The Southeast Produce Council received such positive feedback from its Produce Inspection Training course within the SEPC Virtual Garden in 2021 that it is returning for a second annual course offering. Conducted by International Produce Training through what has evolved into a 12-year partnership, Produce Inspection Training is a two-day course intended for quality control personnel, produce buyers, produce inventory control personnel and other company associates involved in the receiving, handling, buying and shipping of fresh produce.

The SEPC Virtual Garden team offers both sessions over

Square Roots, the technology leader in indoor farming, and Gordon Food Service, one of the largest food distributors in North America, today announced the opening of a new climate-controlled, indoor farm in Springfield, OH.

“Our partnership with Gordon Food Service, combined with our scalable smart-farm technology platform, means Square Roots is able to rapidly open a number of new indoor farms this year,” said Tobias Peggs, co-founder and CEO of Square Roots. “With this new facility in Springfield, we are now making locally grown food available, all year, to new consumers across Ohio, while

Kroger Health, the healthcare division of The Kroger Co., funded the University of Cincinnati to execute an independent clinical research study to learn how retailers, like Kroger, serve as an important healthcare destination by leveraging food and nutrition education to support the health and wellbeing of shoppers. The study, Supermarket and Web-based Intervention targeting Nutrition, was a groundbreaking, randomized controlled trial aimed at increasing diet quality and decreasing cardiovascular risk by promoting a heart-healthy diet through nutrition counseling provided by a registered

In partnership with customers, Food Lion Feeds is providing 1.6 million meals to feed food-insecure neighbors as a result of its annual orange bag campaign.

From March 2 to March 22, customers purchased specially marked Food Lion Feeds orange bags or made a cash donation at the register during checkout at Food Lion stores. Each bag sold helped provide five meals to the stores’ local Feeding America member food bank. The amount of meals provided to each local food bank was based on the number of eligible bagged oranges sold and cash donations received in each food bank’s service area.

“Food

DNO Produce, a leading fresh-cut produce processor and wholesale distributor, announced its new company name. Moving forward the company will be known as NO Produce.

"We're taking our brand in a different direction," said Marissa Dake, director of communications and public affairs. "Using three letters in our name felt a bit much. Shortening our name to NO Produce is easier to say. Plus, who doesn't recognize the word 'no'? It’s very common. We couldn’t think of a better day than the first day of April to announce our big change.”

 “We still have some opportunities to coach our team

BJ's Wholesale Club, a leading operator of membership warehouse clubs in the eastern United States, announced the chainwide rollout of Same-Day Select, a membership add-on to its same-day delivery service.

BJ’s Same-Day Select service is an upgrade option for BJ’s Wholesale Club members, allowing them to pay a one-time fee upfront for either unlimited or a set number of same-day grocery deliveries, delivered in as little as two hours. The chainwide launch follows the successful testing of the program over the last six months.

“We know convenience and value are key to our members, and with BJ