FOREST PARK, GA — In 1969, father and son Domingo and Julio Rene Diaz opened a neighborhood grocery, Diaz Foods, in midtown Atlanta. Business boomed, and soon the Diaz family had five stores. Within a decade, the foundation had been laid for one of the larger distribution companies of Hispanic products in the United States.

Monterey Mushrooms employees celebrated 40 years of service in the mushroom industry Sept. 16 with special monogrammed shirts and anniversary cakes.

Monterey took its first steps toward becoming a leading mushroom distributor in 1971, when it was a single-farm operation near Watsonville, CA. Four decades later, the corporate office in Watsonville oversees a family of operations from coast to coast and border to border, servicing customers nationwide with freshly grown, processed and packaged mushrooms.

Village Farms has begun operations in the Caribbean region with a first-of-its-kind packing and distribution facility in the Dominican Republic, the company announced in an Oct. 4 press release.