In need of a smile or a chuckle? Who isn’t? Now you can have one delivered daily to your inbox from HooplaHa — Life with a Smile [hooplaha.com], whose mission is just that. It is a digital platform with a web hub and it publishes upbeat, happy and informative YouTube video series. It’s also on every imaginable social network trying to put smiles on peoples’ faces in every possible way.

How this fits into the produce industry has to do with a produce professional known for bringing knowledge to, and putting smiles on, a lot of faces every week.

Pete Napolitano, better known by his stage name, “Produce Pete,” and often referred to as “Pete Your Produce Pal,” is best known for his weekly fruit and vegetable segments that appear on WNBC in New York and WCAU in Philadelphia.

Produce Pete’s ‘For Pete’s Shakes’ graphic.Napolitano is an American grocer, chef and celebrity spokesperson, and he has appeared in grocery store commercials. He works part time for S. Katzman Produce on the Hunts Point Produce Market.

He knows just about everything there is to know about just about every produce item that has ever hit American retailers’ shelves and foodservice operations’ tables. “Produce Pete’s” weekly television program teaches viewers how to purchase, handle and prepare fresh produce.

Mitch Goldstein, talent and series development executive for HooplaHa, told The Produce News that Produce Pete’s upbeat and jovial appearance attracted the company, and they reached out to him.

“The Internet can be a stressful place,” said Goldstein. “Between Facebook drama, Twitter fights, photoshopped images everywhere and negative news, sometimes surfing the net can be stressful, sad or even upsetting. But for every negative thing that happens on the Internet, there’s a cute puppy, inspiring video and incredible story of kindness to brighten your day.

“We comb through the web to find some of the most happy, positive places out there so people add them to their bookmarks’ bar for a rainy day,” he continued. “People can click through the slideshow on our webpage of the most inspiring, uplifting and generally smile-inducing websites on the Internet.”

HooplaHa felt that Produce Pete was a perfect fit and invited him to do a website video series called “For Pete’s Shakes.”

“He agreed, and we have so far [as of May 7] filmed three videos,” Goldstein added. “The videos feature Pete making smoothies and shakes with healthy and nutritious fruits and vegetables, and each video has a theme.”

The three already published can be viewed at www.youtube.com/user/TheProducePete, and each runs between two and three minutes and plans are to film three new episodes each month.

The first three theme titles are “A Relaxing Shake for a Good Night’s Sleep,” “The Perfect Shake for Healthier Hair & Nails” and “Fountain of Youth in a Glass.”

“Pete’s videos are powered by HooplaHa, but they are his YouTube channels,” explained Goldstein.

“His wisdom and warmth make him the perfect father figure to deliver a relatively new twist on fruits and vegetables by making healthy smoothies and shakes,” he said. “He remains exceedingly relevant in offering up exciting new ways to prepare delicious healthy drinks, tips on picking the right ingredients, while presenting produce fun facts.”

Produce Pete has some strong media following with HooplaHa as a partner. One in a long list of positive articles the company has been noted in came from The Huffington Post, which named it one of the ten most positive places on the Internet today.