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News & Notes BRIEFS GOURMET NEWS AUGUST 2017 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 6 RCI Names Four to Board Retail Confectioners International (RCI) inducted four new members to its board of directors during RCI's Annual Convention & Industry Expo in Lombard, Illinois. Each June, RCI inducts new board members and recognizes the years of serv- ice from members whose terms are expir- ing. Joining the ranks of confectionery leaders throughout the association's 100- year anniversary, RCI welcomed Erika Di- etsch Brokamp, Dietsch Brothers, Findlay, Ohio; Anna Dolle Bushnell, Dolle's Can- dyland, Inc., Ocean City, Maryland; Pam Hartley, Joy Lyn's Candies, Paradise, Cal- ifornia; and Kate McAleer, Bixby & Co., Rockland, Maine to its 2017-2018 board of directors. Additionally, Steve Vande Walle of Vande Walle's Candies in Appleton, Wisconsin, was inducted to serve as the 2017-2018 President of the board of directors and Joe Reiser of Winans Fine Chocolates + Coffees was inducted as the Third Vice President. "It is truly an exciting time to be RCI's president of the board of directors," says Vande Walle. "I look forward to welcoming the fresh ideas and perspectives of the new board members as we continue our mission of serving the needs of retail chocolate and candy makers." GN Marin French Cheese Company to Host Third Annual Summer Picnic Marin French Cheese will host its third an- nual Summer Picnic on Sunday, September 10, 2017, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at its Cheese Factory located just 10 miles west of Petaluma, California. The family-friendly event will include in- teractive demonstrations of cheesemaking and beekeeping, a selection of artists, live music and 25 food and beverage vendors from the surrounding locale sampling and selling new items along with their beloved classics, including the iconic yogurt pur- veyor, Saint Benoit Creamery, and Rians Crème Brûlée. First-time participant Apple- a-Day Ratzlaff Ranch will provide fresh apple juice and cider, while 3 Twins Ice Cream will bring its food truck. Other new comestible additions to the picnic will include favorites such as Lala's Jams, McEvoy Olive Oil, Sonoma Harvest, and Petaluma Toffee. Marin County's French restaurant, L'Appart Resto, will be on the grounds as well as Sonoma's The Girl & The Fig's food truck, The Fig Rig. Returning with samples to taste and product to sell will be a wide variety of pur- veyors of charcuterie, honey, crackers, dips, spreads and olive oils, including Angelo's Smokehouse and Fabrique Délice. Not only do these products all pair perfectly with ar- tisan cheeses from Marin French Cheese, Laura Chenel's, Nicasio Valley Cheese, Le Roulé Premium Spreadable Cheese, and Point Reyes Cheese, but crackers from Rus- tic Bakery as well as bread from Costeaux Bakery and La Boulangerie of San Francisco will also complement the specialty product offerings. Tickets are $20 each (children ages 12 and under are free), and are available through Eventbrite. While 600 tickets will be available, the event is expected to sell out quickly as it did last year. For those driving to Marin French Cheese Company, the best address for GPS is 7510 Pt. Reyes- Petaluma Rd, Petaluma 94952. GN Natural Grocers Brings Organic Produce to Denver Food Desert Just two years ago, a Change.org petition garnered 1,231 supporters who banded together to demand a health-focused grocery retailer open in northeast Denver. Natural Grocers topped the list as a grocer of choice for petitioners who wanted a retailer that was not only locally owned, but also provided natural and organic food offerings, local produce and brands, affordable pricing, and a commitment to local job creation. Natural Grocers has responded to this need by relocating the company's downtown Denver store to the River North (RiNo) neighborhood. "Most of northeast Denver, including RiNo, is a food dessert; there simply aren't enough quality food options within walking distance to the community," said Denver City Council President Albus Brooks. "What makes this even more valuable is that Natural Grocers is a Colorado company that educates the community about health and sustainability." Organic Valley Sends Young Farmers on International Exchange Organic Valley has sent a group of young organic farmers to the U.K. to connect with fellow organic farmers and share best practices in organic farming to address the broken food system. From July 22 to 29, The Gen-O™ Exchange visited farms, shared ideas and experienced plenty of cultural interaction with organic farmers their own age. Gen-O is a group of young Organic Valley farmers aged 16 to 35 who believe in the power of organic to change the world. Currently, there are more than 150 young farmers on organic farms from Maine to California enrolled in Organic Valley's Gen-O program. An increasing number of Gen-O farmers are third, fourth, fifth and even sixth generation farmers growing up on their family's farms. G. Willi-Food Announces Appointment of Tim Cranko as CEO G. Willi-Food International Ltd., which specializes in the development, marketing and