“The Raisin Situation” – Jonah Engel Bromwich (3,844 words)

Two words: raisin mafia. 

For a story that seems it would be so simple and standard, “The Raisin Situation” takes you on a whirlwind journey with Sun-Maid’s new chief executive and the turmoil he faces entering the raisin industry. 

The story begins explaining the raisin industry’s issue with young people not eating raisins and would seem to find it’s solution with the hiring of a younger CEO, Harry Overly, with experience in different food companies. The story then takes a turn with Overly meeting other raisin industry “players” and him saying after that occured in the back room of a restaurant felt like a raisin mafia. The story then continues by describing all the treats on Overly and his family’s lives, the state of the raisin industry, the anger and distrust in the farmers, and Overly trying his best to appeal to them and try to save the industry. The story luckily ends on a high note and it seems Overly has persuaded a lot of farmers and is currently on his way to attempt to change the industry for the better. 

This story is something that is different. It is so interesting because it takes something that one would expect to be really boring and flips it on its head. Who would ever think that raisins could involve death treats? It looks deeper into an unknown industry and exposes a lot of interesting drama. You can see the drama in the photos as well. The black and white photo of Overly defeated sitting on a desk at Sun-Maid headquarters. All the photos are black and white giving it an old timey dramatic feel to it. It all pulled together to be a really interesting story.