ORLANDO, FL – Produce for Kids® is calling on pledges from parents for its Power Your Lunchbox Pledge drive in order to encourage families to pack healthier lunches for the coming back-to-school season. From August 11th to September 15th, parents can log onto the promotion's website, to make their family's pledge as well as to check out some great meal ideas, preparation tips, and coupons from participating retailers and growers.

“With so much in the news today about what kids are eating during lunch at school, we’re excited to be partnering with other like-minded companies to encourage parents to pack healthier lunchboxes this school year,” said Trish James, Vice President, Produce for Kids. “In addition, we’re able to raise funds to educate kids in the classroom about making healthier food choices and the importance of nutrition and exercise.”

Those funds come in the form of 25 cent donations to the charity DonorsChoose.org for every person who submits a pledge during the course of the promotion. In addition Define Bottle, one of Produce For Kid's partners in this process, will be donating 20% of each sale they make during the promotion window. According to a press release, AMC Direct South African Summer Citrus, GROW by Organics Unlimited, Laptop Lunches® Bento-ware and Pero Family Farms® are also supporting Produce for Kids in this effort.

Produce for Kids will also be working with schools to upload health and nutrition-based classroom projects for students to work on and learn from.

For those wanting to get more involved, Produce for Kids will be using the #PowerYourLunchbox hashtag to allow parents to show off their lunchbox creations online, all the while entering into weekly contests. According to a press release, prizes include bento boxes, fruit-infusing water bottles, grocery store gift cards and much more. Finally on August 20th at 9pm, Produce for Kids will be hosting a Twitter Party and giveaway day, giving participants even more opportunities to hit it big.

Produce For Kids

Donors Choose

DOVER, UK – Last week, Border Force officers seized approximately 40 kilos of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment on a cargo ship in Dover.

Kent News reports that officers from Border Force’s Felixstowe-based National Deep Rummage Team searched the MV Esmeralda and discovered the drugs in the hold. 

Paul Morgan, Director of Border Force South East and Europe said, “This seizure has prevented a large amount of cocaine from reaching the streets of Europe.  Border Force officers use a variety of methods and technology to prevent class A drugs entering the UK, and their expertise is regularly demonstrated by seizures like this.”

The ship was en route to Rotterdam from South America and was loaded with bananas.  Kent News reports that no arrests were made, and the ship was allowed to continue its journey after the drugs were removed.

“Working with the NCA and other agencies we are determined to bring to justice those involved in this illicit trade – from the individual smugglers up to the organized criminals at the top of the tree,” Morgan added.

The drugs would have had a potential value of millions of pounds on the street.

SHERMAN OAKS, CA – Sunkist Growers is working with the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) and Sesame Workshop’s ‘eat brighter!’ initiative.

The program will use the influence of Sesame Street brand and characters to promote fruit and vegetable consumption among children aged 2 to 5 and their parents and caregivers.

“Sesame Street is a brand parents trust and kids love, and we’re excited to be leveraging the power of the beloved characters to encourage families to eat more fresh citrus,” said Sunkist Advertising & PR Manager Joan Wickham. “Full of antioxidants and essential nutrients, citrus is part of the super food family – making it a sweet treat that kids love and parents can feel good about.”

The ‘eat brighter!’ program plans to raise awareness of the importance of healthy eating.  Sunkist, a founding member of PMA, is developing themed packaging, advertising, social media content and customizable programs for retailers for the citrus cooperative’s 2014-15 season, according to a press release.

“Childhood obesity is a critical issue for our country and fighting this epidemic requires strong partnerships with creativity and vision,” said Sunkist Vice President of Sales & Marketing Kevin Fiori. “We are proud to be a supporting partner to PMA and Sesame Workshop in the ‘eat brighter!’ movement to help kids and families across North America eat more fruits and vegetables.”

This collaboration was created by the Partnership for a Healthier America and works with the private sector and PHA Honorary Chair First Lady Michelle Obama.

Sunkist Growers

PMA

Pure Flavor has six new proprietary snack tomato varieties for its retailers which it is confident customers are going to simply love. These six new offerings are:

• 3: Bumbles®, Juno Bites® , Oriana®

• Azuca® Cherry Tomato

• Bumbles® Yellow Grape Tomatoes

• Juno Bites® Snacking Tomatoes

• Oriana® Orange Grape Tomato

• Sangria® Mix

Pure Flavor Key Account Manager Ken Paglione tells ANUK that all these new varieties will be available in Pure Flavor's new custom oval clamshell packages utilized for their stackability and ability to be displayed on their side without damaging or unbalancing the product.

The snack tomato varieties will come with accompanying recipe cards as well as Pure Flavor Shipper displays for retailing partners to make use of it their stores.

