Driscoll Foods House Party Foodshow

Tuesday, October 24th

10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Metlife Stadium

SAN DIEGO — Labeling healthy foods with smiley faces and rewarding children with small prizes may entice students to make healthier food choices in the school lunch line, according to a new study presented April 26 at the Pediatric Academic Societies annual meeting in San Diego.

As part of the study, researchers introduced two successive interventions to improve healthy eating during the same academic year in an inner city school in Cincinnati that had 297 children. During the first intervention, green smiley faced emoticons were posted near the four most healthful foods: fruits, vegetables, plain white fat-free milk and an entree with whole grains. Three months later, researchers introduced the concept of “Power Plate,” which consisted of the four healthy foods. Students who selected the Power Plate could receive a small prize, such as a sticker, temporary tattoo or mini beach ball.

Based on the researchers’ findings, students’ purchases of plain white fat-free milk increased to 48 percent of total milk sales from 7.4 percent, while chocolate milk sales decreased to 44.6 percent from 86.5 percent of total milk sales. The total amount of milk purchased remained constant from baseline to the end of the study.

Selection of fruits increased by about 20 percent during the course of the study, to 1.2 items per day from 1. Vegetable selection increased 62 percent to 1.2 items per day from 0.74 items.

Over a three-month period, the number of students opting for a Power Plate increased 335 percent, the researchers said.

“It looks like we found a very promising, low-cost and effective way of improving the nutrition of elementary school children,” said Robert Siegel, MD, medical director of the Center for Better Health and Nutrition of the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, and lead author of the study. “This type of program may be a useful component in schools trying to improve the nutrition and health of their students.”

The study was supported by the Heart Institute and Population Health Team of Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

From Meat & Poultry, April 28th, 2015

Driscoll Foods received the UniPro Foodservice 2014 Key Distributor Award at UniPro’s Spring Purchasing Conference and annual Awards Luncheon held this year in Phoenix, Arizona.

The UniPro Key Distributor Award recognizes UniPro member companies for their increased participation in all of the UniPro programs, through purchasing growth and support of key UniPro sales and marketing programs.

UniPro Foodservice is the nation’s largest independent foodservice distribution cooperative, operating from more than 900 distributor locations. UniPro members serve all segments of the foodservice industry, including independent restaurants, healthcare operations, schools, military bases, and convenience stores.

From NorthJersey.com
January 15th, 2015
By Minjae Park

Driscoll Foods could move into the township as early as next year after its plans to double its floor size in the building it will occupy, the former headquarters of drug-maker Bayer AG, were approved by the township planning board’s this week.

The family-owned company announced last September it had outgrown its 217,139-square-foot Clifton facility and would move to Wayne to expand its space, operations and workforce.

The company’s site plan for a new 396,401-square-foot warehouse was approved unanimously by the Planning Board on Monday, putting the company a step closer to a 2016 move-in. It now needs various environmental permits and other approvals before it can break ground.

Tim Driscoll, president of the company, said at the board meeting the move would enable the company to increase its number of employees from 450 now to 800 in five years.

The project entails demolishing the 137,048 of existing office space and building a new 396,401-square-foot warehouse, as well as two two-story office building additions of 12,624 square feet total. An existing driveway would be abandoned and two new driveways would be created for truck-only access.

The company, started by Driscoll’s father in 1971, distributes meats, poultry, milk, dairy products, grocery, cleaning supplies, paper and other products, to restaurants, food services, jails and country clubs within a 120 mile radius of Clifton.

During the meeting, a company engineer said that goods would be transported into the Wayne location, stored and then sent out for delivery. More than 100 trucks would go in and out using a loading dock facing Westbelt Road, away from homes along Barnsdale Road. There would be parking space for 609 vehicles.

Also discussed at the meeting were trees — some would be taken down but more would be planted — and measures to minimize sound and light reaching nearby homes. Trees and sound retaining walls are planned.

The board heard testimony from the company’s lawyers, engineer, architect and sound experts. Driscoll said once the company’s’ plans are approved, employees could be ready to move in by April 2016.

The company pledged to keep intact McCoog Park, on the northern end of the property. The park was named in memory after Glenn E. McCoog, a firefighter who died in 1983, and includes a soccer field, playground and a basketball court.

“It means a lot to a lot of people,” Mayor Chris Vergano said at the meeting, thanking the company for the decision.

On Tuesday, January 14th, high school students from across New Jersey gathered at the Berkeley Carteret Hotel in Asbury Park for the Annual NJRA ProStart Competition. This annual competition is a 2 part event in which high school students compete in both a culinary competition as well as a conceptual management presentation. The culinary portion challenged students to present an appetizer, an entrée and a dessert to an esteemed panel of judges. The management competition challenged the students with developing a concept for a restaurant. The teams had to present an entire plan starting with a them and location of a proposed establishment to an actual proposed P&L sheet. The teams from Passaic County Vocational Tech swept the competition taking 1st place in both Culinary and Management! This competition was a great sneak peak at the talent that will be emerging from New Jersey in the years to come!