California Ag Network

Tag: foodservice marketing

  • Pistachio Week Begins Aug. 10

    Pistachio Week will begin Aug. 10, with restaurants throughout California sharing dishes that showcase American-grown pistachios.

    “Pistachio Week celebrates the culinary versatility of American-grown pistachios by partnering with restaurants, cafés, ice cream shops and other food-service businesses across California to showcase unique pistachio-inspired menu offerings,” American Pistachio Growers (APG) wrote in its promotion.

    This is the fifth year that APG has hosted the event.

    “We’re seeing everything from pistachio-crusted fish to really innovative ice cream flavors at Ampersand,” said APG Marketing Manager Hannah Young. “And we are also tapping into some of the bakeries, coffeeshops, and people are getting really, really excited about playing with pistachios and creating some really great products and recipes from them.”

    Click here for a full list of participating restaurants.

  • Almond Board Works to Expand C and U Access

    When growers think about foodservice demand, restaurants and packaged foods often come to mind. But another foodservice segment is quietly shaping ingredient use, consumer preferences and long‑term demand: College and University (C and U) foodservice.

    C and U refers to on‑campus dining programs at colleges and universities. These programs feed students, faculty and staff every day across multiple venues and meals. Collectively, C and U foodservice represents an estimated $18 billion industry nationwide, with thousands of campuses and significant purchasing power. For almonds, it is a segment where scale and influence intersect.

    College campuses serve food continuously. Breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks are offered seven days a week. Some campuses prepare tens of thousands of meals daily across dining halls, cafés, food trucks and catering operations. Even small ingredient decisions, when multiplied across millions of meals each year, can add up quickly.

    That scale is why the Almond Board of California engages with campus dining not only to encourage menu inclusion, but to help make almonds visible, desirable and repeatedly chosen by students. When almonds show up in everyday meals and beverages, they can influence preferences, normalize new uses beyond snacking and ultimately build long term demand.

    “College dining today looks very different than it did a generation ago,” the Almond Board of California recently wrote. “Many universities now operate chef‑driven programs that emphasize scratch cooking, global flavors and ingredient transparency. On some campuses, dining experiences rival what is found in major cities.”

    The Almond Board works with campus dining leaders, executive chefs and purchasers — especially at universities that manage their own dining programs — to make it easier to feature almonds in ways that are more appealing to students.

    “C­ and U foodservice represents a long-term investment in almond demand because it combines large-scale meal volume with an unusually strong ability to shape consumer choices,” the Almond Board wrote. “Campus dining teams influence what students try repeatedly, and those experiences can carry forward into habits and purchases after graduation.”

    For growers, this work may help keep almonds top-of-mind as these student-consumers navigate more choices and more competing ingredients.

    — Story contributed by the Almond Board of California

  • California Milk Advisory Board Welcomes Leslie Ganzer to Foodservice Team

    The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), the marketing order representing California dairy producers, today announced the addition of Leslie Ganzer to its Foodservice team. In her new role, Ganzer will support engagement initiatives with major foodservice operators and distributors to expand participation in CMAB programs.

    Ganzer joins CMAB with a strong background in strategic sales execution, partner development and account retention across the foodservice and manufacturing sectors. She most recently served as a Territory Account Manager at Informa, where she led sponsorship sales and renewal growth for national events such as the Restaurant Leadership Conference. She also implemented AI-driven prospecting and analytics tools to modernize client outreach and performance tracking.

    Prior to Informa, Ganzer held multiple leadership roles at foodservice market research firm, Technomic Inc., where she managed multimillion-dollar accounts with national chains, broadline distributors, commodity boards and manufacturers. Her earlier career with EcoSure (Ecolab) and C.H. Robinson provided deep insight into large-scale food safety, logistics and operations.

    At CMAB, Ganzer will focus on strengthening partnerships and aligning dairy marketing initiatives with operator needs and trends. Her experience bridges analytics and sales strategy—helping CMAB deepen its relationships with key industry partners and enhance its data-driven approach to foodservice growth.

    “Leslie’s combination of strategic sales experience and foodservice insights will bring tremendous value to our operator and distributor relationships,” said Katie Cameron, Director of Foodservice at CMAB. “Her proven ability to grow partnerships and deliver measurable results aligns perfectly with our mission to expand the reach of Real California dairy products across the foodservice industry.”

    Ganzer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology with a minor in Human Relations from the University of Iowa.

    California is the number one dairy state with more than 1,000 family dairy farms focused on delivering the wholesome goodness of California milk while creating a more sustainable future for dairy in the state.

    About Real California Milk/California Milk Advisory Board

    The California Milk Advisory Board (CMAB), an instrumentality of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, is funded by the state’s dairy farm families who lead the nation in sustainable dairy farming practices. With a vision to nourish the world with the wholesome goodness of Real California Milk, the CMAB’s programs focus on increasing demand for California’s sustainable dairy products in the state, across the U.S. and around the world. Connect with the CMAB at RealCaliforniaMilk.com.