How do you define success? The answer and ingredients are as unique as the women profiled on the pages within The Packer’s 15th annual Women in Produce issue, honoring eight industry leaders playing pivotal roles in the success of their own organizations as well as supporting the future of agriculture, embracing crazy big ideas, having a positive impact and lifting up farmers and the fresh produce industry as a whole.
This year’s honorees are moving the industry forward and inspiring future generations to do the same.
Jen Velasquez, vice president of marketing for Full Tilt Marketing, says she stumbled into the fresh produce industry.
Following her graduation from Southern Methodist University, she worked in public relations for high-end luxury brands and then worked for family-owned wineries in Spain — which was her first introduction to the produce industry — before joining a public relations firm that worked with commodity boards. From there, she was hooked.
“Within months, I realized just how awesome produce is and that I was pretty much going to spend the rest of my career there,” Velasquez says.
She’s worked on campaigns for the Chilean Avocado Importers Association, Produce for Kids, the Georgia Pecan Commission, the Georgia Blueberry Growers Association and the Vidalia Onion Committee. She’s helped produce brands rebrand and create packaging. And she also works with the Texas International Produce Association and its Clean Eating Challenge.
Velasquez recently spoke with The Packer about her career in agriculture communications, her advice for women entering the industry and the importance of produce in a healthy diet.
The Packer: Tell me about your career journey to Full Tilt Marketing.
Velasquez: I kind of stumbled into fresh produce. I got a college degree from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, and it was in corporate communications and public affairs with a minor in international studies in French. I already knew I wanted to do something internationally.
I grew up watching my dad — he was a vice president for Colgate Palmolive. I grew up thinking this was exactly what I wanted to do. ... I started down that path in public relations. I worked for agencies that worked with high-luxury items. And then I also worked with family-owned wineries in Spain. That was really fun. And that was probably inadvertently, my introduction to the produce industry without really realizing it. I also worked with H-E-B Central Market doing PR for them.
And then I moved back home to Tampa, Fla. I started working with an agency that really went deep into produce, so they did a lot with commodity boards. I worked with the Chilean Avocado Importers Association, Georgia blueberries, Georgia peaches and things like that.
Within months, I realized just how awesome produce is and that I was pretty much going to spend the rest of my career there. I don’t even think I ever thought about the produce industry when I was in college, but I just can’t imagine not being in an at this point.
Also besides working with commodity boards, I ended up working with brands and working on branding for them — logos and their websites and their packaging. I worked with companies like WP Rawl, Titan Farms, Branch Farms and Georgia mushrooms — where you walk into a grocery store, and you actually get to see something that you worked so hard on. It’s so rewarding and amazing.
I also was lucky enough to work on the Disney program where they licensed the Disney brand out to produce companies. That was one other way of seeing two things I love, because I grew up loving Disney. And then at one point, I really wanted to work with Disney, if not for Disney.
At one point, I wanted to move to Europe, and it just didn’t fit in the plans or the structure of the company that I was working with. I moved and I was doing some contract work and consulting.
Then Melinda [Goodman, president and owner of Full Tilt,] found me. She knew from somebody that I had left my previous job, and she needed some help because somebody from her team had left. She asked me if I would just work with her for a few months, and this was in November 2019. I think it was a maternity leave, so three months. And of course, you know what happened at the end of those three months was COVID. [She asked] me to stay a little bit longer.
I think it worked out well for both of us because neither of us really wanted to end that contract. And then it became full-time.
How did you get involved in the Clean Eating challenge with the Texas International Fresh Produce Association?
One of the things that I am lucky enough to work on with Melinda and with Full Tilt is the Viva Fresh Expo, working with the Texas International Produce Association.
There was this vacancy in the Clean Eating Challenge that I was asked to do, too. So, I did.
It’s just something that I just love being a part of. This definitely drives me — seeing people who join this challenge, because they either want to get rid of some medicines, they’re having joint pain or they were diagnosed with something.
Some people think it’s a weight loss program or it’s a diet. It’s not at all.
All we ask is that people stick with us for six months leading into the Viva Fresh Expo and that they eat more produce, eat more fruits and vegetables and good things will happen magically, maybe not so magically.
It’s amazing what happens when you eat those things because you don’t really have room to be eating as much of the bad stuff. Once you start feeling better, then you start realizing well, maybe I don’t need to eat this as much, maybe not at all. It’s really all about balance.
I’m really driven by seeing people year after year. Now I think we’re over 100 people who have joined the challenge in one way or another who have had all these wonderful things happen to them. And it all comes from eating fresh produce.
I absolutely believe that Eastern and Western medicine have a space. I never would advocate that you can just eat your way into health and that you don’t need medicine or science because you absolutely do. But I have seen in myself how much better I feel when I am eating more fruits and vegetables than when I’m not. It’s a trial and error.
