Groups Ask Congress To Repeal Automatic Enrollment Update
The National Assn. of Convenience Stores ( NACS) and the National Restaurant Assn. joined 86 retailers, employers and state and national business trade associations in asking Congress to support legislation, authored by Reps. Richard Hudson and Robert Pittenger, that seeks to repeal the automatic enrollment provision under the federal Obama Health Care Act .
Under the automatic enrollment provision, employers with 200 or more employees must automatically enroll an employee in a health coverage plan if the employee does not voluntarily choose one.
"The automatic enrollment may create additional confusion for our employees in an already complex benefit area, and could result in unnecessary hardship if they find themselves automatically enrolled in a plan in which they do not wish to participate,” the letter states. “In addition, the automatic enrollment requirement is redundant, expensive and unnecessarily burdensome for employers without increasing employees’ access to coverage."
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BJ's Selects FoodLink To Purchase Fresh Produce
FoodLink, the fresh food commerce and traceability platform, announced last week that BJ’s Wholesale Club, Inc. is leveraging FoodLink’s buying platform to assist in the sourcing and purchasing of fresh produce across BJ’s 15-state chain.
"Produce is an increasingly important category for our club members, and we are always looking for ways to provide high quality products at a value," said Jeff Desroches, senior vice president and director of logistics for BJ’s Wholesale Club. “FoodLink will help us improve supply chain visibility into market data and enable us to work closely with our suppliers to better meet the needs of our members.”
By placing all produce orders over FoodLink, BJ's hopes to add a significant volume of business to a network that already includes all fresh food purchases by major retailers and wholesalers such as Ahold USA, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG), and Roundy’s Supermarkets. and more.
The network consists of more than 2,000 retail grocers and their fresh food suppliers, including growers, shippers, carriers and third-party brokers and wholesalers.
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Kroger Unveils Energy System Powered By Food Waste
The Kroger Co. last week unveiled a clean energy production system that will convert food that cannot be sold or donated into clean energy to help power its Ralphs/Food 4 Less distribution center in Compton, Cal.
The conversion system will process more than 55,000 tons of organic food waste into renewable energy annually, providing power for the more than 650,000 square foot distribution center. By diverting that food waste - the equivalent of 150 tons per day - the system will also reduce area truck trips by more than 500,000 miles each year. The Kroger Recovery System uses a sophisticated process to convert the carbon in organic material into a renewable source of methane.
"We are committed to finding solutions for food waste and clean energy, and we believe this is a meaningful step forward," said Rodney McMullen, Kroger's president and chief operating officer. "Investing in this project is a good business decision for Kroger and, most importantly, an extraordinary opportunity to benefit the environment."
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The Organic Trade Assn, has established a Farmers Advisory Council to gain input from small to medium sized organic farmers, ranchers and growers on issues geared to advancing organic agriculture.
• Dollar General held a national hiring day on May 18 to add 10,000 workers, The company is seeking distribution center workers to support growth in the 40 states that Dollar General does business. Giant Food of Landover, Md., recently announced that two of its in-store pharmacies, Catonsville and Bethesda, Md., are now open 24 hours a day.
• CVS Caremark and its customers have donated more than $650,000 to the One Fund to support victims of the Boston Marathon attack.
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