The Carolinas Food Industry Council (CFIC) is proud to offer employees of its member companies and their children the opportunity to apply to win a $2,500 college scholarship. Funded by the Council’s charitable foundation, the Retail Consumer Alliance (RCA), the Everett & Trudy Suddreth Scholarships of Excellence are awarded annually to a total of 40 students.
The application window is currently closed. Check back in the fall for the next application cycle.
Grocery Industry-Only (CFIC)
The Carolinas Food Industry Council will award 40 scholarships of $2,500 to students living in North or South Carolina who are employed by or whose spouse or parent is employed by a CFIC member grocery store.
Non-Grocery Retailers (NCRMA)
The North Carolina Retail Merchants Association will award 12 $2,500 scholarships to students who are North Carolina residents and are employed by or whose spouse or parent is employed by a non-grocer NCRMA member store.
- For both NCRMA and CFIC, applicants must be full time undergraduate students at a nationally accredited institution.
- Any applicant whose parent/spouse-employee has been employed full time by a CFIC or NCRMA member company for at least one year as of March 19, 2027.
- Any student-employee who has been employed by a CFIC or NCRMA member company for at least six months as of March 19, 2027.
- The employee, whether a parent, spouse, or student, must be employed with an CFIC member company and live in North or South Carolina at the time the winners are selected; those employed by an NCRMA member company must live in North Carolina. Qualified scholarship recipients may attend a college located in any state.
- In addition to filling out the application information, an official current transcript is required for the application to be complete.
- For High School Seniors, a link should be sent through the application portal to your counselor.
- For current undergraduates, official transcripts can be uploaded directly to the portal, emailed to scholarships@ncrma.org, or mailed to NCRMA Scholarships. Current college students: please be aware of where you are sending your official transcript; if you upload an order confirmation but send it to yourself and don’t go back in and upload the transcript we will not get it!
A good rule of thumb is grocers are CFIC and others are NCRMA. For additional company questions and clarifications, contact scholarships@ncrma.org.
NCRMA and CFIC scholarships are not renewable, however we recommend applying as long as you meet the criteria.
For CFIC, the employee’s store must be located in North Carolina or South Carolina.
For NCRMA, the employee’s store must be located in North Carolina.
- November 15: Scholarship Application Opens
- March 19: Application Closes
- April – May: Scholarship Application Review
- June: Scholarship Award Notifications
- July – August: Scholarship Claiming and Payments
All scholarship recipients are notified via email through the scholarship platform, AwardSpring.
