P Program
Holiday Meal Program
A high-visibility national holiday food program designed to help make the holiday meal affordable and accessible for families across more than 4,000 U.S. stores. As the Supply Chain & Transportation Program Manager supporting Core Meal Train, I coordinated supplier readiness, distribution planning, replenishment, transportation, and cross-functional execution across 25+ suppliers. The program supported a customer value proposition of providing a holiday meal for approximately $35 for 10 people.
Type
Program
Core Competency
Program Management
98%
in-stock performance
4,000+
U.S. stores supported
25+
suppliers coordinated
~$35
holiday meal for ~10 people
12+ weeks
planning and sustained execution
Program Impact
“98% in-stock across 4,000+ stores while supporting YoY sales growth and an affordable holiday meal for families nationwide.”
Context or Challenge
Prior-year execution included in-stock gaps and unresolved supplier errors heading into peak season. For a highly visible customer-facing program, those issues put availability and the affordable meal promise at risk.
Observation
Many failures appeared during execution but originated much earlier in supplier readiness, data alignment, ownership, and escalation.
Insight
Protecting peak availability meant managing the full operational ecosystem: establish readiness early, smooth volume through the network, align distribution and transportation plans, and resolve risks before they reached stores.
My Thinking
I focused the team on supplier readiness, volume smoothing, transportation planning, distribution alignment, and clear cross-functional ownership. Recurring reviews made risks visible early and created a shared path for escalation and action.
What I Built or Led
As the Supply Chain & Transportation Program Manager supporting Core Meal Train, I coordinated readiness across 25+ suppliers and aligned replenishment, distribution, transportation, and operations teams. The cadence below shows how program governance carried the work from early planning through sustained execution.
Why This Program Matters
This is one of the enterprise's largest seasonal initiatives on the transportation and supply chain side. First launched in 2022, the program has grown by roughly 42% in program sales year over year, and has been featured in national retail press each year as one of the company's most visible commitments to holiday value and abundance for millions of families.
That visibility raises the stakes on execution. A program at this scale cannot absorb the kind of availability gaps that affected earlier years, which is why it runs on a hyper-focused, cross-network cadence spanning forecasting, merchandising, replenishment, grocery and regional distribution operations, private trucking and fleet procurement, and supplier performance partners.
Featured Capability: Hyper-Focused Cross-Functional Cadence
- Runs early, multi-week program planning and milestone governance similar to other large seasonal launches, then shifts into a hyper-focused execution cadence partnering with Data Science Outbound Forecasting as ship dates approach
- Smooths order flow into both grocery distribution centers and regional distribution centers, rather than letting volume land unevenly across the network
- Partners directly with corporate distribution center operators on a week-specific holding strategy, confirming dry-grocery and inventory-holding constraints before volume is committed
- Builds a warehouse-to-store outbound trailer plan, then closes the loop with store-level operators so every location knows exactly how many deliveries are arriving and when
- Coordinates a wide cross-functional network -- forecasting, merchandising, replenishment, grocery and regional distribution operations, private trucking and fleet procurement, supply chain execution managers, and supplier performance partners -- to protect a program serving millions of families nationwide
Readiness & Delivery Cadence
In generalized terms, the program starts with the same kind of multi-week planning and milestone governance used on other large seasonal launches. As ship dates approach, the focus narrows: orders are smoothed into the distribution network, a holding strategy is confirmed with corporate operators, an outbound trailer plan is built with Data Science and private fleet partners, and every store is told exactly how many deliveries to expect and when.
Launch or Adoption Strategy
I established a shared operating rhythm with milestones, supplier follow-up, risk reviews, readiness updates, and clear escalation ownership. That governance helped teams respond to issues while there was still time to protect store availability.
Business Impact
- Reached 98% in-stock performance across 4,000+ U.S. stores
- Coordinated readiness across 25+ suppliers and sustained execution for 12+ weeks
- Supported the operational conditions behind roughly 42% year-over-year program sales growth
- Helped advance the affordable holiday meal offer: approximately $35 to serve 10 people
Customer Impact
Behind the transportation and operational complexity was a simple customer promise: help ensure families could find an affordable holiday meal when they needed it. The program connected value, availability, and execution, turning months of behind-the-scenes supply-chain planning into a tangible customer experience across thousands of stores.
Capabilities Demonstrated
- Program governance
- Supplier enablement
- Launch readiness
- Food retail
- Stakeholder alignment
- Issue resolution
- Peak-season execution
- Outbound transportation planning
- Cross-network inventory coordination