Pepin Heights Orchards, based in Lake City, MN, announced the addition of BILLY WHALEN and JOHN GILLUND to its sales and marketing team.

Whalen has joined the company as director of sales and marketing. His background includes marketing and sales for major consumer product brands in the beverage industry. Before joining Pepin Heights, Whalen worked as the division marketing manager for Neuro Drinks.

In a very extensive cross-promotion, California Giant Berry Farms is joining Sony Pictures Animation, Feeding America and some other top grower-shippers in a marketing campaign tied to the release of the production company’s new animated feature, “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2.”

Beneath it all, “gourmet” means a food, beverage and/or presentation that is unique, highly flavorful and typically more expensive than commodity items.

Whip up a holiday appetizer like Chef Sally Hursts’ (chefsallyjane.com) roasted fingerling potatoes with caviar and smoked salmon, which she did for the Today Show’s online cooking class last December, and you’d be pretty hard-pressed to call it anything short of gourmet.

Freshway Foods, a fresh fruit and vegetable processor, repacker, distributor and logistics provider, has launched a new line of products for the school foodservice market called Power Packs. Power Packs are individually packaged fresh-cut fruits and vegetables for schools participating in the USDA Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Program.

This summer, Raley's is partnering with Sunkist Growers and Edge Sales & Marketing to help families teach kids how to Take A Stand for their favorite charity.

After nearly a decade of rigorous pest assessments and evaluation of risk mitigations, the U.S. Department of Agriculture published the final rule in the Federal Register July 10 that permits citrus from Uruguay to be shipped into the Continental United States.