Amsterdam Produce Show gives support to Ride for the Roses

The annual Ride for the Roses was started in 1997 in the US and its purpose is to raise as much money as possible for cancer research. The ride was first initiated in the Netherlands in 1998, and since then more than €13 million has been made available to the Dutch Cancer Society. Thanks to the efforts of this year’s riders, many more euros (€585,000 at the time of writing) have found their way to this worthy cause.

"We like to involve ourselves as much as possible in whichever project or country we are working in. So when we were approached by our good friend Nic Jooste – CSR director of Cool Fresh International – to get involved in a collaborative effort to support the annual Ride for the Roses (with our Amsterdam Produce Show and Conference APS hat on) we did not hesitate for a moment and agreed to sponsor the team," explained Tommy Leighton Managing Director of the Amsterdam Produce Show.

Riding to beat cancer

The APS team consisted of a group of riders whose lives have all been touched by cancer in one way or another. Some of them have experienced the trials and tribulations of cancer as patients, others have lost relatives to cancer.

The team, which braved the elements of a miserable early autumn day in Enschede, consisted of:

• Nick Quine, whose mother was the initiator of the Little Libraries project in South Africa, which we covered here before. Nick himself is actively involved in various fundraising activities;

• Matias Florit, a French photographer;

• Nic Jooste, Jano Hogebrug and Christiaan van der Goes (all of Cool Fresh);

• Jan and Aad Greeve, two Dutch brothers who are actively involved in various volunteer projects;

• Czech-born Svatka Kubankova of Robinson Fresh, an extreme sportswoman;

• Jake Wright, an American software specialist.

Click here to watch a video of the Ride for the Roses

Sharing knowledge at APS

"We like to think that The Amsterdam Produce Show and Conference will be far more than a trade show – we are cooking up a hotbed for knowledge sharing and transfer for the international produce industry," explains Tommy in an article published in Produce Business UK.

The main seminar stage will focus on Dutch leadership in all of these fields – both at home and around the world - and some of the innovators and influencers are helping the country maintain its position at the industry’s top table by taking up these themes, challenging the status quo and extending accepted thinking and practice beyond historical boundaries.

Linking back to the Ride for the Roses, modern medical thinking is focusing more and more on nutrition in preventing and combating cancer, and the knowledge of the powerful impact a diet rich in fruits and vegetables can play in ensuring health has become a prime part of the Amsterdam event. One of the country’s top cancer surgeons, Joost van der Sijp, will speak at the APS on exactly this subject – how the industry can work with the medical profession to break through the status quo of the established value chain and support the concept that fresh produce should play a greater role in the pre- and post-op treatment processes.

There will be a lot more information released in the next 10 days about the other zones, each of which will be led by a Dutch organisation but also featuring the shining examples of other international leaders in their field.

Source: Produce Business UK