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Has the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program made a difference in fresh produce market conditions?

New England Produce Council has canceled the 21st NEPC Produce Floral & Food Service Expo due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the Farmers to Families Food Box Program underway across the country, companies are busy packing and sending fresh produce to food banks.

The PMA and United Fresh Produce say they had a “candid dialogue” with U.S. Department of Agriculture officials about the Farmers to Families Food Box Program and expressed hope that improvements can be made.

Moving about 1 million boxes a day to food banks and other charities, the USDA’s Farmers to Families Food Box Program is gaining speed and is on track to hit 44 million boxes delivered by the end of June.

The Packer’s West Coast Produce Expo has a new date and format to provide streaming and digital content to complement the Palm Desert, Calif., event. with an expo that encourages social distancing.

I was talking with an East Coast distributor the other day who mentioned that fruit buying patterns have been unusually hard to anticipate.

Awe Sum Organics, Santa Cruz, Calif., expects to have Pacific Northwest blueberries starting June 22.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture web seminar for specialty crop growers on how to apply for Coronavirus Food Assistance Program is at 3 p.m. Eastern today.

House Democrats are raising concerns about the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, saying it fails to recognize the premium value of organic crops and does not fully account for the farm value of some specialty crops.