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Associated Press
2 days ago
- Business
- Associated Press
Purple Crow Brings Job Growth and Opportunity to Winston-Salem with New Facility Opening
Ribbon cutting ceremony on June 11, 2025, marks expansion at 1001 Reynolds Blvd, boosting local employment and economic momentum. 'This isn't just a ribbon-cutting—it's a turning point.' 'We're proud to celebrate with our community of vendors, customers, and employees who have made this incredible moment possible.'— Dan Calhoun President of Purple Crow WINSTON-SALEM, NC, UNITED STATES, June 11, 2025 / / -- Purple Crow, a leading Hispanic grocery distributor along the East Coast, is proud to announce the grand opening of its new headquarters at Whitaker Park in Winston-Salem, NC. The company invites news and other media to cover the ribbon-cutting event on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, at 5:00 pm at 1001 Reynolds Blvd, Winston-Salem, NC 27105. Abasto Media, a national trade publication serving the Hispanic food and beverage industry, will also relocate its offices to the new facility, further strengthening the connection between the two companies. The event marks a significant milestone for both Purple Crow and the creation of jobs for the region. The $50 million investment will consolidate operations at the historic Whitaker Park site and is expected to support long-term job growth, offering competitive salaries that are well above the local average. The move by Abasto Media—already a key industry voice—adds another layer of strategic alignment and growth. Honoring the Past, Building the Future As part of the ceremony, executives from R.J. Reynolds (RJR) will present Purple Crow's board with the original shovel used to break ground on the facility in 1958 — a symbolic gesture linking the site's legacy to a forward-looking role in North Carolina's economy. The program will feature: • Ribbon-cutting ceremony • Keynote remarks In attendance will be: • Mayor Allen Joines, City of Winston-Salem • Chief William Penn, Winston-Salem Police Department • Denise D. Adams, Mayor Pro Tempore, City of Winston-Salem • Representatives from North Carolina's Senate and Congressional offices • Claudia Velasco Osorio, Consul General of Mexico in Raleigh Investors and Board Members Present Include: • Ken Langone, philanthropist and co-founder of The Home Depot • Thomas L. Teague, President and CEO, Salem Corporation • Carlos Evans, former EVP, Wells Fargo • Al Carey, Executive Chairman, Unifi, Inc., and former CEO, PepsiCo North America • Bruce M. Langone, President, Invemed Associates, LLC • Steve Spinner, former Chairman and CEO of United Natural Foods (UNFI) • Dan Calhoun, President and CEO of Purple Crow and Abasto Media • Nathaniel Calhoun, EVP of Purple Crow • Phil Calhoun, EVP of Purple Crow 'This isn't just a ribbon-cutting—it's a turning point,' said Dan Calhoun, President of Purple Crow. 'We're proud to celebrate with our community of vendors, customers, and employees who have made this incredible moment possible.' Media coverage is welcome. To schedule one-on-one interviews with VIP guests, please contact Gus Calabro at [email protected] (336) 486-2424 or Lucy Calhoun at [email protected] (336) 749-4562. We'd love to have members of the press join us for what promises to be a memorable evening of conversation, connection, and great hospitality. Gus Calabro Abasto Media +1 336-486-2424 email us here Legal Disclaimer: EIN Presswire provides this news content 'as is' without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the author above.
Gulf Insider
23-04-2025
- Health
- Gulf Insider
How Junk Food Took Hold In The US
'It's not food. It's food-like substances.' Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. described the many manufactured food products offered that are high in calories but low in nutritional value. 'So, strawberry flavoring in food, but there's no nutrients. It's sugar.' Kennedy said. 'Your body is craving that, but it doesn't get filled up. It doesn't give you nutrition, but you want to eat more.' Kennedy, a longtime health advocate, has championed President Donald Trump's call for 'fresh thinking on nutrition' as part of the Make America Healthy Again initiative. The secretary spoke in Indianapolis on April 15 in support of Gov. Mike Braun's announcement of nine health-related executive orders. Kennedy has urged states to prohibit the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds to purchase certain foods with high sugar content but little nutritional value. SNAP, colloquially known as food stamps, is a federal program administered by the states that helps nearly 42 million low-income Americans pay for food. To change the list of foods eligible for purchase with SNAP funds, states must request a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). A handful of states, including Indiana, are doing that. Advocates call this a commonsense way to promote better food choices. Some critics say the initiative amounts to virtue signaling, a symbolic action unlikely to produce any positive effect. Kennedy hopes it will fuel a movement toward healthier food consumption that will reverse the growing prevalence of obesity among Americans. Kennedy and others have blamed the glut of tasty but vacuous foods on big tobacco companies, which entered the food industry more than 60 years ago. In the 1960s, R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris, then the largest tobacco brands, began developing children's beverages including Hawaiian Punch, Kool-Aid, Capri Sun, and Tang, according to a report from The BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal. 'Tobacco executives transferred their knowledge of marketing to young people and expanded product lines using colours, flavours, and marketing strategies originally designed to market cigarettes,' a team of researchers reported. Vuse e-cigarette packages are displayed at Cigar N Vape in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Oct. 13, 2021. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the sale of R.J. Reynolds' Vuse Solo e-cigarette and its tobacco-flavored cartridges the prior day, saying data show the product may reduce smokers' exposure to harmful chemicals found in traditional cigarettes. