Illiana Watermelon Queen Emily Mae Brown (center) was chosen as the 2015 National Watermelon Queen Feb. 19 at the National Watermelon Association Convention in La Quinta, CA.

IFCO announced its support for the Growing Forward with Feeding America campaign, which launched at the beginning of the year. Growing Forward is a year-round cause marketing campaign committed to help end hunger in America through donations of fresh fruits and vegetables to local Feeding America food banks nationwide. This cause is particularly important to IFCO, which supports food banks around the world through ongoing donations of reusable plastic containers, as well as financial support.

Food Safety Net Services, based in San Antonio, TX, announced the appointment of Mark Griffin as vice president of sales and marketing on Feb. 12.

“St. Patrick’s Day cabbage movement is not just the next big thing, it’s the biggest cabbage thing of the year,” Calvert Cullen, president of Northampton Growers, headquartered in Cheriton, VA, told The Produce News on Feb. 5. “Our fields are overflowing with an outstanding — supply in both quality and volume — of round head green cabbage. We’re prepped and ready to start shipping on Feb.

There is an adage that if you are not moving forward you are going backward, and that certainly seems to be the philosophy of Watsonville, CA-based Pacific AgPak, the trade name of Pacific Agricultural Packaging.

“Every year we try to come up with something new and different to help the growers and the retailers,” said Dave Baum, president and owner of the 25-year-old firm.

California Giant Berry Farms in Watsonville, CA, was one of the early adopters of using social media as a marketing tool. The company has learned much over the past several years and continues to hone its efforts and experience.

“We are pretty strong in connecting with the consumer through social media,” said Cindy Jewell, the company’s vice president of marketing. “We are talking directly to our brand loyalists and trying to turn them into brand evangelists.”