The Produce Moms Podcast

"We really do believe that what you get out is what you put in."

Lori Castillo (5:00-5:04)

NatureSweet is a powerhouse, iconic brand selling the best tasting tomatoes in North America who's focused on transforming the lives of agricultural workers around the continent.

Do you ever taste the difference between a take-out meal and one that you spent hours at home cooking? For some reason, you can't explain what the difference is, but it truly does taste better. That's exactly the difference between NatureSweet tomatoes and any others on the market. The company is dedicated to caring about their associates first, and deeply loves the products they produce. Lori Castillo, Vice President of Marketing, has reinforced that with the two principles behind NatureSweet: hard work and giving it 'our' all.

"We love what we do! And that's why the quality really shows up on the shelf." Lori Castillo (5:59-6:05)

NatureSweet started out with only a few hectares of production in 1990 in Devine, Texas and today they are one of the largest growers in North America. You've probably seen the iconic, recyclable containers at your grocery store and purchased them for your salads, soups, sauces or pasta dishes. They're most well known for their Cherubs (sweet, grape tomatoes), but are helping the fresh tomato category grow with their Glorys, Twilights, Comets, D'Vines, and Constellations, all of which are flavor-packed and grown with love.

Although Cherubs are still the number one selling small tomato in the category and are a household staple, consumers are venturing out of their comfort zone and experimenting with many of the other NatureSweet tomatoes. Lori and the NatureSweet family have enjoyed seeing people play with the trend of colorful dishes with their Constellation packs and bringing in contrast to plates with Twilights.

Bringing you the best tomatoes possible starts with paying attention to how the company treats Mother Nature.

Since NatureSweet is a greenhouse grower, all of their plants are planted in coconut husks rather than soil. This helps the tomatoes resist more diseases and even uses up to 80% less water.

One of the main focuses at NatureSweet is reducing their carbon footprint and being responsible in their growing, packaging and transporting processes. NatureSweet is able to recycle some of the water they use, makes all of their packaging from recycled material, and is even looking at ways to make freight lines more efficient.

Fun fact: did you know you can keep their tomatoes in their packaging and use it as a colander? The amount of goodness NatureSweet tomatoes brings to you, the consumer, are endless! It helps to know when you are purchasing their tomatoes, you're supporting a company that's reducing their environmental impact and their packages can be reused as containers, and as a tool to teach kids how to count money, learn colors, and much more.

"It gives you this premium feel when you can cook with the vine on and put that beautiful presentation on a charcuterie dish or really try to impress the family, it's not only nutritious, but delicious." Lori Castillo (10:20-10:34)

Yes, NatureSweet even sells a line of tomatoes called D'Vine that are still on the vine. You can roast them and add them to a charcuterie board and elevate any dish, which is important now that you're most likely cooking at home more. Seeing that pop of color and the added value of providing your family fresh produce that's still on the vine is a way for anyone in the kitchen (novice to expert) to feel more empowered.

What's Lori Castillo's new obsession? NatureSweet's Comet tomatoes. These delicious tomatoes are similar to the sunburst tomatoes that used to be popular that were yellow and very sweet. Comets have an improved flavor and are the sweetest in the NatureSweet line. Lori loves to eat them as a snack during a Zoom meeting or between calls. They're perfect for a pop of sweet that's guilt-free, colorful and might even be a conversation starter!

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"Overnight our grocery bill quadrupled."Emily Brown (6:46-6:50)

The Food Equality Initiative is the nation's leading organization that is working to increase access to allergy friendly and gluten-free foods to individuals who need them the most. Did you know Black children are 7% more likely to have food allergies compared to white children and free-from foods cost 2-4 times what those with common allergens cost?

Emily Brown, former preschool teacher turned CEO of The Food Equality Initiative, was planning on returning to the classroom and bringing her daughter along until she was diagnosed at one year old with allergies to milk, eggs, wheat, soy and peanuts as well a food allergic condition known as EOE. Pregnant with her second daughter, who also has food allergies, and unable to return to work, Emily sought out help from WIC (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program For Women, Infants, And Children), only to find the foods she needed weren't there.