I’m just so driven by seeing people and the changes that they incorporate with eating more fruits and vegetables.
Something I’ve heard from mentors and participants in the challenge for years is that sometimes you don’t realize how bad you feel until you start eating better and then it’s like, “Wow, this is what I was probably supposed to be feeling years ago, but I didn’t know that I was sick. I offer my most optimal self.”
It’s really great to see people be a part of that, and just the changes that [Clean Eating Challenge participants] go through.
Why is it important to promote fresh produce and healthy eating?
Sometime early in my career, we were talking and there was some statistic saying that kids who were younger than me were going to be the first generation that were not going to outlive their parents. That was very scary to hear and for all of us in that conversation. The purpose of it was, how are we going to change that?
A lot of it comes from that consumption. If you see produce being as food as medicine and using that to basically help improve people’s lives, maybe make them longer. I think that’s something that’s really important that we can’t really put a price on because it’s literally making people’s lives better.
I think it’s all the processed things and basically making that your main thing and not the other way around, which is how decades before everybody did it. I definitely want to contribute to helping [produce] go back to where it needs to be.
What’s some of the best career advice you’ve ever been given?
I actually have two. I have a fun one and a real one.
At my first show ever in Houston in 2006, one of my clients at the time — who became a lifelong friend — told me that if I wore high heels to the trade show floor, she would send me back up to my room. I was like 25 or 24. I haven’t done it ever since.
Every time I go to a trade show or something where I’m going to be at a producer event, standing and walking a lot, I think about her because that was probably the thing that sticks out the most to me since I was so young and impressionable. And it’s really good advice.
I did pass that little tidbit to a colleague, a younger colleague, and she didn’t listen. But I noticed that at the second and third trade shows, she was wearing comfortable shoes. She learned it the hard way. And that’s okay. Sometimes we have to do that too. You have to figure it out for yourself sometimes.
Beyond that fun advice, I think something that really resonates with me for women especially is not waiting to be invited to the table to the conversation, but really just pulling up a chair and being a part of it. I think that has also stuck with me greatly.
Sometimes you think that an invitation is going to come, somebody’s going to ask you to join and that may or may not come. Maybe you’re lucky enough that you do have those mentors, men or women, who are going to help you pull out that chair. Maybe you just haven’t found that person yet and you could be missing out on an opportunity.
I think it’s also about knowing when to pull up a chair and when it’s not your turn yet. But I think that really goes back to another thing that I kind of live by. It’s like asking for forgiveness and permission, because it just allows you to be part of things that maybe you wouldn’t have been — and again knowing when it’s appropriate to do so and when it’s not.
Why is it important to celebrate women in the produce industry?
I hope that women don’t think, “Oh, I can only go to the women’s events, because it’s not about that at all.” [Events like In Bloom at VivaFresh] are really about adding more spaces. So, we can be a part of it. I think it’s so important.
Even in my short career that started in 2006, I already see a difference in how many women used to go to things and how many women are there now, and it is really refreshing. When I started and I thought [the produce industry] was very male-centric, it didn’t bother me. I wasn’t intimidated by it, but just being able to grow within the industry and seeing more of my female peers is really nice.
I think it’s just really important to be able to help women who come into it, open that space, let them see that they belong here and that they have a space that they can make in which we can make a difference.
Do you have any other thoughts about your career in the produce industry that you want to share?
At the end of the day, I feel so good that I can work in the produce industry and go to bed knowing that I helped promote healthy eating in one way or another, whether it was because I was talking to somebody from The Packer or it was a client that is making a bigger difference somewhere else. I am helping make a difference. ... I really feel lucky that I can be a part of the produce industry and feel good about what I’m doing.
From a very young age because of my dad’s job, I was lucky to be able to travel the world with my parents, and then later I was able to study abroad. Now, when I look at where I am with Full Tilt, I would love to help the company go more internationally than we already are and have international clients be able to not only make an impact here in the U.S., but also in other countries where the products that I work with are available. That’s something I’m working toward and bringing my travel and produce passion together.
More of The Packer’s 2024 Women in Produce honorees:
- Frances Dillard, vice president of brand and product marketing, Driscoll’s.
- April Flowers, marketing director, Lone Star Citrus Growers.
- Cynthia Haskins, president and CEO, New York Apple Association.
- Sandi Kronick, CEO and co-founder, Happy Dirt.
- Christine Moseley, founder and CEO, Full Harvest.
- Tara Murray, vice president of marketing, Fresh Innovations/Yo Quiero Brands.
- Julie Olivarria, vice president, produce, Sysco.
