BIOGRAPHY

Anthony Di Meo III was born and raised in the small blueberry farming town of Hammonton, New Jersey. Both sides of his Italian-American family came from Italy around the year 1910. His father’s side of the family are all NJ blueberry farmers and experts in the American blueberry industry. His father is a third generation New Jersey blueberry farmer and co-owner of one of the largest blueberry farms in the world. His mother’s side of the family are all musicians. Her father, Anthony’s grandfather, was a musician, pianist and graduate of the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. His maternal grandmother, Nancy Panettiere is from New York, but she was born and raised on the volcanic island of Stromboli, Italy. They both married in New York and later moved to Hammonton, NJ after deciding to raise their family in South Jersey. Anthony has three brothers and one sister.

Since Anthony was about 14 years-old, he started working with his father and grandfather on the DiMeo family blueberry farms in NJ. Anthony spent many days and weekends on the Farmall AV tractor cultivating rows of newly planted DiMeo blueberry plants. After the blueberry picking season was finished, Anthony was responsible for post-harvest clean-ups of hundreds of acres of DiMeo blueberry fields. This process involved first mowing down all the high summer weeds with a 6’ brush cutter, straight down the middle of all the blueberry field rows. Then going up and down each blueberry field row with a 6’ off-set disk to chop up the weeds and to them down into the soil. During the blueberry farm off-season Anthony worked after school to make boxes and repair all the broken blueberry crates which were made of cedar wood from local saw mills.

During his grade school years, Anthony DiMeo III worked after school and all summer in the DiMeo blueberry farm fields. He worked directly with the field crew leader to register, sign-up and manage over 650 migrant farm workers (blueberry pickers) who hand-picked the DiMeo’s NJ blueberry crop for the season. Anthony was also responsible for carefully driving the truckloads fresh New Jersey blueberries in from the blueberry fields and to the DiMeo’s NJ blueberry packing house. When the blueberry pickers went home at the end of each blueberry season, he and his father worked together with a team of farm workers, day and night, to finish harvesting the last round of NJ blueberry picking with the DiMeo blueberry picking machines.

During his senior year in high school, Anthony accepted an internship and excelled in sales and marketing at just 17 years old. After high school graduation, he decided to attend the University of Delaware so that he would be close enough to drive back home on weekends to spend time with his grandparents and to continue working on his grandfather’s NJ blueberry farm and blueberry plants nursery in Hammonton.

Anthony DiMeo III was a well-known and successful undergraduate student at the University of Delaware, College of Business & Economics with a concentration in Business Administration. He was invited to join and was inducted into the national leadership honor society Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), a widely-renowned society that recognizes superior scholarship, leadership and exemplary character. He was honored by City of Newark Delaware mayor as well as the University of Delaware Dean of Students for his countless hours of volunteer community service. He was even given his own office on campus (third floor of Purnell Hall) when he served as President of American Marketing Association (UD Chapter of AMA) and President of Student Economics Association (SEA). Anthony was also awarded within the distinguished Blue Hen Leaders program.

During Anthony’s college years at the University of Delaware, he capitalized on his entrepreneurial spirit and founded RENAMITY Public Relations and Special Events, a high-end small boutique marketing group that built luxury brands in the fashion, entertainment and nightlife industries throughout the Philadelphia and New York City region. Anthony’s success in the industry often gave him an opportunity to work with and meet all types of celebrities at various fundraisers and charity events.

The day after he graduated from the University of Delaware (UD) with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, he was offered a job as stockbroker with Morgan Stanley. He earned his Series 7, 66 and 63 exams. Living and initially based out of New York City, but still driving back home to work weekends on the farm, he worked for the major Wall Street firm for several years after graduation from UD. Anthony was a contributing writer for several media publications that published his financial planning advice and often mentioned his family’s blueberry farm. He later decided to leave the financial services industry to focus on growing his other business ventures, including preserving and growing his family’s 107 year-old history in the American blueberry industry as a Managing Member of DiMeo Farms.

