Reflections on NYC shows, past and present

We know this global health crisis has become political, and we don’t all agree how to handle it or what precautions are wise. Even so, New York City takes this pandemic seriously.

By Amy Sowder

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November 30, 2020 05:30 AM

In December 2018, I attended my first New York Produce Show in the heart of Manhattan.

I had barely been at this job for one month and was new to the industry. And like the good New Yorker that I’d become since moving to the city in 2014, I took the subway there. I glided up escalator after escalator from deep underground and shared the sidewalks with all the other busy business people.

I met and shook the hands of people I’d interviewed on the phone or chatted with by e-mail, produce leaders from Canada and company heads from Hunts Point Produce Market.

The show’s roster of opportunities for registrants included a group tour of the market, which was my introduction to that storied terminal market in the Bronx. It was such a wonderful addition to the show, to see where so much action happens in all its gritty, glamorous glory.

The show may say “New York” at the start of its name, but like the city itself, its reach is so much bigger. Alongside the Hudson River, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center is embedded by surrounding neighborhoods of the Hudson Yards, Midtown West and Hell’s Kitchen.

The buzz of activity inside that light-filled convention center — which typically hosts 150 trade shows annually — felt like a national show, even though it was much smaller.

After a dizzying amount of connections made, I remember emerging from the Javits Center and being welcomed by that iconic city skyline, with that red “New Yorker” sign on a tall building in the distance.

None of that is happening this year.

But, like the cliché goes, the New York Produce Show must go on, unlike the 31 Broadway shows that closed and 41 theaters that went dark, not to re-open until at least May 30. That’s 444 days of no Broadway.

Yet, some smaller theater companies are doing online shows of some sort. It’s not as big, not as grand, and we know, we know: It’s totally not the same.

But we work with what we’ve got. And we still have technology.

If social media has taught us anything, it’s that connection can occur without pressing the flesh, and real business wins can come from this less personal interaction.

Starting with United Fresh Produce Association’s LIVE! convention in June, the first virtual show of the industry, more than a handful of organizations have converted their shows to online platforms rather than cancel altogether.

The Packer and its parent company Farm Journal are included in that roster of innovators, with the Sustainable Produce Summit, West Coast Produce Expo and the coming Global Organic Produce Expo in late January (with an in-person component planned for August).

So, I will be “there” for the New York show Dec. 8-11. I will visit the virtual booths Dec. 10. I will network and report the news as I learn it, like I always do at shows.

It will be nice to see and chat with some of my neighbors online. I will enjoy learning more about industry issues and solutions.

We know this global health crisis has become political, and we don’t all agree how to handle it or what precautions are wise. We know this pandemic has devastated our economy, especially the foodservice and hospitality industries.

Even so, New York City takes this pandemic seriously.

I certainly did as I saw field hospitals erected to care for overflow COVID-19 patients at that same Javits Center and in tents at my beloved Central Park.

“At the height of the outbreak in April, a New Yorker was dying almost every two minutes — more than 800 per day, or four times the city’s normal death rate,” according to an April 30 article in the New York Times, updated Nov. 18.

Even in November, temporary COVID-19 hospital tents remain in the parking lot of a hospital in northern Westchester County, the suburb just north of New York City.

Yet, we do what we can to continue working and continue connecting with others in our essential industry that proudly provides nutrition to this country’s residents and beyond.

Eight months after my city became the epicenter of the pandemic, when the infection rate was below 1% for at least 14 days in a row, I was able to safely attend a couple of outdoor industry events while maintaining the recommended social distance as much as possible and wearing a mask.

My first in-person event was the Eastern Produce Council’s Joe DeLorenzo Family Apple-Picking Event at Melick Family Farm in Oldwick, N.J. What a welcome sight Susan McAleavey Sarlund’s bright blue eyes were as she greeted me at the entry point and handed me a bag for apples, a bottle of cider and some doughnuts.

And most recently, I got a kick out of greeting Phillip Grant, general manager of Hunts Point Produce Market, and Gabriela D’Arrigo, vice president of marketing and communications of D’Arrigo New York, outside BronxWorks Classic Community Center, where they gave 500 bags of fresh produce for a family Thanksgiving meal to local residents lined up around the block.

So no, the 2020 New York Produce Show won’t be in person. I wouldn’t go if it was.

I am doing my part to protect my family and the community, even though it takes a real emotional and mental toll to not see those you like and those you love in person.

I am grateful that the show will go on, virtually, and I can participate. I am grateful this industry changes with the times and adjusts to our needs.

So, see you online for now, and hopefully sooner rather than later, I’ll shake your hand once again.

Amy Sowder is The Packer’s Northeast editor. E-mail her at asowder@farmjournal.com.