The Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers (OPVG) will hold its first board meeting on October 11, with a new executive director, new chair and newly constituted board of directors. 

“It’s an opportunity to start with a clean slate,” says general manager Cathy Lennon. The new board will need to ramp up quickly because the first negotiations for processing onions and hand-harvested cucumbers start end of October and must be completed by mid-December. 

On September 26, four new board directors were appointed by the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commision. They include: Eric Allaer, Michael Denys, Tom Hebblethwaite and Chris Stewart.  Elected from District 1 are Dave Epp, Leamington and Pascal Jennen, Dresden.  Mike Lenders, Ilderton, was acclaimed in District 2 and Dan Froese, Straffordville was acclaimed in District 3. With the exception of Dave Epp who chaired the previous board from 2001-2003 and Mike Lenders who joined the previous board in 2017, all are new at the table.

The newly appointed chair of the board is Suzanne van Bommel. 

Source:  Ontario Processing Vegetable Growers, www.opvg.org.