Central Florida families gathered Oct. 4 for a free event, hosted by Produce for Kids and Publix, at the Orlando Publix Aprons Cooking School to kick off the third annual Healthy Families, Helping Kids campaign.

Publix resident chef, Anthony LoGerfo, guided families in the assembly of their own "healthy caterpillars" made with fresh fruits and veggies. The Very Hungry Caterpillar was on hand for a meet and greet with families.

Tom Stenzel, United Fresh Produce Association president and chief executive officer, announced several staff promotions that will create strong team alignment to enhance service to its members.

Houweling’s Tomatoes has hired long-time produce industry executive Kevin Doran to the newly created role of chief operating officer. Doran brings over 20 years of strategic sales and marketing executive mangement experience. 

The Peruvian Asparagus Importers Association will participate at PMA Fresh Summit in Anaheim, CA, Oct. 17-19. Many of the PAIA importers will host booths at Fresh Summit to display a wide variety of new presentations, including value-added packaging.

Deardorff Family Farms, based in Oxnard, CA, recently hired Tyler Clear to work alongside Luke Patruno in organic sales.

“Our focus for the past two years was on building programs that ensure Deardorff Organics has the highest quality organic vegetables every day,” Patruno said in a press release. “With that now in place, we are scaling our programs to meet our customers’ demand for additional supplies of Deardorff Organics.”

The Atlanta State Farmers Market is perfectly positioned to serve Southeastern states from the center of the South. The Nickey Gregory Co. is headquartered there for that exact reason.