Technology

SUMMER GIVING: MACY’S AND READING IS FUNDAMENTAL (RIF) RAISE MORE THAN $1 MILLION IN JULY CAMPAIGN SUPPORTING CHILDREN’S LITERACY

Published

2 years ago

August 5, 2024

Funds raised will support RIF’s programmatic work focused on social and emotional learning and providing book choice and access to children in our nation’s most at-risk communities as RIF and Macy’s partner together to close the literacy gap

NEW YORK and WASHINGTON, Aug. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Continuing a multi-decade partnership, Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) and Macy’s have successfully raised more than $1 Million in their latest campaign to support children’s literacy in communities nationwide. The funds, raised by Macy’s shoppers as part of a monthlong in-store round-up and online donation campaign, will be used to provide books and other reading resources to children around the country in under-resourced communities, aiming to empower youth and inspire brighter futures through literacy.

Earlier this year, RIF and Macy’s re-launched their online Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) Center and funds raised will help RIF to continue to focus on the SEL Center with a deeper inventory of book recommendations as well as enhancements to the breadth and depth of RIF provided print and digital reading resources. Funds will also support RIF’s annual Rally to Read 100 six-month reading engagement initiative which provides free author read-alouds and activities to motivate and engage young readers.

Additionally, critical funds raised during the campaign will further enable RIF to bolster their Race, Equity, and Inclusion work, of which Macy’s is a founding member, to supply diverse and reflective books and reading resources to children in communities across the nation with the largest literacy gap along racial lines.

As of the company’s social purpose platform, Mission Every One, Macy’s celebrates 21 years of partnership with RIF, the nation’s leading children’s literacy organization. This enduring partnership has helped inspire reading joy in students nationwide, contributing more than $46 million and facilitating over 16 million books distributed, as well as the creation of more than 30,000 supplemental literacy resources and tools offered free to all children on RIF’s book resource website at www.RIF.org/Literacy-Central. This shared effort advances children’s literacy across the country, providing essential reading material and support for young readers to thrive and set themselves up for success.

“The ability to read forms the bedrock of all education, opening doors to knowledge and endless opportunity. RIF is honored to celebrate 21 years of partnership and collaboration with Macy’s, an organization that embodies the spirit of social responsibility while sharing our dedication to addressing the critical literacy challenges facing our nation’s youth,” said RIF President & CEO, Alicia Levi. “Thanks to Macy’s unwavering support, RIF is enabled to provide crucial literacy resources to communities nationwide as we strive to narrow the literacy gap by ensuring that every child has the chance to grow and realize their own potential through reading.”

“Through our social purpose platform, Mission Every One, we are committed to empowering our future leaders of tomorrow to help create a brighter future for our customers, colleagues and communities we serve,” said Sam Di Scipio, Macy’s, Inc. senior director, social impact. “For more than two decades, our partnership with Reading Is Fundamental has helped raise more than $46 million and provide access to more than 16 million critical resources to parents and educators, and diverse books and supplies to schools and communities nationwide. We are thrilled to continue this longstanding partnership to inspire a lifelong love of reading and help further close the literacy gap.”

In a true demonstration of both organizations’ shared emphasis on commitment to local literacy initiatives, RIF assisted community reading events from coast to coast, supporting read-alouds and other reading fun in locales nationwide. Throughout the month, thirteen Macy’s locations were visited by RIF staff to express gratitude and discuss the shared mission of closing the youth literacy gap in the United States, highlighting the partnership’s significant impact throughout the decades of working together.

About Reading Is Fundamental

Reading Is Fundamental (RIF) is committed to creating a nation of lifelong readers by inspiring the joy of reading among all children, putting them on the path to becoming skilled readers. We provide free, high-quality content to engage children, educators, families, and literacy advocates in the solution to the U.S. literacy crisis—so that every child has the fundamentals for success. As the nation’s leading children’s literacy nonprofit, RIF has provided nearly 430 million books and reading resources to nearly 190 million children since 1966, impacting generations of children. Explore our results and learn more about partnering with us at www.RIF.org.

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SOURCE Reading Is Fundamental

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

3 hours ago

April 29, 2026

SAN FRANCISCO, April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Chef Robotics, a leader in physical AI for the food industry, today announced that Chef robots can now automate tray assembly for baked goods packing. The application places baked products, such as burger buns, chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, butter cookies, biscuits, fortune cookies, granola bars, rusks, and shortbreads into trays and packaging containers before sealing.

Watch Chef robots in action.

Baked goods packing has historically been difficult to automate for high-mix production. Each item behaves differently on the production line—a granola bar compresses under the wrong grip, while a biscotti or rusk can crack if placed at the wrong angle. Surface textures range from glazed and smooth to crumbly and irregular, and strict presentation requirements leave little room for error. This variability has made it challenging for automation systems to reliably handle baked goods at production speeds, leaving food manufacturers dependent on manual labor and traditional bakery equipment.

