NCRMA is the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association, the trade organization representing member retailers in North Carolina. Unsure if your company is a member? Contact scholarships@ncrma.org with questions.
CFIC is the Carolinas Food Industry Council; it serves the retail and wholesale food industries in both North and South Carolina. The organization was formed in 2004 when the North Carolina Food Dealers Association (founded in 1927) and the North Carolina Retail Merchants Association (founded in 1902) merged and now serves more than 2,500 grocery locations in the Carolinas from its headquarters in Raleigh. Unsure if your company is a member? Contact scholarships@ncrma.org with questions.
- 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.
- November 16: Scholarship Application Opens
- March 19: Application Closes
- April – May: Scholarship Application Review
- June: Scholarship Award Notifications
- July – August: Scholarship Claiming and Payments
- 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.
All scholarship recipients are notified via email through the scholarship platform, AwardSpring.