Emily's next stop? The local food bank, who turned her away because their facility wasn't allergy-friendly and they didn't have those types of foods readily available. Three's a charm, right? Sometimes… in this case, Emily went to her local pantry where it was suggested the random Whole Foods or natural foods store item might be available.

"I stood in line for almost two hours, and when I got into the shop, there were only two potatoes and a jar of salsa. Those were the only safe foods." - Emily Brown (9:37-9:45)

Emily, like so many other families, struggled to provide her daughters with the food they needed not just as sustenance, but as treatment for their illness. If providing someone the right food at the right time is truly part of the treatment, and emphasized by doctors, why is it not covered by insurance? Why is it completely inaccessible by government and charitable food organizations?

That's when Emily founded The Food Equality Initiative in 2014 because she wasn't the only one with a family struggling with food insecurities and food allergies. She initially set out to change WIC's policy and quickly realized there were better, quicker ways to create change now, alongside the lengthy process of effecting policy change.

Emily opened the nation's first allergy-friendly and gluten-free pantry in Kansas City, Missouri in 2015 and has been serving families ever since. They operate off a "pantry within a pantry" model, receiving most of their food from existing organizations.

Staff already a part of the pantry was trained on how to do distribution while Emily focused on maintaining relationships with certain brands and food manufactures kind enough to donate to her program. She also created a referral program with doctors and clinics who would give a prescription from that patients could then "cash in" with at the FEI.

Unfortunately, there were a few barriers of entry that were making it difficult to grow and scale FEI. Pantries are only open a limited number of hours per week that many in need don't have time to make it to because of their jobs. Transportation was also proving to be an issue. Even though a few locations were initially opened, families were still not able to make it in person. Most importantly, but the least talked about, is the stigma and shape of going to a food pantry.

"I personally think it's very brave to say, 'I need help', but it's one of those things we haven't normalized because we don't talk about it, and because we don't talk about it, there's a lot of shame." Emily Brown (15:17-15:26)

Now, FEI provides a different solution via an online code that is given by partners to clients to put in online. They can order free-from food that's shipped straight to their door at no cost to them, eliminating the issue of time, transportation, and of course, no stigma!

Emily's right about one thing. Real change to making free-from food equitable won't happen unless we continue to push for policy changes and take action on bold, innovative ideas. FEI is now committed to supporting a local farm in their region and will be creating relationships with farmers across the country to make sure clients can receive fresh produce too!

Take the time to visit www.foodequalityinitiative.org and find out ways you can help support this incredible initiative and those that need free-from foods the most.

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"Food safety is about making the supply chain safer."Ralph Towell (16:06-16:09)

The Produce Traceability Initiative is an industry wide initiative to properly track packages to ensure food safety events are identified as fast as possible.

Have you ever struggled to trust name brands or your local produce suppliers due to news headlines of dangerous salmonella or E. coli outbreaks? It's hard to make sure you're providing your family with healthy, nutritious food when there's the fear and threat of contaminants on your fresh produce that can make members of your household sick.

The produce industry wants and needs your trust in order to survive and in order to continue to provide the world with the food that makes us thrive! That's why the produce industry collectively came together to create a system that remedies these events as fast as possible by tracking packages from the minute a produce box is closed to the minute a grocery retailer or wholesaler opens that same case.

"The common denominator between shipper and receiver is the case." - Ralph Towell (10:26-10:32)

In order to effectively communicate across the produce supply chain worldwide, no matter what language or country a company is in, GS1 was put in place as the global communications standards. This is the organization that creates the barcodes, item codes and SKU numbers you see on produce packages. The great thing about these communication standards is all parts of the production and supply chain can be tracked down to each case.

If you're thinking, "Case? What about down to the unit?", don't worry, so is the PTI. Unfortunately, in order to track each individual unit (ie. a package of Dandy celery vs. a case of 30 packs of Dandy celery), we'd need to have printers and computers directly in the farm field where that celery was picked! Technology and a process for this is coming, but for now, having the ability to track cases from start to finish is a game changer in efficiently identifying food safety events.

