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Wednesday's Afternoon Update
What you need to know about Florida today
Florida orange juice, fresh citrus sales surge during pandemic
Orange juice and citrus sales have surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, which the industry attributes mostly to consumers' desire for Vitamin C to boost immune systems. The increasing sales mean that citrus growers were spared the disasters that many other produce growers and some dairy farms saw as restaurants closed suddenly in mid-March under pandemic restrictions. More from UPI and Fresh Plaza.
Enterprise Florida will award trade grants for virtual business matchmaking
Enterprise Florida, Inc. (EFI) announced on Tuesday that it is launching a new trade grant program to help the state’s small and medium-sized companies continue doing business overseas even as international travel is restricted during the coronavirus pandemic. EFI’s Virtual Business Matchmaking program will allow the state’s business community to reach new and existing customers overseas and keep moving forward. More from Florida Daily.
California company to help Manatee County adapt
Accela — a Silicon Valley company that provides cloud-based solutions for government — is helping Manatee County enable a fully remote workforce amid the coronavirus pandemic as well as move all inspection processes and permit requests online. The collaboration will help the county move forward as normally as possible and continue to run efficiently during the new work-from-home system that’s likely to remain in place for the immediate future. More from the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.
One of America’s best new chefs is in Kendall, says Food & Wine magazine
Niven Patel is obsessing over to-go containers. How food from his restaurant, Ghee Indian Kitchen, looks going into them, how it tastes coming out. How long it will spend in the car. How a diner will reheat it, serve it and refrigerate it. It’s not something he studied in cooking school. But it consumes most of his days as he continues to run his Kendall restaurant as takeout and delivery through the coronavirus pandemic. More from the Source.
Jacksonville’s work-from-home mandate to expire next week
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said Tuesday that his work-from-home executive order will expire next week and that he believes the city is ready to begin the next step of reopening. Curry’s executive order, which requires businesses to allow any employee who can work from home to do so, will expire Monday. More from the Florida Times-Union.
Photo Gallery
Sun City Center Emergency Squad’s all volunteer ambulance service
For 55 years, Sun City Center's all-volunteer ambulance service has been a point of pride for this retirement community in South Hillsborough. The group run four ambulances and handles about 5,000 basic medical 911 calls a year. The free service means retirees know that if they fall or have other maladies, they can get to the emergency room without fear of bank-breaking medical bills. The service is mainly staffed by volunteer seniors, who themselves are at high-risk if they contract the coronavirus.
» View the photo gallery at the Tampa Bay Times.
Business Profile
Miami’s oldest comic-book shop faces its biggest foe
A&M Comics and Books, the oldest comic book store in Florida, has fought off a veritable league of supervillains over its 46-year history: Hurricane Andrew, Sept. 11, two national financial crises, the digital revolution, even a fire. But the store, which sits on the western edge of a nondescript strip mall at 6650 Bird Road in Miami, may have finally met its kryptonite: The coronavirus pandemic.
» Read more from the Miami Herald.
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