say hello to friends.

Murray Lender, beloved by the entire industry, has been slowed by a stroke. Old-timers find it hard to believe, but new members of the industry have no recollection of the energy, laughter and joy he brought with him everywhere.

But Murray’s legacy, and the legacy of many others, lives on as Frozen Food Month evolves and grows. Veteran broker Jack Gunn, now retired, still shows up at the NFRA conventions regularly, and is among many who holds industry friendships dear. “Who would have believed 25 years ago that this promotion would grow to be the largest and most successful promotion in the retail grocery industry, reaching millions of consumers each year and generating millions of dollars worth of frozen food sales nationally?” he asks. “What a success story!”