IGA, 75 VENDORS SET SPECIAL OLYMPICS TASK

RICHARD TURCSIK

CHICAGO -- IGA here is working with 75 different manufacturers to feed the participants in this summer's international Special Olympics.

The daunting task involves preparing and distributing more than 270,000 meals. The Special Olympics will be held July 1 to 10 at Yale University and four other schools in New Haven, Conn.

"The dietitians at Yale will be planning the meals. I've read the menus, and I'm not sure all of those schools have such good meals day in and day out for their students," Dr. Thomas S. Haggai, chairman and chief executive officer of IGA told SN. He added that IGA is the exclusive supermarket sponsor of the Special Olympics.

"We will also have a lot of snacks for the kids at our Food Pavilion, which is in addition to the meals. Some of the items in the meals will be cooked from scratch, and some will be prepared," he explained.

Supplying the food for the athletes will cost IGA and its partners more than $1 million.

"We have contributed cash and they have contributed products," he said.

However, Haggai said IGA will not be soliciting donations from its shoppers to defray the cost.

"In the stores we will do displays, and the manufacturers have some promotions that they are doing, but it is not a cash register thing at all. We do not feel that we should do a cash register canister promotion. In this case we felt that we should be responsible, and so should our manufacturing friends," Haggai said.

Haggai said this is IGA's fourth time supporting the international games, which are held every four years. Additionally, every year IGA supports the domestic local Special Olympics activities.

Because the Special Olympics games are being held in Connecticut this year, IGA has decided to honor Adam Bozzuto, chairman of Bozzuto's, a voluntary wholesaler based in Cheshire, Conn., that supplies approximately 80 IGA stores. The 1995 Special Olympics will be dedicated to Bozzuto, 78, a member of the IGA board.