WASHINGTON — United Fresh Produce Association Chief Executive Tom Stenzel said a new poll that shows parents overwhelmingly support new school meal standards that require more fruits and vegetables shows it's not time to roll back the standards in the nation's schools.

Some 500 produce representatives are in Washington, DC, this week for the group's annual Washington Conference, and school nutrition standards are on the agenda during a session, "Why fighting for Healthier School Meals is So Important."

RedLine Solutions, a leader in produce traceability and inventory solutions, introduced RedLine Transporter, a data integration tool intended to eliminate the data silos common in many produce industry applications.

“RedLine Transporter solves a common customer complaint: Data from the assorted applications used is consistently stuck in a 'data silo,'" Todd Baggett, chief executive officer of RedLine Solutions, said in a press release. "The data gathered isn’t easily shared from one application to the next and, more important, isn’t easily transported from supplier to vendor."

On Friday night, Sept. 5, members of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council met at Camp di Bocce in Livermore, CA, for a bit of camaraderie and competition. 

The networking event drew a crowd of about four score to spend the evening learning the finer points of bocce ball as well as some of the wine grown in the nearby vineyards surrounding the venue. Teams of four tried to play by the rules, or made up their own as the night wore on.

Driscoll’s, a leader in fresh berries, has awarded a $10,000 grant to Whole Kids Foundation as part of its school garden grant program. This grant will support five new edible school gardens, which help foster healthy relationships between students and their food.

Mi Pueblo Foods, the San Jose, CA-based family-grown Hispanic grocery chain, announced that effective immediately industry veteran Martin Cortes will oversee the company’s financial and accounting operations, risk management and technology as its chief financial officer.

On Aug. 19, Tom Sheppard, president of Eastern Fresh Growers Inc., in Cedarville, NJ, told The Produce News that some areas of New Jersey had rough weather during the fall growing season, but that the company was spared nearly all of it.