international distribution of kosher foods, has hired Tim Cranko as its new CEO, effective July 6, 2017. Previously, Cranko served as the manager of the food division of Galam Ltd., an Israeli company which specializes in the manufacture and sale of a variety of food ingredients including fructose, glucose and starch. Hain Celestial's Cultivate Ventures Announces First Strategic Acquisition The Hain Celestial Group, Inc. has acquired The Better Bean Company. Better Bean, based in Portland, Oregon, was founded in 2010 by the father and daughter team of Keith and Hannah Kullberg, to make eating beans easy, tasty and healthy. Better Bean will augment Hain Celestial's offerings in the perimeter of the store, a coveted area. Better Bean is the the first acquisition by the Hain Celestial Cultivate Ventures strategic platform. KeHE Cares Continued from PAGE 1 the registration desk for the event, each at- tendee received along with his or her badge a wooden token to drop into a jar for one of five designated charitable or- ganizations. For each wooden token dropped into its jar, the organization will receive a $5 donation from KeHE Cares. The jars at this show were dedicated to Mission Lazarus, a Christian organization working in Honduras and Haiti to provide spiritual, educational, medical and agricul- tural services as well as to establish churches. The particular Mission Lazarus project funded in part by the KeHE dona- tion is El Refugio Orphan Village in Hon- duras, a facility of eight 2,000-square-foot homes caring for children placed there by the Honduran government. Currently 48 children benefit from a home environment, with a focus on individual attention and nurturing, at the village. Safe Nepal; Warrior's Circle; Sunshine Approach, a nonprofit foundation operated by The Sunshine Nut Company that funds projects to improve the lives of the poor and orphaned in Mozambique; and God- work Foundation are the others eligible for shares of the funding designated by the jars. Safe Nepal's mission is to provide prayerful and financial support for those who have been trafficked in Nepal. The or- ganization provides trafficked girls and women with a safe refuge while giving them hope, direction, new careers and free- dom from their past lives. Warrior's Circle is a Christian ministry based in Sisseton, South Dakota, and led by Native American men that offers healing and leadership training for other Native American men with the goal of helping them break a long- time cycle of addiction, abuse and neglect. Godwork Foundation is a purpose-driven organization that combines good works, technology and entrepreneurship educa- tion as a means to cultivate a generation of young people with skills to make a con- crete difference in the world. Even though the money that's con- tributed comes from KeHE, it's the distrib- utorship's retailer customers that make the donations possible, Shaw said. "If you're not buying from us, then we don't have the five bucks to give," he noted. "It just works." Before an organization is selected to re- ceive a donation, a KeHE employee has to be actively involved as one of its volunteers. Over the years, the KeHE employee involve- ment has aided volunteer organizations as- sisting communities around the globe, according to the markers on a map posted near the donation jars at the show. "Every one of them is doing great work serving peo- ple," Shaw said. "We know that because we go there." A marker at Prune, India, for in- stance, represents involvement by Jay, a salesman who'd been volunteering time to load trucks with supplies going to a safe house there for trafficked girls, Shaw said. After Shaw learned of Jay's involvement with the U.S.-based organization serving the safe house, he asked Jay if he'd be will- ing to go to India and check out the safe house for himself. "Unless we see what they're doing for ourselves, we're limited in what we can do," he said. Shaw and Jay went to Prune to see the safe house's oper- ation and came back convinced that the safe house was serving a real need, which made it eligible for greater assistance from KeHE Cares. Another marker denoting a site in Kenya represents involvement by Laura, a KeHE category manager who was buying coffee from Growers Alliance Coffee, which sup- plies gourmet, fair trade coffee from four countries. The company donates 10 percent of the proceeds from its coffee sales to help impoverished growers in the countries from which it sources beans. Growers Alliance was supporting a small dialysis center when Laura went to Kenya to see the organiza- tion's work. "We met with farmers who were barely eking out a living, and they went from living in a hut where they're now keeping their goats to a real home," Shaw said. After Laura returned home, she urged KeHE to support Growers Alliance Coffee and their dialysis center project, inaugurating the idea for KeHE CAREtrade, an initiative in which KeHE is identifying and promoting busi- nesses that advance a higher purpose. "We built a dialysis center there," Shaw said. "In Kenya, 14-year-olds are dying because they have no access to dialysis." GN

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