Bonduelle Fresh Americas, home of Ready Pac Bistro, is now a Certified B Corporation, leading the fresh salad produce industry in the global movement for an inclusive, equitable and regenerative economy. Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. The achievement marks a major milestone in the company’s long-term vision to reshape the world’s food system for the health of the planet and the well-being of people.

Food Lion Feeds, in partnership with its customers, helped provide 5.4 million meals to help nourish neighbors through its annual Holidays Without Hunger campaign. The initiative benefits Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, and its 33 local Feeding America member food banks as well as hundreds of partner feeding agencies throughout Food Lion’s 10-state operating area. Food Lion Feeds was founded in 2014 by Food Lion to address food insecurity in the towns and cities it serves.

US Foods Holding Corp. donated nearly $13 million in food and supplies, the equivalent of approximately 6 million meals or more than 265 truckloads of product, through its 2022 annual corporate hunger-relief campaigns. Since 2007, the company has donated more than 165 million pounds of food and supplies to aid community hunger-relief efforts.

AppHarvest has entered an agreement with Mastronardi Berea LLC, a joint venture between Mastronardi Produce and COFRA Holding, for the sale-leaseback of its Berea, KY, high-tech indoor farm for leafy greens for approximately $127 million with an initial lease rate of 7.5 percent over 10 years, with four renewal terms of five years each.

While pockets of the nation were devastated by the late December cold front that enveloped much of the country and dipped into Mexico, it does not appear to have delivered a big blow to the supply-demand curve in terms of the fresh produce industry. At least that was the view from various industry members around the country.

Brighter Bites is partnering with Sunkist to help improve the health of students and families in the Bakersfield, CA, area.

Bakersfield serves as Brighter Bites’ third location in California, following Salinas (2021) and Los Angeles (2022). In early December Sunkist began providing monthly donations of citrus to the Brighter Bites Bakersfield locations, helping to provide families with weekly access to fresh produce at no cost.