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Texas Food Council is a freestanding affiliate of the Texas Retailers Association. The premier group representing the supermarket and grocery store industry in Texas, the Texas Food Council is the successor organization to the Texas Food Marketing Association which merged into the Texas Retailers Association in 1984 and the Gulf Coast Retailers Association which merged into TRA in 2006.
The Texas Food Council meets on a quarterly basis. It elects its own chair and vice-chair and is comprised of representatives from both independent grocery stores to the largest supermarket chains and mass merchandisers. Companies comprising membership in the Texas Food Council include: Albertson’s, Appletree Markets, Arlan's, Baywood Foods, Blair’s, Brookshire Brothers, Brookshire Grocery, Cox Foodarama, CVS, El Ahorro, El Rancho, Fiesta Mart, Food King, Gerland’s, Grocers Supply, HEB, Jim’s Supermarket, Klein's, Kroger, Lewis Food Town, Market Basket, Minyards, Randall’s/Tom Thumb, Rice Epicurean, SaknSav, Target, Walgreen’s, Wal-Mart, United, Village Food and Ziegler’s.
Current Chairman of the Texas Food Council is Jack Gabriel from Brookshire Brothers Food & Pharmacy. Mr. Gabriel also serves on the Texas Retailers Association Board of Directors as an officer and member of the Executive Committee. The Executive Director of the Council is Joe Williams, who also serves as the Vice President of Regulatory and Member Services for the Texas Retailers Association. Joe is a past winner of FMI’s Don Mac Manus Award, was appointed by the Bush Administration to serve on the National Council of Maternal, Infant and Fetal Nutrition Council, and serves on FMI’s Government Relations Committee. Joe currently serves on the following committees within state government: Interagency Task Force on EBT, Attorney General’s Employer’s Task Force, Texas State Food Safety Task Force, and HHSC’s Medicaid Access Card Steering Committee. He is nationally known for his work on EBT and Organized Retail Theft.
Some of the many issues that the Texas Food Council are actively engaged and advocates for food retailers are:
- TABC Reform
- EBT
- New Hire Reporting and Wage Garnishment
- Country of Origin Labeling
- Tobacco Regulations and Enforcement
- Money Services
- Interchange Fees
- Legislative Issues
To request further information or to become a member of the Texas Food Council, contact Joe Williams at jwilliams@txretailers.org.
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