Food Lion founder gives leadership gift for 95th birthday

Lessons in Leadership is the name of a new documentary film profiling the life and contributions of Food Lion co-founder Ralph Ketner who turned 95 this month.



Food Lion and Catawba College, based in the grocer’s hometown of Salisbury, North Carolina, produced the film which chronicles the life and business lessons of Ketner. Plans call for the film to be distributed in both digital and physical formats to North Carolina high schools. The film features stories and advice from those who Ketner touched throughout his long-tenured career, from leaders in the Salisbury community to family members and colleagues. To help schools use the leadership lessons from Ketner, Catawba College collaborated with Rowan-Salisbury Schools' educators to create five lesson plans that enable students to take the concepts featured in the video and apply them in a practical way in a classroom setting.



"For more than 50 years, Food Lion has been an important part of the City of Salisbury's history and all of this was made possible by our company's founders, including Mr. Ketner," said Meg Ham, president of Food Lion. "When approached by Catawba College about this opportunity to preserve the rich heritage of Mr. Ketner's impact on this community, from the founding of Food Lion to his pro bono work with Catawba, we couldn't think of a better way to honor our founder and all he has given to us. We were honored to underwrite this video to preserve the history and lessons Mr. Ketner has taught all of us as part of his vision to build a company with the focus on always taking care of the customer, having the lowest prices in North Carolina and being a good corporate citizen, which are all strong pillars of our business today."



Catawba College president Brien Lewis said the video resource and accompanying five lesson plans will help inspire a future generation of entrepreneurs who will dream a big idea and work diligently to make that idea a reality.