Welcome to winter 2015! Well, we haven’t been hit by as many storms as last year, but for some reason this winter seems nearly as bad – weather-wise – as it has ever been around these parts. We’ve seen colossal automobile accidents, shut downs of airports and flight cancellations, icing and flooding. At this point, the best we can hope for is that registers keep ringing and supplies keep arriving to keep shelves stocked for all concerned and we’ll make the best of it.
One company I know that really enjoyed ringing in the New Year was RDD Associates. Bob Cignarella and his team at the big perishables/perimeter of the store broker has picked up SEVEN new lines since the year began. The Churny Cheese Co. , a division of Kraft, will now be represented by RDD at Ahold and at Mid-Atlantic customers. Finlandia Cheese’s sliced and deli bulk cheeses as well as its new line of butter will be also handled at Ahold USA. RDD also added Organic Valley Produce in the New York market, in addition to the Organic Valley Dairy line it already represents. The George DeLallo Co. olives line will be handled at Ahold USA. Two lines that will be added to the emerging foodservice department, as well as for headquarter and retail, are TMI Trading and MIC Foods, which RDD will now handle at Ahold USA and metro New York. TMI Trading offers the Chef One line of Asian food products and MIC Foods produces Latin and Caribbean frozen and ready-to-eat products. And finally, Japan based Nipponham, the fourth largest meat packer in the world, will enter the U.S. market represented by RDD. Nipponham will produce an authentic European-style smoked sausage under the Schau Essen brand. Congrats, RDD!
Goya Foods associates were out in force to aid the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York’s Feeding Our Neighbors campaign. The JosephKennedyCenter in Harlem, NYC was the location on Martin Luther King Day where the employees unloaded 35,000 pounds of food from a Goya truck and then packed, restocked and prepared bags for distribution to local food pantries and emergency food programs in the area. The Martin Luther King Day Interfaith Day of Service was part of Goya’s overall support of Catholic Charities through a 300,000 pound food donation that will help feed hungry people in the area. The Harlem event was one of a six-site simultaneous volunteer effort at food pantries throughout the archdiocese. In addition to Harlem, volunteers were at sites in WashingtonHeights, the South Bronx, Staten Island, Brooklyn and Kingston, NY. Very well done Goya!
We were saddened to learn of two passings that recently occurred in our industry. Carmine Triola, longtime sales manager at Best Provisions and a fixture at many perishable industry events through the years, passed away at the age of 76. He is survived by his wife Margaret and his daughters and grandchildren. And it was a real shock learning about the death of Bob Euler of Gristede’s. Bob was just 63 years old and from what we heard, passed away after a heart attack. Bob was for many years a fixture in the frozen and perishable industries and was always the consummate gentleman. May both of their souls rest in eternal peace.
As we near the month of March, don’t forget to have your frozen food department managers and clerks enter the Eastern Frosted and Refrigerated Association’s (EFRA) retail display contest in support of “March is Frozen Food Month.” Not only has the annual program proven to move more frozen cases through participation in the event, it offers an opportunity for retail managers to compete for great prizes! This has long been a successful annual campaign and this year should prove no different. For more information contact Mike Ryan at the EFRA at 973.835.1710 or ask your frozen representative for details.
Rich Durante, COO of Kings Food Markets, will be the honoree starter at the Back on My Feet golf charitable outing this fall. The event will take place on October 5 at the Arcola Country Club in Paramus, NJ. Back on My Feet is a non-profit organization which helps get the homeless back on their feet through programs and education in self-sufficiency. As the event draws near we will get you all of the necessary information.
We welcome a new guest columnist to Food Trade News as Michael Rosen, president and CEO of the Food Industry Alliance of New York State (FIA) pens his inaugural column to reach our vast readership across the Northeast. Thanks, Mike, and we look forward to your monthly input.
The Friends of the Food Industry, in conjunction with the Hopes & Dreams Foundation, will hold its annual dinner on May 14 at the Hackensack golf club in Oradell, NJ. This event is a real heart-warmer as it raises funds that go directly to chosen and in-need families with direct ties to our food industry. In just its third year it has quickly become a wonderful fund raising event, and also brings together customers and vendors from across the entire industry. This year’s special honoree will be Jeff Reagan, VP at Wakefern Food Corp. For more information contact Mike Casey at [email protected].
Joel Schuman and his team at Source Atlantique told us that they had acquired the Peloponnese brand and business from Hormel Foods in early February. Peloponnese products are authentic Mediterranean foods imported from Greece and will fit perfectly into the Source Atlantique portfolio of specialty foods. “The Peloponnese brand defines the Mediterranean diet and its health benefits. It falls in a sweet spot at the crossroads between specialty/gourmet and natural/healthy,” said Schuman. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Kudos to the good folks at C&S Wholesale Grocers for their involvement in and support of the Veteran’s Fire Corp. program run by the Student Conservation. The Veteran’s Fire Corp. was established five years ago in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service to train returning military veterans in community fire protection and fuel reduction methods and then deploy them in national forests, parks and refuges. It is a 13-week training program, and C&S recently provided cash and an in-kind donation of food for two 13-week training sessions for 80 veterans. Well done, all at C&S!
Lastly, as we were getting ready to go to press we heard from Donna Banks-Ficcio that she has accepted a position with Supervalu. Donna will be the VP  of center store for Supervalu’s west division working out of Minneapolis. Donna is an extremely well respected and exemplary retail executive many of you know from her days at Kings and, most recently, A&P. She will be relocating to the Minnesota area and we wish her well in her new endeavors.
Please be safe out there for the remainder of the winter and as always you can reach me at 201.250.2217 or [email protected]
