Six years in and Walmart’s Live Better U education benefit has given nearly half a billion dollars in tuition savings to more than 126,000 associates the opportunity to learn from top academic institutions. Now the company is reimagining the program to focus on skills that make associates more hirable for key roles within the company.

Walmart’s goal is to help fast-track Walmart and Sam’s Club associates into approximately 100,000 in-demand jobs it expects to fill over the next three years.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has imposed sanctions on three produce businesses for failing to meet more than $1 million total in contractual obligations to the sellers of produce they purchased and failing to pay reparation awards issued under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act.

These sanctions include suspending the businesses’ PACA licenses and barring the principal operators of the businesses from engaging in PACA-licensed business or other activities without approval from USDA.

The Eastern Produce Council looks forward to honoring former President Marianne Santo, who died last September, at the John McAleavey Annual Gala, which will take place at The Westmount Country Club in Woodland Park, NJ, on April 6.

Despite a slow start for its colored Bell pepper deal, IPR Fresh is now seeing strong movement and prices for its main commodity and is optimistic the good market conditions will continue through the spring.

Jose Luis Obregon, president of Nogales, AZ-based IPR Fresh, told The Produce News in late January that the deal was delayed out of the gate in early November but started picking up in mid-December and has been going strong ever since.

US Foods Holding Corp. plan to open five new Chef’Store locations in 2024, including its first store in Georgia. The new locations are expected to open in the second half of 2024.

Dole Food Co.'s organic Fair Trade Certified pineapples were named a winner in Good Housekeeping’s 2024 Sustainable Innovation Awards.

The pineapples are grown year-around in Costa Rica according to strict social, environmental and economic standards. Growers receive a fair price for their fruit, and farmworkers are granted an additional dividend with every purchase to invest back in their local communities and businesses as they see fit.