For more information on these great new snack tomato varieties, check out our Pure Flavor Shop Talk at the top of this page.  

Pure Flavor

IOWA CITY, IA - Lucky's Market is expanding again, announcing plans to open five new locations over the coming year. Bloomington, ID; Ann Arbor, MI; Rock Hill, MO; Jackson Hole, WY; and Iowa City, IA will be the latest homes to this Boulder, CO-based organic and natural foods grocery chain.

Ben Friedland, Creative Manager for Lucky's Market, shared with the Iowa City Press-Citizen that Lucky's goal was to bring its mantra of “good food for all” to a wider audience of American consumers.

"We want to be able to bring it more to the masses, and sometimes there is this perception out there that natural and organic food cannot be affordable, so we are out there to kind of change that perception to let people know it can be affordable," he said. "We're not just about being in a community, but being a part of a community and local is one way we can do that.”

The announcement is already being greeted with excitement from these local communities.

"I am excited because I love their concept. I have visited many of their stores, They are great people to work with. They have great products, and it's just a perfect fit for Iowa City," said Iowa City Marketplace Vice President John Arlotti.

Friedland also shared that 90% of the products sold at the new Iowa City location will be all natural and organic, keeping with Lucky's Market's vision of being a leading local provider of healthy, natural foods, according to Iowa City Press-Citizen.

AndNowUKnow is in the fortunate place to be able to speak at a personal level about Lucky's Market and the quality of the vision it brings to the retail game. Lucky's will be one of our featured stories in the latest edition of our print publication “The Snack” and ANUK reporters have spoken at length with members of its executive team on the vision and goals of this expanding company. When Ben talks about wanting to be “part of a community,” we here at ANUK know those are words spoken from the heart.  

Lucky's Market

NEW YORK, NY - Urban Produce is helping to take growing technology to the next level with its first, High Density Vertical Growing (HDVG) System. This patented system will go online August 1st and will provide a growing atmosphere for both live and cut produce, including 28 varieties of microgreens as well as a variety of different basil, bok choy, wheatgrass, strawberries, mint and herbs from major retailers, food services and culinary chiefs.

“We believe in bringing the best nutrient dense, fresh produce we can, directly into urban cities.  Our goal is to expand our footprint and build 50 new facilities in the next 3 to 4 years,”  Danielle Horton, Director of Marketing, tells AndNowUKnow. “Providing access to locally grown, fresh produce in the heart of a city can help increase consumption and availability in a very unique setting.” 

The Urban Produce High Density Vertical Growing System has been developed as a sustainable alternative to traditional agriculture, utilizing advanced hydroponic technologies in a controlled environment.   The patented technology takes the best of hydroponics and increases the yield by stacking produce vertically, in a closed, completely automated environment. 

“Our patented growing technology allows us to grow the equivalent of 16 acres of produce on just a 1/8 acre footprint, all while reducing water usage by 90% as compared to traditional row farming.  Imagine the tremendous short-term benefit to locally grown, organic produce using less water while reducing our carbon footprint and bringing jobs to local communities.  Now, imagine that 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year...the long-term benefits are absolutely incredible.   We are very excited with the opportunities that lay ahead of Urban Produce as we look to expand into urban cities all over the U.S., and Canada,” said Ed Horton in a press release.

“The HDVG system is completely automated and ensures that the plant gets exactly the right amount of water and nutrients required with no runoff or excess,” Danielle tells me.

Urban Produce is a 21st century growing system producing locally grown, organic, sustainable produce while employing local communities and reducing their carbon footprint.

Look for one of these impressive structures in the near future as Urban Produce takes their initiative to Urban areas near you.

Urban Produce

GATTON, KY - No shopper likes a bruised avocado, but according to Professor Daryl Joyce from the University of Queensland in Gatton, the chief cause of this unslightly occurance are consumers themselves. It's common practice for many consumers to squeeze an avocado before purchasing it as a way to test how ripe it is. It is this very practice that is doing so much damage to countless fruits at the retail aisle.

Bruising is a big problem for retailers because not only does bruising lead to higher rates of disease, but avocado eaters are unique in that shopping data quoted on ABC reveals that customers who purchase an avocado but have a bad experience will generally refuse to purchase additional avocados for up to two weeks. It's easy to see how a few bad experiences could really eat into a retailer's profits during peak avocado season.

"We were able to rule out everything up to the point of the ripening process," Joyce explained. "We placed an instrumented sphere (a small device the size of a cricket ball with sensors inside) into the middle of a fruit tray to record the bumps and thumps all the way through."

With this and a $25,000 glove laced with pressure sensors that identify exactly how customers distributed pressure on the avocado when examining it, the researchers found that it is the customer and not the distributor that does the most damage to the avocado before it is sold.

