Church Brothers Farms names Jennifer Wagner Sanchez as director of marketing
Partnership will provide equitable solutions to bring free reliable internet to qualifying SCESD families
In January, Church Brothers Farms announced they have hired Jennifer Wagner Sanchez as their director of marketing. Sanchez was previously director of retail sales for Driscoll’s berry growers. She spent more than 7 years with Green Giant Fresh/Growers Express prior to that, where she rose to vice president of marketing and category management. At Church Brothers, Sanchez’s duties include directing brand management, communications and messaging, new product launches, and design and development of collateral for retail and foodservice business, according to a news release. “As we continue to grow into retail, we are charging her with generating marketing plans that will create success for our customers and align with our overall sales objectives,” Rick Russo, senior vice president of sales and marketing, said in the release.
Salinas City Elementary School District (SCESD), Raley’s and Comcast announced a new innovative way to provide Salinas City families with more reliable connectivity to the internet without the use of hot spots. This new initiative, called SCESDConnect, with the generous donation by Raley’s, allows SCESD to provide Comcast’s Internet Essentials program to qualifying low-income families with internet access, provided they live in a Comcast service area. Over the coming weeks, SCESD will provide families with more information including eligibility requirements and instructions about how to sign up for the program.
“Addressing the Digital Divide requires shared leadership of both private and public sectors at the federal, state, and local levels. The persistent lack of connectivity is an infrastructure inequity--and we urge the federal communications commission to expand E-Rate and our state legislature to address the broadband inequities for all,” said SCESD Superintendent Dr. Rebeca Andrade. “At SCESD we are appreciative that, through this grant from our local partners at Raley’s, we do not have to wait for the necessary shared leadership, but rather serve as an example of what is possible. This grant will allow us to transfer 3,000 families from the current internet insecure system they have into an infrastructure that can sustain connectivity for the continued Distance Learning needs of their children from the safety of their home. This is the culmination of many conversations with our local elected officials, non-profit organizations addressing the digital divide, and the support of the California department of education individuals.”
“We would love to thank Raley’s for their wonderful donation,” said SCESD Board President Francisco Javier Estrada. “This will go a long way with helping our families and virtual learning situation, which has been a real task for all involved, most especially, our children. This opportunity is inspiring and highly motivational for our SCESD community. We will make sure our families benefit, to the fullest, from this donation.”
“The City of Salinas is incredibly grateful for the generosity of Raley’s with their donation of $30,000 to SCESD,” said City of Salinas Mayor Kimbley Craig. “The “digital divide” is a very real problem in our community, and this grant helps close that gap. It’s important to bring equity to all areas of Salinas.”
“We’ve all been working under difficult circumstances and have demonstrated incredible determination and grit. Our youth have done the same,” said Raley’s CEO Keith Knopf. “We are proud to support Salinas City Elementary School District with funding to strengthen their ability to support hundreds of families.”
Salinas City Elementary School District began Distance Learning on March 16, 2020, and has worked tremendously hard to provide and connect our students and families with chrome books, hot spots, and iPad devices. As well as, finding innovative and reliable ways to provide the support our families need.
According to the Monterey County Office of Education (MCOE), last March, it was determined that 8,500 students in Monterey County didn’t have a device at home and 11,000 didn’t have access to the internet. After intense efforts by our districts and County office to close that gap, that number has drastically decreased, but more is still needed to close the divide.
Since 2011, more than 8 million low-income Americans have been connected to the internet at home through Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, 90 percent of whom were not connected to the internet at home until they signed up through Internet Essentials. This includes more than one million residents across California, which is the number one state, in terms of, overall participation in the program.
Internet Essentials has an integrated, wraparound design that addresses each of the three major barriers to broadband adoption that research has identified. These include a lack of digital literacy skills, lack of awareness of the relevance of the internet to everyday life needs, and fear of the internet; the lack of a computer; and cost of internet service. The program is structured as a partnership between Comcast and tens of thousands of school districts, libraries, elected officials, and non-profit community partners. For more information, or to apply for the program in seven different languages, please visit www. internetessentials.com or call 1 (855) 846-8376. Spanish-only speakers can also call 1 (855) 7656995.
The Eighth Annual Salinas Valley Ag Tech Summit on March 18-19 recognizes the increasingly international scope of the produce industry, with a number of presenters from Latin America and a diversity of experience and expertise from California.
Because this year’s summit will be presented in a virtual format via Zoom, attendees can also participate from anywhere in the world – with no charge for registration. Anyone interested can sign up to attend by visiting the webpage hartnellfoundation.org/2021-salinas-valley-ag-tech-summit/.
The lineup of speakers and panelists reflects fresh produce’s increasing complexity as competitors work to harness emerging technology and emerging markets, while ensuring that their managers and workers are ready to meet those opportunities.
A full-day program on March 19 will open with morning sessions that feature AgTech players and industry leaders presenting on key issues, including workforce challenges and the critical role of education. Afternoon sessions will spotlight “AgTech, the View From Mexico and the Americas,” as well as presentations from tech providers and growers. Portions of the program will be available in Spanish
and English.
Among international presenters are Tomás Peña, co-founder of S4, one of Argentina’s earliest AgTech start-ups and a leading driver of the AgTech ecosystem across Latin America; agricultural economist Elisa Blanco, offering a global perspective on water as co-founder of the Center for Water Law and Management in Chile; and Jairo Trad, a software developer, data scientist and entrepreneur with business in six Latin American countries and the United States.
The day’s first panel will be a wide-ranging discussion featuring Leon Brish, co-founder and CEO of FarmDog;
Mariana Valdez, soil science manager for AgWise Enterprises Inc.; and Sebastien Boyer, co-founder and CEO of FarmWise, which made Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2020 list for its autonomous weeder.
The second panel, focused on Education and Ag Technology, will include Dr. Peter Livingston, head of the BioResource & Agricultural Engineering Department at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Chris Kitts, director of the Robotic Systems Laboratory and associate dean of research and faculty development for the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University. The moderator will be Clint Cowden, Hartnell’s dean of Career Technical Education and Workforce Development.
An afternoon Keynote Fireside Chat on “The Importance of Education for Tomorrow’s Workforce” will include a Central Coast panel made up of Tom Nunes a fourth-generation farmer and president of the Nunes Company, a premier grower-shipper with production in California, Arizona and
Nevada; John D’Arrigo, president, CEO and chairman of D’Arrigo Bros.; and Miles Reiter, CEO and chairman of Driscoll’s. The moderator will be Brie Reiter Smith, director of Driscoll’s quality systems design, supply chain.
Preceding the full-day program of speakers and panels on March 19, a President’s Reception will kick off the summit on the evening of March 18. Dr. Raúl Rodríguez, interim superintendent/ president of Hartnell College in Salinas, will give welcoming remarks. The college is co-presenting the summit with Western Growers. The reception will also feature a 5:30 p.m. Fireside Chat with Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, moderated by Dennis Donohue, director of the Western Growers for Innovation and Technology.
Visit the event webpage at hartnellfoundation.org/2021-salinasvalley-ag-tech-summit/ to learn more about this year’s summit, including sponsorship and virtual exhibitor opportunities. For further information, contact Clint Cowden at (831) 755-6702 and ccowden@hartnell.edu.