Right around that time, one of his social networking profiles caught the eye of producers who invited him to shoot a reality dating television show “A Dating Story” on TLC featuring a blind date on his family’s New Jersey blueberry farm that included a $10,000 fireworks display and a profile of his life as a young farmer and businessman. After the reality show aired on TLC, a producer from ABC’s The Bachelor saw it and loved his NJ blueberry farm date. She contacted Anthony and the producers flew him out to LA to audition for the reality TV show The Bachelorette. He was one of only 50 young bachelors who were chosen by top producers to be flown out to LA for the final Bachelorette audition.

Anthony was then invited by another producer to be on a NBC Today Show segment involving a panel discussion of young successful professionals who discussed the benefits of online dating. He enjoyed being in front of the camera so much that just for fun, he started acting with minor roles on feature films and television shows. Eventually he was invited to join the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). He is still a SAG-AFTRA member, but is currently inactive due to his NJ blueberry farm responsibilities.

Anthony has since been a motivational speaker at the University of Delaware, College of Business & Economics. During the blueberry off-season, he traveled to volunteer and speak at the School of English at Black Sea University in Ukraine. He served on the Breath of Life Gala Committee, volunteering to help the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to raise money for investment in vital CF research. Anthony was recognized by the CEO of the American Red Cross for his generous contribution and support that helped reach significant levels of donations and for his years of volunteer work on the Red Ball Committee. Every year during the holiday season, Anthony volunteered with the Red Cross and gave away toys to children in the City of Philadelphia who were facing hardships.

Anthony was also nominated by the Consul General of Italy and served on the Italian and Italian-American Heritage Commission advisory council to protect, preserve, and grow his family’s Italian heritage. He was given a commendation for his work, support and dedication promoting Italian Heritage. Both Anthony and his grandfather, Anthony DiMeo, Sr. were featured representing the DiMeo family in the book The Journey of Italians in America which celebrates the contributions Italians made in areas of agriculture and American culture. You can purchase a copy of the book on Amazon. The author contacted Anthony and invited him to be featured in the book with his blueberry farming family in Hammonton, NJ.

Anthony was also chosen from a list of over 4,300 candidates by Leadership Philadelphia and recognized as one of the “Top Key Connectors” in the city, who exemplify trusted leadership and concern for the common good. Anthony was given a token of appreciation from the Mayor of Philadelphia as being a successful young professional who “represents the future of our city.” He has received certificates of appreciation from Kiwanis International for his contributions and presentations before their club members, which serve the needy children of the world. Anthony also participated in “An Evening with the U.S. Senate” in which he attended a private dinner at the National Constitution Center with 25 U.S. senators to discuss all types of important issues including New Jersey farm issues.

Anthony now focuses most of his time on the DiMeo family blueberry farm which has a pick your own organic blueberry farm as well as hosts blueberry farm weddings and family photo shoots on their beautiful South Jersey farm properties. He is a Managing Member at DiMeo Farms which also has a beautiful blueberry plants nursery on the farm. The DiMeo’s still sell and ship the best organic NJ blueberry bushes. DiMeo Farms now has over 98,000 followers on Facebook with thousands of happy DiMeo blueberry farm customers from all across America who buy organic NJ blueberry plants farmer direct. www.DiMeoFarms.com

Anthony also supported the ‪‎Police Unity Tour which raised awareness of law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty. He supported Kiwanis International with donation toward its children’s scholarship fund. Anthony donated to National Night Out to promote police-community partnerships and improve relations between the public and NJ police officers. He also generously donated to Goodwill of Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, a nonprofit community based organization that puts people with special needs to work.

Anthony still enjoys researching his Italian family history and stays in contact with his friends and relatives in Italy. His family owns beautiful restaurants and properties in Italy. One of them is located in Casal Velino, Italy called Locanda Le Tre Sorelle. One of his other cousins also owns a successful agritourism farm in Italy that hosts tourists from all across the world. It’s called Zio Cristoforo and features some of the best Italian food cooked by real local Italian chefs. Those are just two of many of Anthony’s cousins in Italy. In the video below, Anthony and members of his NJ blueberry farming family, celebrated the 100th birthday blueberry farmer Joseph DiMeo with the entire DiMeo blueberry farm family including DiMeo Farms in Hammonton, New Jersey.