By Maggie Gioia | Marketing Coordinator

National Convenience Distributors’ 50-year-long partnership with Big Y Foods was strengthened this past week with a donation to Big Y’s mission to aid in the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts’s Capital Campaign of The Food Bank. The campaign is helping the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts to build a larger, more sustainable facility.

“Big Y Grocery Store“ by JeepersMedia is marked with CC BY 2.0.

NCD’s Chicopee Distribution Center, J. Polep, has grown alongside Big Y, as both organizations have deep roots in the Western Massachusetts area. Originally servicing their World Class Market — or supermarket chain — with their tobacco needs, NCD now supplies Big Y Express — their convenience store model.

“Big Y is an anchor of the Polep organization,” said Steven Peterson, NCD’s Executive Vice President of National Sales. “They are heavily involved in our community, and like Polep, they came from family, which is why we have had such a strong partnership with them for so long.”

Though NCD contributes annually to Big Y’s community and charity efforts, as well as the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, their most recent donation was a special addition made in hopes of giving back to positive, local initiatives.

“Jeff Polep has a personal and professional relationship with Big Y’s owners,” said Peterson. “They carry on the legacy of their fathers that also led Polep and Big Y. Jeff has been a leader in putting these donations together.”

For several generations, the NCD and Big Y families have shaped the wholesale marketplace together, and as the two organizations continue to expand, their partnership will forever follow suit.