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images In May 1962, R.J. Reynolds' director of research reported the status of product development in an internal memo. The director described the result of taste tests for flavored drinks conducted with children in the same report detailing the addition of artificial flavoring to chewing tobacco and cane sugar to cigarettes. R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris eventually went deeper into the food business, owning major brands Kraft, General Foods, and Nabisco for several years starting in the 1980s. There, they applied some of the same strategies to manufacturing other foods people find irresistible. Researchers at the University of Kansas found that food companies owned by tobacco companies were much more likely than others to market 'hyper-palatable' food products. Hyper-palatable foods contain more of the things that make food taste good, such as fat, sugar, sodium, or carbohydrates, according to Tera Fazzino, an author of the Kansas study and associate director of the university's Cofrin Logan Center for Addiction Research and Treatment. These foods also have fewer of the nutrients that make us feel satisfied, Fazzino said in a 2023 interview. 'As a result, hyper-palatable foods can be difficult to stop eating, even when we physically feel full.' The researchers concluded, 'Tobacco companies appear to have selectively disseminated hyper-palatable foods into the U.S. food system between 1988 and 2001.' That triggered an industry wide shift, the researchers said. By 2018, foods high in fat, sodium, and carbohydrates had long been widely marketed regardless of whether or not the producers were previously owned by a tobacco company. The result, according to Kennedy, is an obesity crisis that threatens the health and safety of all Americans. Boxes of sugary cereal fill a store's shelves in Miami on April 16, 2025. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that many manufactured food products are high in calories but low in nutritional value.'We have people who are obese who are at the same time malnourished, because the food that we're eating is not nutrient-dense anymore,' Kennedy said. 'It is threatening our national security: 74 percent of our kids cannot qualify for military service.' Nearly 70 percent of American adults are either overweight or obese, according to a 2023 report by the federal government. Obesity rates have tripled over the last 60 years, while severe obesity has increased by a factor of 10. Americans are not alone in this. More than 60 percent of Europeans are either obese or overweight, according to data reported by the National Institutes of Health. Worldwide, the prevalence of obesity has risen for decades. Click here to read more Also read: How To Protect Yourself From Phone Searches At The US Border
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Federal judge dismisses Montana lawmaker's lawsuit against ‘big tobacco'
Vaping products confiscated from students at Skyview High School in Billings, Montana (Photo by Darrell Ehrlick of the Daily Montanan). A federal judge dismissed a Montana lawmaker's suit against large tobacco companies, alleging that not only were the companies violating a decades-long settlement with the state, but that Montana's top attorney, Austin Knudsen, was not doing his job because of a cozy relationship with the companies. Rep. Ron Marshall, R-Hamilton, said that large tobacco manufacturers, including R.J. Reynolds and Altria Group are illegally lobbying against a bill he is carrying, House Bill 149, which he said protects vape shop owners and other retailers from being forced into selling only the vaping products manufactured and sold by the larger companies, effectively creating a monopoly. However, U.S. District Court Judge Dana L. Christensen said that Marshall lacks standing to bring a lawsuit, and tried to use a legal concept known as the 'private attorney general doctrine' incorrectly. Christensen said in his decision on Wednesday he was dismissing the lawsuit, not ruling on any of the concerns Marshall brought up, because the representative lacked standing — the right to bring the lawsuit. 'In Montana, 'a stranger to a contract lacks standing to sue for breach of contract unless he is the intended third-party beneficiary of the contract,'' Christensen said, quoting from previous court decisions. According to the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement in November 1998 and involving states and large tobacco companies, only the state can sue the companies for violating the agreement. Furthermore, Marshall couldn't show that his bill, which he claimed previously was being sabotaged by the tobacco companies' lobbying efforts, would not pass. Christensen rejected that Marshall suffered a concrete injury, or that he was about to suffer injury. '(Marshall) himself admitted that there is a chance HB 149 will pass. Petitioner's conjectural and hypothetical injuries are insufficient to establish standing or obtain an injunction,' Christensen said. Christensen also said that private attorney general doctrine under Montana law means that a private resident can sue to vindicate only constitutional rights that the state is not otherwise challenging. Christensen said that Marshall tried to use the theory as justification to bring the lawsuit, but that no constitutional rights were implicated. Instead, Christensen said that the claims that Marshall was bringing up in the lawsuit were more properly a breach of contract, and as such, the lawmaker was not a party to the contract, and he wasn't a beneficiary of any of its terms, so he lacked standing to do so. Meanwhile, Marshall had argued because some of the same parties had made campaign contributions to Knudsen and he appeared favorable to the companies, that Knudsen was not doing his job because of a conflict of interest. The federal court declined to to consider that argument as well. '(Marshall) does not explain whose responsibility it is to determine whether Attorney General Knudsen has a conflict of interest, nor does (he) convince the court that — as a legislator — (he) is the appropriate individual to make that determination,' Christensen said. 'Nevertheless, the court has reviewed the private attorney general doctrine and determined that is inapplicable here.' Marshall had also claimed the tobacco companies were not properly reporting their lobbying activities and expenses with the State of Montana, something he said contradicted the master settlement. Marshall declined to speak to the Daily Montanan when contacted on Wednesday, but indicated that it may not be the end of his fight against the tobacco companies. '(Marshall) asks this court to assert its federal judicial powers to not only expand Montana state law by allowing petitioner to take on the enforcement roles of the state executive branch, but also, to halt certain ongoing activities at the Montana State Legislature,' Christensen said. 'The court — at risk of understatement — does not take this request lightly and — out of respect for the separation of powers — declines the invitation.'