“We don't like to use the word 'blame'," Professor Joyce laughed. "People tend to squeeze a couple of fruit in deciding which one they want. Then they put the other ones back.”

With each squeeze, Joyce explains that a little bit more damage is done to the product. This adds up over time.

"That was interesting, and exciting, and it became quite clear we need to teach people how to handle softening avocado fruit,” he said.

How do you fix this problem? Joyce has a couple ideas in mind.

He thinks that the best solution so far would be to set up “decision-aid tools” in retail aisles which customers could use without needing to squeeze, and damage, the fruit.

“...we'll try and make some kind of tool that'll allow people to get a feel for the fruit when shopping, but not to squeeze the fruit anymore," he shared. “A very simple device connected to lights that that will tell you whether it's ready to eat."

The design is already there. Joyce says that a simplified, and much cheaper, version of the glove his team used for the experiment could do the job nicely.

One way or another, retailers will need to come up with a solution to this problem if they want to maintain a plethora of avocados on their shelves that are “worth the squeeze,” as the saying goes.   

NANJING, CHINA - They say that sex sells, but one fruit vendor in China might have taken that phrase a bit too far. Just one warning – don’t let your boss catch you looking at these peaches at work! They look a bit cheeky (no pun intended), if you ask me…

A fruit vendor in Nanjing, China is selling these peaches to celebrate the arrival of the Qixi Festival tomorrow, or essentially the Chinese version of Valentine’s Day. Be warned though, these peaches don’t come cheap! One box of nine will set you back 498 yuan, or $80 U.S., according to Kotaku. I know the term “produce lover” gets tossed around a lot, but this is just too literal.

The peaches come from Yangshan in Wuxi, an area known for its lingerie and garment industry, and the vendor slips on each garment by hand. Imagine reading that job description. Where do people sign up?!

The vendor’s profit margins must be skyrocketing by now because apparently other vendors in China have started taking a similar approach to selling peaches. According to Kotaku, the fruit vendor reportedly filed for a “panty peach” patent a month ago and is now filing for infringement with the intellectual property bureau. You might want to be careful about how you sexualize your produce…

Who’s the target audience for these sexy peaches? Secondly… how can I get my own box? And finally, what's next -  two watermelons in a bra?

Washington D.C. - IFCO's Youth Produce Ambassador Kid Chef Eliana was at United Fresh this year to share with conference attendees both her culinary creations as well as her message about the importance of families cooking together.

“I'm trying to encourage kids to get in the kitchen and cook and especially kids and families to cook together and eat healthier and that's what I'm doing with IFCO and then when you're going grocery shopping and you see all these IFCO RPC's it just showcases all these fresh fruits and veggies...” Eliana told ANUK.

Her's is a message that America's growers will want to support. Kids who can cook are much more likely after all to grow into the type of adults that frequent farmer's markets and the fresh produce sections of grocery stores rather than the menu's of McDonalds or Taco Bell for inspiration for their evening meals rather.

Good cooks make good shoppers and as you can see in ANUK's above Shop Talk exclusive with Eliana, that's exactly the type of consumer she's helping to create.  

IFCO

United Fresh

DUBLIN, VA – Red Sun Farms is making a big move in America by planting nearly 30,000 hydroponic tomato plants in a new high-tech greenhouse in Dublin, Virginia.

WDBJ7 reports that the greenhouse has nearly one million square feet of glass covering almost 20 acres of tomatoes.

John Secker, Red Sun Farm’s Master Grower, is working with a small crew to do the planting by hand.  “Fifteen thousand today and fifteen thousand tomorrow,” he said to WDBJ7.

“It’s very technical.  All the systems here are automated other than the plant care, that has to be done with people,” Secker added.  “But all my irrigation, heating, ventilation we’ll have energy screens in the winter, tried to reduce our energy costs.  That’s all automated.”

According to Red Sun, the tomato plants will supply customers in Virginia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

“I think what makes this so different is that you don’t typically see a high-tech greenhouse in the Mid-Atlantic states.  It can be very hot, high humidity area.  But the New River Valley is really unique in its growing climate,” Jay Abbot, Director of Operations for Red Sun Farms, told WDBJ7.

Red Sun signed an agreement with several local governments, town, cities and counties that it will hire up to 205 full-time workers.  The company currently has less than 10 Latin American workers on the property to show the new local employees how to start the process.

In response to a question about genetically modified foods, Abbott added, “Beyond being certified organic, (Red Sun Farms) will also be certified for the entire greenhouse as a non-GMO greenhouse.  We as a company do not use GMO seed.”

The first harvest should be ready around October of this year.

Red Sun Farms