"Instead of taking weeks and months to track down a particular source, if the traceability program is properly in place, you would be able to trace down and get to the root cause (once you've identified a cluster of events) in days." Ralph Towell (15:27-15:47)

Having the proper protocol in place at the field level, packing level, shipping and handling level is key to food safety. This is what ensures no contaminations are introduced during the process of picking, packaging, shipping, retailing and delivering fresh produce to you and your family to eat. There's about 15-20 touches of a case or product before it hits retail shelves.

Traceability doesn't necessarily measure the implementation of safety protocol, but it allows for products to be tracked correctly through each step of the supply chain, so that in the event of a food safety issue, suppliers can identify where the proper protocols weren't followed.

"It saves countless lives, countless money, and just makes the consumer's trust in our industry much much safer." - Ralph Towell (30:20-30:30)

There are seven key milestones the produce industry follows to ensure PTI compliance is taking place.

First, a company needs to have their prefix registered and receive their global transaction item number. Then, their entire library of items needs to have these G10's so buyers around the world can speak a common language with them. Next, trading partners need to receive that G10 information and corresponding data.

Fourth, the company needs to make sure cases and boxes have readable information on them so in the event a backroom stocker or manager's scan gun doesn't work, they can still identify what's in the case. Next, the information is encoded into a barcode on the case label. The receiver needs to be able to read this information along with the stores and restaurants that receive the produce.

Who knew the process for bringing your family fresh salad or grilled asparagus was so intricate!? Know that all industries within produce are working passionately to get traceability down to the individual package level. Find out more about Ralph's work at Duda Farm Fresh Foods by visiting www.dudafresh.com and dive further into the Produce Traceability Initiative process and resources at www.producetraceability.org.

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"Our children are learning by watching us. We are so important to what they believe and what they think about themselves."

Dr. Yami (19:28-19:36)

Dr. Yami's tagline is "pediatrician on a mission", and for good reason. This powerhouse mom, pediatrician, public speaker and author wants children to grow up with a healthy body image and relationship with food that sets them up for success.

Dr. Yami Cazorla-Lancaster knew she needed to find better solutions for her patients when so many of them were coming in with allergies, chronic abdominal pain and signs of not feeling well based on their dietary choices. Not only was Dr. Yami noticing issues with patients that just weren't right for pediatrics, she also has been keenly aware of the body image and body confidence issues kids struggle with.

Going through her own struggles starting at eight years old, Dr. Yami began a dieting roller coaster that lasted a few decades and created disordered eating that interfered with her wellbeing, mental health and stole productivity from her life. Even her own son started dealing with the same issues, like wanting a flatter stomach at the age of six, so Dr. Yami started learning about plant-based nutrition, intuitive eating and lifestyle medicine.

"I really want my patients, I want my children, I want myself, I want to feel good about the choices I'm making and I want to feel confident in my body." Dr. Yami (6:24-6:31)

It's bad enough that most adults are worried about "losing those last 10 pounds" and trying to control what our bodies look like, but the fact of the matter is our kids are being trained to think this way starting at a young age. This is why Dr. Yami has started teaching her patients the benefits of intuitive eating.

Intuitive eating, originally founded by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch, is quite simply "honoring hunger and satiety".

Children have their own intuitive eating intelligence that gets chipped away when we try to change their natural eating habits. Kids don't want to sit down for long, European-like meals because they're filled with curious energy and would rather be exploring or playing. As parents, we tend to get anxious that our kids aren't eating enough when they sit down for dinner and only take a few bites from their plate. So, what do we do? We create rules around food, we bribe them, and encourage them to ignore their intuitive eating habits.

This may calm your anxiety as a parent, but it only paves the way for a child to have disordered eating and an unhealthy relationship with their food and body. You may be wondering how you can get your child to eat more fruits and vegetables instead of unhealthy snacks.

"The only way to learn to like a food is through consistent and repetitive exposure." Dr. Yami (28:31-28:38)

Dr. Yami's advice is to keep exposing your child to healthy, nutritious, whole fruits and vegetables, but don't force them. Think about how you acquired the taste for alcohol or coffee, for example. These drinks have very strong, bitter flavors, but somehow we end up enjoying them. That was because we had a deeper buy-in for liking them and it happened over repetitive exposure.

