CHICAGO, January. 26, 2022 – The UPFIELD GROUP, owners of Cooler Management, are pleased to announce their new Vice President of Corporate Partnerships, Melissa Malcolm-Cullison.
Malcolm-Cullison now joins the UPFIELD GROUP after most recently serving as Director, National Sales and Field Marketing at the Milk Processors Education program (MilkPEP), responsible for the national got milk? campaign. In this previous role for 12 years, she oversaw industry relations, retail partnerships and the development of fresh milk’s path forward in America’s food banks. She has spent the past 6 years concentrating on hunger relief programs in partnership with the USDA, Feeding America, Dairy Management Inc. and the National Dairy Council, resulting in hundreds of millions of lbs. in donated and purchased dairy products. She has built programs like The Great American Milk Drive, the first of its kind national consumer donation program for fresh fluid milk and supported the roll-out and adoption of USDA’s first fresh milk commodity purchase programs under TEFAP (The Emergency Food Assistance Program).
“Healthy, nutrient- dense foods are the foundation for the building blocks of life. So for the past several years, I have focused relentlessly on getting fresh, nutritious dairy products to Americans through our partners like Feeding America Food Banks. However, when the food arrives at the food banks there is not enough refrigeration infrastructure throughout the pantry network to hold the donations. The Food banks then must scramble to distribute the food quickly and safely. It is an unfair burden to these organizations, and we need to put more focus on this infrastructure to support their success” said Malcolm-Cullison.
Taking on the new role of Vice President of Corporate Partnerships, Malcolm-Cullison first initiatives will be leading the charge on serving our non-profit partners to build the proper refrigeration infrastructure that is required to maximize donations of fresh food, minimize food waste and transport fresh foods to areas that are severely underserved. “At Cooler Management, we are getting ready to launch our new campaign “Fresh Has No Boundaries”. The campaign is intended to create awareness to the desperate need of refrigeration infrastructure throughout the U.S charitable food and school systems, while providing innovative solutions to offer equal access to fresh foods that truly nourish and power the potential of every American” said UPFIELD GROUP CEO, Mark Inkrott.
“Upon meeting Melissa, we knew from the onset that she was the perfect candidate to lead this work. After that, it was merely a question of getting to know her as a person and understanding her values. She has incredible expertise of the hunger ecosystem, government commodity programs and has a reputation of achievement for progression. Couple all of that with the fact she makes others around her better; how can we not be excited about our future together” added Inkrott.
If you would like to learn more about the Fresh Has No Boundaries campaign or our infrastructure work with non-profits, please visit Cooler Management here.
MEDIA CONTACT
Shannon Hoffman
shannon.hoffman@upfieldgroup.com
(614)795-8519