The Kroger Co. family of stores will be firing up grills in parking lots across the country to reignite customers' passion for summer grilling during the first-of-its-kind Kroger Red, White and Barbecue event in local stores.

Customers can take in the aroma and sample the spicy smokiness of Western Chipotle Roasted Chicken Pizza or relish the savory crunch of North Carolina Piedmont Slaw during the two-week event beginning later this week. This ultimate food event will bring recipes from across the country to each local store, with cooking demonstrations and samples that will bring those recipes to life.

Customers can visit www.kroger.com/bbqtime to find grilling tips and view regionally-inspired recipes. They can also enter to win one of several Ultimate Grill Packages by sharing a photo of their summertime celebration on Twitter or Instagram and tagging their Kroger family of stores banner or on Facebook using #redwhitebbq.

"With regionally-inspired flavors and recipes from across the country, our stores hope to help answer the question 'what's for dinner?' This is a great way to start the grilling season across America," said Mike Donnelly, Kroger's senior vice president of merchandising. "We'll introduce our customers in the Pacific Northwest to some of the regional recipes from the Deep South, like Memphis-style Grilled Ribs, and our customers here in the Mid-West to grilling Pacific Northwest Salmon topped with fresh mango salsa. We'll even demonstrate how to grill a pizza Southern California-style!"

Kroger will also be partnering with the USO to take a summer barbecue experience to troops stationed throughout the United States and beyond. As a thank you for their service, Kroger will be serving a gourmet burger and brat bar as well as Coca-Cola products to troops and their families stationed at nearly a dozen bases here in the U.S. Kroger will also send barbecue "fixins" to three international bases for our deployed troops to enjoy overseas.