Dear Fellow IFMA Members:
I have had the remarkable honor to
serve as IFMA’s board chair for two years. And what years they
have been! Navigating a post-pandemic business landscape turned
out to be an ideal time for IFMA to reevaluate our mission and
goals. We began to review our purpose and relevance in 2022, and
last month we announced our results.
IFMA has a new long-range plan – Level Up 2027. Early work to achieve
the plan includes revisions to our vision, mission, and purpose
statements to ensure that we provide leadership to the expanded
ecosystem of our industry. Next year, the evolution of IFMA will
become even more apparent as we expand our membership roster and
build additional cross-industry initiatives.
If you
haven’t reviewed Level Up 2027, I encourage you to take a few
minutes and read it.
Review
the Level Up 2027 plan now >>
2023 also saw us add 47 new member companies! We’re
grateful to know that our membership is valued, and we intend to
continue to enhance our benefits to serve businesses of varying
sizes and needs across all of food-away-from-home.
In other achievements:
- Connectivity Events – IFMA’s event schedule
included COEX, the Gold
& Silver Plate
Weekend, a Virtual Marketing & Sales
Conference, and our Presidents Conference.
Through these events, we hosted manufacturers,
operators, distributors, and others from across our
industry ecosystem. Overall, we welcomed more than 3,000
attendees, with registration noticeably higher than 2022
totals.
- Education & Webinars – IFMA hosted 29
webinars this year with a combined 6,300+ registrants.
We continue to offer our popular Foodservice
Fundamentals course both digitally and in-person and
have customized the in-person course for teams at
several companies.
- The Foodservice Leadership Councils – The
five councils are made up of more than 150 operators.
They represent the major segments of foodservice:
Elementary & Secondary Schools, College &
University, Business & Industry, Healthcare, and
Restaurants. FLCs provided integral thought leadership
throughout the year, including to our long-range plan
and IFMA’s annual forecast. They also spent the year
creating useful and substantive guidebooks that provide
best practices for working with their segments. The
guidebooks are being offered to IFMA members as benefits
of membership. Learn more about the
guidebooks >>
We are heading into 2024 with an optimism and energy that you will
experience through your IFMA membership. This organization has
big plans, and we are honored that you are with us as we move to
implement a new membership structure, new branding, and
enhancements to our benefits and services.
I am
very pleased to be passing the torch of Board Chair to
Custom Culinary President, Ben Wexler next
month. Ben has provided invaluable service in
building out the new direction for IFMA and I will be honored to
support his leadership as we move to implement those efforts.
Thank you for your continuing membership and for the
opportunity to serve.
Happy Holidays to all! I wish you
a wonderful and prosperous New Year!
Herb Ring
Chair, IFMA Board of Directors
National Foodservice Director, The
Hershey Company