Cathy Burns, CEO of IFPA, said The Foodservice Conference, taking place July 25-26 in Monterey, CA, promises top-notch education, the right connections and the best expo — with products and services targeted specifically to the foodservice industry.

Baldor Specialty Foods partners with more than 1,000 farms to supply food items to restaurants and wholesalers, with foodservice long being its bread and butter.

In that segment, Baldor services restaurants, hotels, corporate feeders, upscale food markets, hospitals, school cafeterias, country clubs, in-flight caterers and everything in between.

Kapi Kapi Growers, a leading Costa Rican grower-shipper of sustainably grown pineapples and bananas, introduced plantains to its growing portfolio of tropical fruits. Initial shipments of Kapi Kapi plantains will begin arriving in the U.S. as early as August, ramping up to a steady supply by November.

Stop & Shop will close 32 underperforming stores by year-end. The company said following the closures, Stop & Shop will continue to have a strong presence across its five-state footprint with more than 350 stores. Employees at impacted locations will be offered other opportunities within the company.

Stop & Shop said these are its next steps in its plans to position the company for growth — in addition to continuing to make investments in price and the customer experience.

Lifelong onion grower George Ray Obendorf, known as Ray by family, friends and colleagues, died Friday, June 28. Mr. Obendorf had celebrated his 101st birthday four days earlier.

Mr. Obendorf was born June 24, 1923, in Caldwell, ID, to George Bernard Obendorf and Edith Cornelia (Trout) Obendorf, and he died in the home he built in 1955, not far from his birthplace.

Whole Foods Market donated its 50th refrigerated van to support local nonprofit organizations as part of the Nourishing Our Neighborhood program. Launched in 2020, this initiative aims to expand the capacity and capability of community-based food rescue organizations across the U.S. and Canada to move food from where it’s available to where it’s needed most. Each van can rescue 20,000 pounds of food weekly, diverting 1.04 million pounds of food per year from landfills and providing over 8.5 million meals over its 10-year life cycle.