Work hard, play hard. If 25-year-old Mindy VanVleck had a life motto, that would sum things up nicely.

This is the same person who approached Frank Davis, vice president of sales and marketing for Borton & Sons in Yakima, WA, to get an "informational interview" that turned into an internship. And it's the same person who set up a 280-foot slip-and-slide in her yard last year to give party guests a wet and wild time.

SALINAS, CA -- Though the company hasn't officially changed its name, Green Giant Fresh by Growers Express is the new moniker of this well- established Salinas grower-shipper.

The firm has been affiliated with Green Giant Fresh for the past several years, and it claims to currently pack and ship more than half of the volume of that brand, which now has more than a dozen different categories and scores of SKUs.

WASHINGTON -- In recognition of superior training and human resource programs, the Food Marketing Institute presented its 2006 Maximizing People Potential Award to Wakefern Food Corp. in Elizabeth, NJ, for the company's comprehensive Partners in Training program. The award is presented annually to a retailer or wholesaler that develops an initiative to improve the performance of employees or leads to achievement of a key business goal.

LA MIRADA, CA -- A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department of Food & Agriculture, was the featured speaker Oct. 4 at the Fresh Produce & Floral Council Luncheon meeting, here. A large crowd of produce professionals heard Mr. Kawamura touch upon a myriad of agricultural topics, including the recent spinach crisis and the next farm bill.

Mr. Kawamura called 2006 a year of "outbreaks and heartaches" in California, because the state was also hit hard by flooding early in the year followed by a massive heat wave in early July.

Idaho growers will harvest approximately 328,000 acres of potatoes this year, yielding nearly 12 billion pounds.

Overall, the crop appears to be uniformly smooth and consistent. The extremely warm weather in early August did not have an adverse effect on the crop -- in fact it may have accelerated the harvest.

The Idaho potato industry's irrigation system ensures that despite high temperatures and even drought, the crop is managed quite effectively because irrigation is the primary water source.