Open for just less than a year, Above Restaurant & Bar in South Orange, NJ, shows all the signs of staying "above" in its future success, growth and expansion.

Terry Hickey, general manager of the up-scale contemporary American restaurant, told The Produce News that the eatery and bar has a flair all its own.

Crunch Pak is working to increase consumer awareness for its fresh-cut sliced apples by participating in a new food products showcase for national media outlets.

The event, held March 24 in New York City, brought together food and new- product writers from magazines, TV, newspapers and on-line media to sample new food products.

Crunch Pak showcased multiple items, including "BK Fresh Apple Fries," "Disney Garden Foodles" and several package sizes of the core "Crunch Pak" fresh sliced apple products.

Beginning in September, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service will begin conducting spot residue checks at organic operations and of product on retail shelves that is labeled as organic on an ongoing basis because an audit of the National Organic Program revealed some serious violations and lack of proper oversight.

Calling their charitable effort "A Million Apples for Haiti," three musicians from the Yakima, WA, area have joined forces with a number of Washington apple growers to collect 10,000 boxes of donated apples to help provide housing -- and a healthy treat -- for quake victims in Haiti.

Members of the Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association and The Village Musicians, a band founded by three brothers, plan to work with Hope for the Hungry, a Texas-based nonprofit organization, to provide aid to Haitians displaced by the Jan. 12 earthquake.

A freak accident recently claimed the lives of two farming and water rights advocates in Colorado. Fifty-six-year-old Ray Wright, board president of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, and 53-year-old Doug Shriver, chairman of the Rio Grande Water Users Association, suffocated after snow slid off the roof of a cabin owned by Mr. Wright and buried them.

Of the more than 130 companies listed as creditors in the Dubois & Son bankruptcy filing, the majority will be unlikely to collect on debts owed to them.

Court documents filed by the company's attorney, Robert Furr of Boca Raton, FL, said that after exempt property is excluded and administrative costs are paid, there would be few, if any, remaining funds for distribution to unsecured creditors.