Know that your role as a parent is to decide what to serve, where to serve it and when. The role of your child is to decide how much they are going to taste today, if at all. It might take up to twenty times of putting broccoli on your child's plate until the decide to taste it! Let go of the outcome and know that you aren't a failure if your child doesn't eat what you put on their plate for the first, second, or even tenth time.

We also have a responsibility as parents to develop a healthy body image ourselves. Our kids are watching us constantly and pick up on certain cues that tell them we don't have a good relationship with our body. Every time you say something negative about your body, or constantly check yourself in the mirror, your child thinks they need to do the same thing. If it's hard to create a positive conversation around your body, keep it neutral to start! Know that you don't have to be perfect as a parent and you don't have to have a body shaped by society's standards.

Make sure to pick up a copy of Dr. Yami's book, A Parent's Guide to Intuitive Eating: How to Raise Kids Who Love to Eat Healthy, on Amazon and visit www.veggiefitkids.com for more helpful tips on how to encourage healthy body image and a love for fruits and vegetables with your children.

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"Our mission is to make every home cooked meal a special occasion."Suzette Overgaag (11:18-11:20)

Attempting to be a sustainable and healthy household is difficult when items like fresh herbs go bad in just a day or two after buying them. Wouldn't it be nice to have living, fresh and beautiful herbs that made any meal an occasion, without being rushed to use them?

Suzette Overgaag and her third generation greenhouse grower husband, Leo, started their family farm in Coachella Valley thirty years ago with a barely-there budget and borrowed farming equipment. Today, they have over 10 acres of greenhouse space where they hydroponically grow living herbs that are available for consumers in the produce section of the grocery store.

It all started when the Overgaag's were growing English cucumbers, but Suzette was frustrated that, when buying cut herbs from the store, they'd wilt or turn brown in just a few days. She dreamed of having an instant herb garden in her kitchen every day, which is exactly what North Shore Living Herbs does for you. They sell their clamshell "mini greenhouse" herbs and potted living herbs that, contrary to popular belief, aren't meant to be planted, but offer a longer "shelf life". That way, you can have a beautiful bouquet of herbs sitting on your counter and plan meals weeks in advance without worrying about your herbs going bad.

"It's about being able to have your product be grown in a way that is friendly to the Earth, obviously, and also to humans that have to work there and grow the plants or product." Suzette Overgaag (8:07-8:23)

Sustainability was one of the core driving factors of North Shore Living Herbs' living herbs coming to life (no pun intended), which is why they are the first culinary herb grower in the United States to be certified as a sustainable grower by a recognized third party. They use solar energy and geothermal energy to heat the greenhouse and implement different practices that are good for employees. For example, instead of having employees bend over every day, most of the work is done at waist level, so it's less wear and tear on the individuals as well as the environment.

North Shore Living Herbs is also the first hydroponic grower to be certified organic and they've found solutions to save anywhere between 75% to 90% of water with their crops compared to a cut herb program. It's important to note they've been committed to this focus on sustainability well before it was popular and trendy with consumers. It's a movement built to last.

North Shore Living Herbs' mission is to make every home cooked meal a special occasion, something that COVID-19 has actually helped consumers around the U.S. start to focus on.

With the limited options now for eating out or dining in restaurants, more and more households are thinking about how they can make meals a special occasion. We're cooking together more, eating together more, and not only is that great for North Shore Living Herbs' business, but it helps drive their mission further across the country.

The wonderful thing about herbs is, even if you aren't familiar with using them, you can't go wrong adding them! Suzette doesn't use recipes at all and uses whatever she has on hand in whatever amount feels right (you don't have to measure them).

"My favorite thing is actually just using them in salads and herb butter." - Suzette Overgaag (15:15-15:20)

Put your herbs in a butter and pour over pasta or a delicious grilled steak. Suzette also suggests putting them in cocktails or adding cucumber, mint and lemon to your regular water. You can find tons of amazing recipes created by Suzette's daughter on their website, as well as details about all the products they offer and where you can find them locally! Visit www.northshore.farms and learn how you can start adding fresh herbs to your home cooked meals and make them a part of any occasion.

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"How could we find a way back home?"Bella Hughes (6:50-6:52)

Shaka Tea is 100% plant based, project non-GMO verified, sustainably sourced and created from Mamaki, the rarest herbal tea in the world.

Native Hawaiian Bella Hughes is a trailblazer in the best way possible. With a former profession in the non-profit and contemporary art world, Bella took a sharp left turn when she co-founded Shaka Tea with her husband from a desire to, not only share the wealth and deliciousness Hawaii has to offer, but help do the most good possible to help the community and economic growth of Hawaii.

When traveling around the world or living in the UAE with her husband, Bella would always look for goods from Hawaii in grocery stores and could find consumer product goods, but they didn't have authentic ingredients from Hawaii and the companies were never founded there.

During her second pregnancy, she was drinking tons of Mamaki which is naturally caffeine-free and similar to a mild rooibos in flavor. She'd make a fruit puree with many of the same fruits she loved from her homeland, like passionfruit, guava and mango, and would make a huge jug of Mamaki tea mixed with it, offering her tastes from home, a delicious, pregnancy friendly drink, and just a touch of sweetness.

"This tastes like something I would normally say no to. It has zero percent juice, zero calories, zero grams of total sugar, zero carbohydrates… it's amazing." Lori Taylor (12:23-12:35)

There are plenty of teas on the market, but they fall into two categories: sweetened, which in most cases if you were to drink them daily, you'd put 15 pounds of sugar in your body in one year, and unsweetened. Bella saw the opportunity to bring her Shaka Tea to market.

It didn't have sugar in it (the company uses Monk Fruit), she could support small, local farmers in Hawaii, could boost the Hawaiian economy with a product that's for everyday use (versus the expensive coffees and macadamia nuts), and provide it at an affordable price (suggested retail price is $1.98 to $2.49 in the U.S.).

Bella and her husband put a huge leap of faith into their idea by putting their life savings into 18,000 bottles without a single account signed and three SKU's to start with. They built Shaka Tea from the bottom up, spending days driving around the main island, signing accounts and bringing in a cute baby or toddler when needed for extra support!

The supply chain for Shaka Tea has been built from the ground up.

Mamaki is traditionally foraged for when hiking or grown with a small herb garden at home. There hasn't been mass production of Mamaki, which is the host plant for the island's endangered pollinator Kamehameha butterfly, so Bella provides her 14 farmers seeds to plant on their 2-5 acre farms and pays them a premium price while taking care of all the drying and processing.

Unfortunately, the other ingredients in Shaka Tea aren't available locally, but are all fair trade and sustainably sourced. Shaka Tea is more than just a healthy drink to bring about cultural awareness, it is the life source of a brand new industry which is revitalizing Hawaii's economy and stimulating long-term economic growth.

"Our hope is that we can be a model for future businesses in Hawaii to continue that commitment to small farmers, sustainable agriculture practices and economic growth." Bella Hughes (18:55-19:06)

Shaka Tea currently has four iced tea flavors, Pineapple Mint, Mango Hibiscus, Lemon Lokelani Rose and Guava Gingerblossom, and three herbal tea blends, Sunrise, Blue Magic, and Sunset, that are great for those kicking a caffeine habit. Shaka has won the American Masters of Taste Gold Superior Taste Award and is the second fastest growing business of Hawaii.

Make sure to check out www.shakatea.com and use promo code "SHAKA20" to get 20% off your online order!

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"We're facing as a nation a fruit and vegetable consumption crisis."Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak (2:50-2:53)

September is National Fruits And Veggies Month hosted by the Produce For Better Health Foundation!

Founded by Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, President and CEO, and internationally celebrated dietician, the Produce For Better Health Foundation not only wants to help increase fruit and vegetable consumption, but elevate the behaviors of fruit and vegetable consumption as a national priority.

Unfortunately, we're facing a fruit and vegetable consumption crisis that's been chronic in our nation for years. You might be thinking, "yes, I know I need to eat more fruits and vegetables," but it goes beyond that. This is something that's negatively impacting our society, our culture and our economy.

"Every fruit and vegetable that you put on your plate, there was somebody that was growing that, there was someone that was transporting it, there was someone that was putting it either in your online shopping cart or in your real shopping cart, and it's making its way onto your plate, contributing to your health and happiness." - Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak (8:37-8:59)

Not only is this an opportunity for the fruit and veggie loving public and industry to come together under one initiative to make this a priority, but a lot of research has come out identifying that people, in general, eat healthier meals when they're eaten together as a family.

Eating healthier foods isn't the only benefit to eating meals together; people greatly benefit from the connection of family and spending time together having conversations around the dinner table. Especially if you're a family with kids, this is when important conversations happen, connection key to development is fostered, dangerous behaviours can be identified and discussed, and social behaviors are developed. The psychological benefits of connectedness are crucial during times like this.

This is why the National Fruit and Veggie Month theme this year is Have A Plant® Nation. During a national and global pandemic, this aims to act as a catalyst for creating family connections, celebrating diverse and unique ways to enjoy fruits and vegetables, improve America's public health across the board, and elevate how the produce industry (and its influencers) advocate for fruits and vegetables to be enjoyed more often.

The Have A Plant initiative wants folks like you to align with their values and share that with the world. It's not just about eating more fruits and vegetables daily or at every meal, it's about sharing your beliefs on how important that is with the rest of the world. That means having conversations at home, yes, but online as well! If just one more serving of fruits and vegetables on your plate could create the same for hundreds if not thousands of people through sharing one comment or one post, you'd be helping transform the nation's health.

"It's one attainable thing that we can all do to make our lives better — eat more fruits and vegetables." - Lori Taylor (15:16-15:24)

Take the pledge for Have A Plant® Nation by visiting www.fruitsandveggies.org! They have tons of resources you can download to put on your social media, phone or share with friends and your family. Start the conversation and see if you have someone in your life or even a group that wants to hold each other accountable. Make sure to use #haveaplant and #haveaplantpledge on your posts along with #nfvm2020 to support National Fruits and Veggies Month.

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"When you have a passion and you can apply that type of energy to something you know is making the world a better place, it really is rewarding."

Kurt Wagaman (30:36-30:47)

If the U.S. Navy and most hospitals have access to chemical free cleaning devices, why can't I?

That probably isn't a question you've ever asked yourself, but thankfully, it's one Tim Busby, co-founder and managing partner of PurLite and Kurt Wagaman, general manager of PurLite asked themselves. PurLite was founded a few years ago and provides sanitization with UV-C light, which is very prevalent in medical settings, hospitals, and in the military.

"What if we could develop a product that would be something that could live in every home in America?" - Tim Busby (5:10-5:20)

Tim Busby is a true entrepreneur, always looking to fill a white space in the market, think differently and come up with new products. He had a relationship with an inventor that was looking at creating a take home device so that, for example, moms can take this level of cleaning home with them from the hospital after giving birth, rather than having to resort to chemicals.

Not only has this become a game-changing solution for moms and families everywhere, now with COVID-19, utilizing such high quality sanitization solutions such as UV-C light is essential unless you want to keep exposing your household to harmful chemicals. PurLite's tagline is "sunshine in a box" because at the end of the day, that's what UV-C light is!

So how does this work exactly?

When you think about it, the sun does a lot of sanitizing for us. By harnessing the power of UV-C rays (which are reflective), you're utilizing sanitization that is chemical free, available in safe applications that limit the reuse of packing items. You can quite literally clean your household items like headphones, cellphones, remote controls, credit cards, cloth face masks, pacifiers, and more with light instead of Clorox or other well-known, chemical laden cleaning brands out there.

This medical grade technology can sanitize at a level higher than 99%. In a lab setting, PurLite tests between 99.9% and 99.99% sanitized, depending on the pathogen.

You may be asking yourself if UV-C light kills all bacterias and viruses? UV-C light does effectively get rid of E. coli, H1N1, Avian, Swine and other common coronaviruses based on the amount of time it's exposed to the light. There's no need to change light bulbs constantly or install any difficult equipment to use PurLite, either. One of their units is about the size of a toaster or tissue box and it takes seconds to sanitize your items.

"When you say medical grade, you're putting yourself in a pretty high priority list." - Tim Busby (8:06-8:12)

Tim and Kurt have been focused on providing this need well before the coronavirus pandemic because they saw the ability UV-C has to maximize a home's cleaning regimen and improve the sustainability of our world. A true entrepreneur, Tim is always looking for opportunities to improve lives and create products that provide valuable solutions, which is why he's so passionate about educating the market that UV-C light even exists.

It's been Kurt's and the rest of the PurLite team's priority to make sure their devices are readily available when many supply chains have been disrupted. Let's be honest: have you had at least one experience where finding cleaning items like Clorox wipes was difficult during this pandemic? Not only that, PurLite's device is extremely affordable compared to the UV-C that's used in hospitals and costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Yes, PurLite is an investment, but it's an investment in the health, safety and sanitization of your entire family. Plus, it's sustainable!

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"A hungry kid can't learn."Adam Russo (15:01-15:03)

There's no one size fits all for school meal programs, let alone with a global pandemic.

If there's anyone who's passionate about the success of school children and feeding them healthy meals, it's Adam Russo and Mollie Van Lieu. Adam is the Director of School Food and Nutrition Services at Prince William County Public Schools located in Virginia and Mollie Van Lieu, who was on The Produce Moms Podcast 100 episodes ago (wow!) is the Senior Director of Nutrition Policy at United Fresh Produce Association.

When schools shut down in March at the start of COVID-19, state and local districts had to make fast decisions about how they would deliver (or if they would deliver) class curriculum and school meals. You may not realize it, but there are about 30 million school lunches served every day and about 72 million servings of fruit and vegetables.

"School nutrition heroes really stepped up to that and worked their tails off in the spring and summer to make sure kids are still fed." Mollie Van Lieu (6:43-6:55)

Not only is that important to keep feeding the children of America nutritious meals, ensuring their brains are fed for optimal learning, but it's vital to the fresh produce supply chain, especially in rural and small areas. In Adam's school district where there are over 100 schools and centers, they've focused on things like all you can eat salad bars, corn husking competitions, and getting fresh fruits and vegetables from local farmers. One of the first things Adam's district did to pivot with COVID-19 was figure out how to keep children fed, provide fresh fruits and vegetables, but comply with new CDC regulation standards.

They've started transitioning to a grocery style supplement box for families to pick up once a week, filled with fruits and vegetables that don't have to be refrigerated since a lot of families don't have access to heating and cooling methods for one week's worth of food.

"We know that kids are going to learn better with proper nutrition, so giving them the micro and macronutrients they're going to get in fruits and vegetables and the whole fruits and vegetables, especially. Having to consume that process through their body is going to keep them fueled much much longer." Adam Russo (15:04-15:18)

Not only will they be fueled much longer, but their energy will be kept in the right place, they'll be better behaved, more attentive in class and that's extremely important whether they're back at school in the public classroom or still learning virtually at home. The other benefit to providing a week's worth of healthy food for kids and sending it home is they're starting to take ownership of their health. This inturn is inspiring for other members of the family and helps everyone open their palettes up to fresh fruits and vegetables they might not have tried otherwise.

It's important to note that this industry needs your help. Schools don't get funding from the school board for school meals, even though other things like textbooks and transportation are provided for free. Without sales of school lunches, they don't exist or the economy isn't there to buy fresh fruits and vegetables, so if you're wondering why your child's school provides junk, they might not be receiving enough sales.

Profitability shouldn't be the metric to go off of, it should be how well students are performing in class, but sometimes it's a necessary evil of the food and nutrition services of a school. Also important is the feedback you give to these programs. If your school division is serving junk food or it's just not up to your expectations, call the manager in charge and tell them!

"I know that our staff would do anything, they would run through a brick wall to make sure a kid was fed that day. That isn't different across the country." Adam Russo (25:05-25:13)

These schools want to improve and truly care about the health and livelihood of our students, even if it may not seem so with the lunches they provide. These meals are incredibly important and are a responsibility of us all to think about because they're shaping the health, nutrition and future of our country.

