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Virginia Governor Ralph Northam announced that Shenandoah Valley Organic (SVO), a family-owned organic chicken company, will establish a second 75,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility in the City of Harrisonburg. The new facility will increase production capacity and retail packaging, allowing for more product availability in leading grocery stores across the United States. Virginia successfully competed with West Virginia for the project, which will create 110 new jobs.

The Very Good Food Company (“VGF” or the “Company”), announced that veteran plant-based food production executive, Ana Silva, will join VGF as president commencing in January 2021. 

On our latest From the Cold Corner Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa catches up with Ryan Riddle, senior R&D specialist for plant-based meal solutions at Nestlé and its Sweet Earth brand. They talk about why refrigerated and frozen plant-based foods are so popular today, which consumer markets are key targets for plant-based foods, how Nestlé incorporates its plant-based products into the brand’s freezer-aisle favorites like DiGiorno Pizza and Stouffer’s, plus much more.

See what’s trending in shrink sleeve, vacuum packaging and flow wrapping equipment. 

BuzzBallz, a woman-owned, premium, premixed cocktail company, has collaborated with Drunken Cake Pops, a boutique, woman-owned bakery, to create boozy stocking stuffers. The BuzzBallz X Drunken Cake Pops Six Pack includes six cake pops expertly infused with various flavors of BuzzBallz cocktails. 

Smithfield Foods is committing $300,000 through 2021 to support Heritage STEM Camps Foundation (HSCF), a not-for-profit organization that creates powerful immersive experiences for aspiring Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) leaders. Smithfield’s contribution will support HSCF’s Mid-Atlantic efforts to boost levels of self-confidence and self-efficacy among minority young women and prepare them to be leaders in STEM fields, business, and entrepreneurship.

McCartney Produce, a distributor of fresh produce and specialty food products, joined FreshEdge, a family of produce and specialty food companies, further diversifying the group’s combined customer base and increasing its breadth and depth of service offerings in the Midwest and Southeast. McCartney joins a growing family that includes Get Fresh, Indianapolis Fruit, Piazza Produce & Specialty Foods, Garden Cut, CIBUS Fresh, and Papania’s.

Smithfield Foods donated more than 38,000 pounds of protein to Feed More as part of the Heart of Virginia Council of the Boy Scouts Of America Scouting for Food annual food drive. As the presenting sponsor of this year's food drive, Smithfield also donated $15,000 earlier this year to cover the costs of the BSA program. Local Scout troops were able to collect almost 60,000 pounds of food this year, the equivalent of nearly 50,000 meals which Feed More will distribute across 29 counties and five cities in Central Virginia.

KeHE Cares, in partnership with New Hope Network, is delivering the first-of-its-kind virtual Serving Goodness Event, which will help deliver 80,000 meals to families experiencing food scarcity due to the pandemic.

Tim York was named as the new Chief Executive Officer of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA) during a recent Board of Directors meeting. York will replace Scott Horsfall who is retiring in early 2021.