Golden Pencil award winners for 2021 revealed

The Food Industry Association of Canada has announced that Joey Longo, chief operating officer/chief development officer at Longo Brothers Fruit Markets, and Steve Fox, the recently retired chief customer officer at Nestlé Canada will be the recipients of the 2021 Golden Pencil Award, the grocery industry’s highest honour.

Presented since 1957, the prestigious Golden Pencil Award recognizes individuals who have made a significant and worthwhile contributions to improving the Canadian food industry as well as their communities. Both Longo and Fox will receive their awards at a ceremony in November.

Last year, the Golden Pencil Award went to Burnbrae Farm’s Margaret Hudson and Farm Boy’s Jean-Louis Bellemare and Jeff York.

Read: Get to know the 2020 Golden Pencil winners

In recent year’s other winners of the Golden Pencil Award have included Metro Inc.’s Christian Bourbonnière, Save-On-Foods’ Darrell Jones, former Sobeys exec Mary Dalimonte, Retail Council of Canada’s Diane J. Brisebois, former Fiera Foods exec Tom Gunter, Dairy Farmers of Ontario’s Cheryl Smith, former Nestlé Canada chief Shelley Martin and Tom Barlow, formerly of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers.