International Fresh Produce Association (IFPA) has announced the 2022 Industry Advocate of the Year Award recipient, DNO Produce. The award was given at The Washington Conference and featured in the Wednesday, September 28 breakfast general session. It recognizes one IFPA member company each year that serves as an advocate for the produce industry.
“We are humbled and honored to receive the Industry Advocate of the Year Award this year. We are committed to advocacy because our work and our produce are changing the trajectory of global human health,” said Alex DiNovo, president and CEO, DiNovo Produce. “That is something everyone in our industry should be proud to be a part of. Our livelihood is a good thing that creates a more vibrant, healthier world.”
L-R: Robert Guenther, Alex DiNovo, Deadra Barnett, Vilces Garcia, Marissa Dake.
DNO Produce has been an active, engaged advocate for many years but has demonstrated outstanding support over the past year. In addition to having its team members engaged with grassroots and industry public policy conferences each year, DNO also has an impressive list of engagements with U.S. representatives and policymakers including:
- In July of 2022, Alex DiNovo served as an advocate through the American Business Immigration Coalition to appeal to lawmakers to address the need for agricultural immigration reform.
- In August of 2022, DNO hosted the senior legislative assistant for agriculture from the office of Senator Brown, providing a tour of its wholesale operations and fresh-cut processing facility. DNO shared policy recommendations regarding government procurement, nutrition programs and the Farm Bill.
- In September of 2021, Alex DiNovo and director of communications and public affairs Marissa Dake attended a small group meeting with the USDA undersecretary for food and nutrition, Stacy Dean and USDA senior advisor, nutrition, Kumar Chandran. There, they focused on the Farmers to Families Food Box Program, Produce Prescriptions and more.
- Alex DiNovo has also provided his voice by crafting numerous articles encouraging industry involvement in government relations advocacy to increase consumption and improve produce availability in school mean programs among other topics.
Alex DiNovo accepts the IFPA 2022 Industry Advocate of the Year Award for DNO Produce.
“DNO has prioritized proactively reaching out to Members of Congress throughout the year,” said IFPA’s vice-president of nutrition and health Mollie Van Lieu. “This is a textbook example of effective engagement and I’m thrilled to see this team recognized for their hard work.”
“Over the last two years, as distributors continued experiencing challenges with everything from labor, gas, freight rates and more, Alex and his team always loaned their time to support the association’s programs and virtual networking opportunities,” said Andrew Marshall, who leads IFPA’s engagement with the wholesaler-distributor sector and K-12 school foodservice operators.
For more information about the award and how to get engaged, contact Angela Tiwari, director, grassroots and political Action at (202) 303-3416.
For more information:
Lee Mannering
IFPA
LMannering@freshproduce.com
www.freshproduce.com