Land O'Lakes "Foss & Swift" Custom Awards

These recognition awards are named after Ida Foss and George Swift, who came up with the name “Land O’Lakes”. Land O’Lakes was formed in 1921 as the Minnesota Cooperative Creameries Association. The association pioneered a new way of making packaged butter. Prior to this, butter was made from sour cream and packaged in tubs. The cooperative began making butter from fresh, sweet cream, and packaged it in pound packages of individually wrapped sticks.

To help market this new butter product, the cooperative sponsored a contest in 1924 to come up with a new brand name for the butter. The prize for the winning submission was $500 in gold, in recognition of the gold color of the butter. The cooperative received almost 100,000 entries. The winning entry, “Land O’Lakes”, was submitted by two people, Ida Foss and George Swift. The name paid homage to Minnesota’s thousands of sparkling lakes.

The custom awards design created by Bennett Awards leveraged this brand history. This unique awards design features three tiers. The top tier is a representation of a gold ingot (cast in gold-plated pewter), in recognition of the gold prize for the winning entry. The middle tier is a black marble rectangle, in recognition of the revolutionary new packaging for butter. The black marble is engraved with the Land O’Lakes name, logo (the famous Indian maiden), and the name of the recognition award. The bottom tier is a hand-crafted hardwood base.