To address this, Chef built its baked goods packing application on its existing piece-picking capability, which uses Chef’s AI-powered computer vision and physical AI models trained across diverse real-world production environments. This allows Chef robots to assess each item’s position, shape, and orientation in real time and determine how to pick the items from the pan and place them quickly and precisely without damaging them.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

First, Chef’s vision system detects the angle at which each item sits in the pan and reorients it after picking, placing it on the tray at the exact angle required, regardless of its original position, enabling retail-ready presentation for SKUs that require precise angular placement.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Third, for packaging containers with multiple small compartments, Chef robots can precisely place items into each designated section, including multiple items in the same compartment, using Chef’s AI vision model to detect compartment positions and orientations in real time.

Fourth, Chef’s vision system identifies the exact center of each tray and places every item at a predefined offset from that center, ensuring a uniform, consistent arrangement across every pack regardless of how trays arrive on the conveyor.

For food manufacturers evaluating bakery systems and baked goods packaging automation, the application offers higher throughput, reduced labor dependency, and consistent presentation across shifts. The capability runs on Chef’s existing robotic hardware and software, allowing manufacturers to deploy it without requiring any changes to their production lines.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

About Chef Robotics
Chef is the first company to have commercialized a scalable AI-driven food robotics solution. With over 104 million servings made in production, Chef leverages ChefOS, an AI platform for food manipulation, to offer a Robotics-as-a-Service solution that helps industry-leading food companies increase production volume and meet demand. Headquartered in San Francisco, CA, Chef aims to empower humans to do what humans do best by accelerating the advent of intelligent machines. Visit https://chefrobotics.ai to learn more.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Technology

Chef Robotics Physical AI Models Can Now Automate Baked Goods Packing

Published

3 hours ago

April 29, 2026

Watch Chef robots in action.

The baked goods packing application supports four distinct placement capabilities.

Second, Chef robots can place multiple baked goods into the same packaging container in a single automated pass, completing full tray assembly without manual intervention.

Chef’s baked goods packing application is available in the U.S., Canada, Germany, and the UK and is included as part of Chef’s robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) pricing model.

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/chef-robotics-physical-ai-models-can-now-automate-baked-goods-packing-302756923.html

SOURCE Chef Robotics

Technology

Air Products to Expand Industrial Gas Supply for Samsung Electronics’ Next-Generation Semiconductor Fab in South Korea

Published

3 hours ago

April 29, 2026

New investment underscores the company’s long-term commitment to Korea and its leading role in the global semiconductor industry

LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa., April 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Air Products (NYSE:APD), a world-leading industrial gases company and serving Samsung globally, today announced it has been selected by Samsung to supply industrial gases for its new advanced semiconductor fab in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea.

Under the agreement, Air Products will build, own and operate multiple state-of-the-art production facilities and a bulk specialty gas supply system to supply nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and hydrogen for Samsung’s new semiconductor fab. The new facilities are expected to come onstream in multiple phases from 2028 through 2030.

Air Products has a long track record of executing multiple phase expansions in Pyeongtaek to support Samsung’s growing manufacturing needs. This latest project represents Air Products’ largest investment to date in the semiconductor industry and will establish Pyeongtaek as the company’s single largest operations site globally supporting the electronics industry.

“Air Products is honored to be selected once again by Samsung and to have their continued confidence as a trusted partner supporting their strategic growth plans,” said SR Kim, President, Air Products Korea. “This significant investment reinforces Air Products’ role as a leading global supplier to the semiconductor industry and underscores our long-standing commitment to supporting our strategic customers with safety, reliability, efficiency and excellent service.”

Air Products has served the global electronics industry for more than 40 years, supplying industrial gases safely and reliably to many of the world’s leading technology companies. The company has operated in Korea for more than 50 years and has established a strong position in electronics and manufacturing sectors.

About Air Products

Air Products (NYSE: APD) is a world-leading industrial gases company in operation for over 85 years focused on serving energy, environmental, and emerging markets and generating a cleaner future. The Company supplies essential industrial gases, related equipment and applications expertise to customers in dozens of industries, including refining, chemicals, metals, electronics, manufacturing, medical and food. As the leading global supplier of hydrogen, Air Products also develops, engineers, builds, owns and operates some of the world’s largest clean hydrogen projects, supporting the transition to low- and zero-carbon energy in the industrial and heavy-duty transportation sectors. Through its sale of equipment businesses, the Company also provides turbomachinery, membrane systems and cryogenic containers globally.

Air Products had fiscal 2025 sales of $12 billion from operations in approximately 50 countries. For more information, visit airproducts.com or follow us on LinkedIn, X, Facebook or Instagram.

This release contains “forward-looking statements” within the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s expectations and assumptions as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. While forward-looking statements are made in good faith and based on assumptions, expectations and projections that management believes are reasonable based on currently available information, actual performance and financial results may differ materially from projections and estimates expressed in the forward-looking statements because of many factors, including the risk factors described in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2025 and other factors disclosed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as required by law, we disclaim any obligation or undertaking to update or revise any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the assumptions, beliefs or expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances upon which any such forward-looking statements are based.

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SOURCE Air Products