Fresh Produce and Floral Council (FPFC) and member Superfresh Growers® kicked off the decade by donating the 2020 FPFC annual Dinner Dance raffle prize to one of FPFC’s key partner organizations, the non-profit Caterina’s Club. The donation will help feed nutritious meals to underprivileged children in Orange County, provide housing for homeless families, and provide job training for at-risk teenagers.
The FPFC held its annual Dinner Dance on January 25th, 2020, where cash prizes were raffled off. Superfresh Growers won $2500 and immediately thought it would be best to donate the money. “We are so impressed by what Chef Bruno and Caterina’s Club do for the Orange County community and the children for whom they provide nutritious hot meals. Their work fits well with our culture and values of giving back to our communities both around our farms and the communities where we deliver fresh produce,” describes Catherine Gipe-Stewart, Communication Manager at Superfresh Growers.
Four hundred thousand Orange County residents struggle to get their food needs met regularly. Caterina's Club Feeding the Children program "identifies food insecure children who are at high risk of malnutrition and are extremely underprivileged in our communities. We ensure these children have access to warm nutritional meals nightly by delivering them to their after-school programs," the Caterina's Club website describes. Chef Bruno stated, "Thanks to the generosity of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council, we have been able to add more locations in more cities and move so many more families out of the perils of Motel living. We have also been able to begin our hospitality academy, teaching high school-aged teens workforce skills. We couldn't do any of this without their assistance."
"Caterina's Club is such an important part of our community. What they do goes to the kids. They feed 5,000 kids a day, and that hits home. It's nice to see Superfresh Growers and the FPFC get behind their mission of feeding kids and their families," says Kent Kuwata, Category Manager at Smart & Final and former FPFC Board of Directors member.
The mission of the Fresh Produce & Floral CouncilCouncil is to connect the produce industry to information, education, and professional networks to increase knowledge, grow their business, and collectively advance the industry. The FPFC raises money for Caterina's Club annually during their Holiday Charity Auction.
Superfresh Growers is a leading grower and shipper of apples, pears, cherries, apricots, blueberries, and kiwi berries from the Pacific Northwest. They believe in being a part of the communities they serve in the Pacific Northwest, the communities they deliver fresh fruit to, and those of their retail partners.