Adam's district is continuing to look at how they can provide self-service salad bars in a COVID-safe manner, and even looking at restaurant style serving options if and when children go back to the public classroom. Mollie, who's done great work with federal nutrition policies, will be advocating for increased waivers, more flexibility and universal school meals at the Washington School Nutrition Association Conference this September and invites individuals like you to participate and help us change our country's school meal system.

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!

"I didn't know as a child if I would make it out alive."Sarah Frey (12:48-12:51)

Sarah Frey is one of the most inspirational women in the agricultural industry.

Her phenomenal story starts on her family's farm in southern, rural Illinois where they hunted, processed and grew their own food, and only had a wood burning fire stove for heat. Sarah can even recall the first time she saw a thermostat, or went to the grocery store with her mom and felt feelings of joy and overwhelm seeing packaged goods for the first time at the age of seven.

Her upbringing wasn't the typical image of the happy little farm family and Sarah grew up with what a lot of children of farms deal with –– being called the 'ugly duckling', being bullied for having the school's free lunches, hand me down clothes –– and she longed to escape every minute of it. Ironically enough, it's these same experiences Sarah credits her courage to. In many moments of her career she didn't think twice when most would have fainted, nodded and said 'yes', and figured out the 'how' later.

"My whole life I have let people see what they wanted to see, see what was easy to see and that was, 'Oh this is Sarah! Isn't she nice. She's from the midwest. She grew up on a farm. Isn't that great?'...I never told anyone the full story." Sarah Frey (16:46-17:10)

How'd this farm girl turn into the CEO of Frey Farms, Founder of Sarah's Home Grown, and United Fresh Women In Produce's 2020 Honoree? She was thrust into it! Her mom had the same desire to create a better life for her family and kids than the farm could provide and started selling melons to local grocers. Young Sarah, still a child, was the one who waltzed into stores to do the selling, knowing she couldn't return to the hot truck outside with defeat.

A true go-getter, Sarah started attending college while still in high school at the age of 15 while hauling melons because she was driven to get away and better her life.

It was that same drive and determination that led Sarah to march right through to the top floor of the St. Lewis Terminal Market into the bullpen, where F-bombs, fast deals and sales men live. Grateful she didn't walk into a broom closet, Sarah, in blue jeans, a ball cap and work boots, walked straight into Stanley Greenspan's office, an infamous buyer in the produce industry.

When it came time to sell the family farm, the same place she so badly wanted to escape growing up, at the age of 17 Sarah bought it instead. Those memories of swimming in the pond with her brothers, huddling over the stove as a family, and the heartbreak of knowing her family wouldn't have anything to bond them together had her buy the land and set up her companies' headquarters down the road.

Sarah's journey is truly remarkable which is what led her to write and publish The Growing Season: How I built a new life and saved an American farm.

"I wanted to be able to share these stories to impact other people's lives," Sarah says.

"It moves your soul. This is a story of a champion, a story of an underdog, it's a story of entrepreneurship, but really most importantly it's a story of all of life's greatest lessons — forgiveness, grace, valuing education, valuing family, valuing hard work. It's already made a positive impact on my life." Lori Taylor (5:02-5:24)

Frey Farms now operates in seven different states –– Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Arkansas, Indiana, Missouri and West Virginia –– so they can grow different fruits and vegetables year round rather than just being a seasonal operation, although pumpkins are still what they're best known for. She was the first to market with any kind of watermelon juice with Tsamma™ Watermelon Juice which is an extremely healthy performance rehydration beverage.

Her most recent brand, Sarah's Homegrown, launched in 2019 and helps small to mid-sized farms use more of what they grow, find market for the fruit that is normally wasted, turn those things into fresh, delicious ingredients that wind up in consumer packaged goods under the Sarah's Homegrown brand and ultimately helps put those funds back into the hands of farmers who deserve it.

You'll surely want to grab your copy of Sarah's memoir, The Growing Season: How I built a new life and saved an American farm as soon as possible and see the ripple effect of transformation it has on your life!

How to get involved

• Join The Produce Moms Group on Facebook and continue the discussion every week!
• Reach out to us - we'd love to hear more about where you are in life and business! Find out more here.

If you liked this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a quick review on iTunes. It would mean the world to hear your feedback and we'd love for you to help us spread the word!