As rescue efforts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama continued, and thousands of evacuees from Hurricane Katrina's enormous devastation were being relocated, a semi load of Idaho potatoes was on its way to help feed those sheltered at the Houston Astrodome. According to Corey Griswold of 20/20 Produce Sales Inc. in Paul, ID, the load of 84,000 potatoes was donated by Idaho shippers Arrowhead Potato and Mart Produce, both located in Rupert, Magic Valley Produce in Paul and Sun River of Idaho in Aberdeen. The load was shipped Sept. 6 for Sept. 9 delivery and was to be distributed at the

OAKLAND, CA  An impromptu outpouring of generosity resulted in nearly $10,000 being raised for hurricane victims at the Northern California luncheon meeting of the Fresh Produce & Floral Council held Sept. 13, here, at the Oakland Airport Hilton. FPFC Chair-elect Jack Gyben of Progressive Marketing Group in Los Angeles told The Produce News that Dick Spezzano of Spezzano Consulting and a member of the FPFC executive committee got the ball rolling with a challenge donation. "Dick Spezzano offered to donate $500 to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and challenged executive committee members to

Frontera Produce, based in Edinburg, TX, announced the launch of a new melon import program into the port of Corpus Christi, to begin operations in November. Frontera will be importing cantaloupe and honeydew from Guatemala and other Latin American sources, contracting 2,400 tons per week for the duration of the season running November to May. The product will be shipped to retailers and wholesalers throughout the United States. "There were several factors that influenced our decision to select this port. Other Gulf ports were considered, however the port of Corpus Christi offered a strategic

Daniel (Danny) Carosliva, who was previously a salesman with Tricar Sales Inc. in Nogales, AZ, is now on the sales desk at Sandia Distributors Inc., also in Nogales. "Danny has been with us for about three weeks now," Sales Manager Bill Spence said on Wednesday, Sept. 14. We have increased our product line over here, and we felt we needed [additional] help in sales. Sandia, a grower-shipper of Mexican-grown and domestically grown produce, is historically strong in watermelons and hard-shell squash, but recently it has expanded into Persian limes and an assortment of vegetable items. Mr

NEWARK, NY  U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), a longtime friend of the state's apple industry, picked the official first apple of the 2005 New York harvest Sept. 6 at The Apple Shed orchard, here, launching a harvest season expected to yield more than 25 million bushels. "We are honored to have Senator Clinton kick off our harvest season, the most exciting time of the year for our industry," said Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association, which represents all the state's 695 orchards. Mr. Allen joined the senator and orchard owners Gary and Barbara Wells for the apple

WILLCOX, AZ  Eurofresh Inc., a leading year-round grower-shipper of tomatoes on-the vine and other greenhouse-grown tomatoes, has introduced a consumer guarantee program for its packaged varieties of "Eurofresh Farms" branded product. A seal indicating Guaranteed Fresh Flavor coupled with the statement Eurofresh promises garden-fresh flavor in every tomato, is now included on every package label for campari, roma, and cherry tomatoes on-the-vine. Eurofresh plans to expand the program to other packaged tomato products in the future, and has dedicated a page on its web site to describing