California State Organic Program Special Investigator Leslie Fernandez collaborates with CDFA Needles Border Station staff to inspect organic blueberries and organic seeds entering California.
Did you know the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) State Organic Program (SOP) collaborates with CDFA’s Border Protection Stations to inspect organic products coming into California?
SOP and border station staff recently inspected organic blueberries and organic seeds entering California at the Needles Border Inspection Station. The organic inspection included verifying proper paperwork and checking that packages follow labeling requirements.
This is part of SOP’s increased efforts to conduct inspections through different stages of the food chain to ensure the integrity of organic products being grown and sold in California.
A Coachella Valley farmworker receives a COVID-19 vaccine. From the New York Times
By Miriam Jordan
The sun-baked desert valley tucked behind the San Jacinto Mountains is best known for an annual music festival that draws 100,000 fans a day and a series of lush, oasis resort towns where well-heeled snowbirds go to golf, sunbathe and party. But just beyond the turquoise swimming pools of Palm Springs, more than 10,000 farmworkers harvest some of the country’s largest crops of date palms, vegetables and fruits.
Mainly undocumented immigrants, they have borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic in California: In some areas, up to 40 percent of the workers tested for the virus had positive results. The Rev. Francisco Gómez at Our Lady of Soledad church in Coachella said his parish had been averaging 10 burials a week. “You’re talking about an apocalyptic situation,” he said.
Ending the virus’s rampage through farm country has been one of the nation’s biggest challenges. Undocumented immigrants are notoriously wary of registering for government programs or flocking to public vaccination sites, and the idea of offering the Covid-19 vaccine to immigrants who are in the country illegally ahead of other Americans has spurred debate among some Republican members of Congress.
But a landmark effort is underway across the Coachella Valley to bring the vaccine directly into the fields. Thousands of farm workers are being pulled into pop-up vaccination clinics hosted by growers and run by the county Health Department.
Riverside County is the first in the nation to prioritize farm workers for vaccination, regardless of their age and health conditions, on a large scale. But epidemiologists say such programs will need to expand significantly to have any chance of ending one of the biggest threats to the stability of the country’s food supply.
Hundreds of coronavirus outbreaks have crippled the work force on farms and in food processing centers across the country. Researchers from Purdue University estimate that about 500,000 agricultural workers have tested positive for the virus and at least 9,000 have died from it.
In the Coachella Valley, the vaccination program, which began in January, is the culmination of a monthslong effort to educate farmworkers about Covid-19, bringing testing close to their workplaces and encouraging them to stay home if they contract the virus.
On breaks from bunching scallions, harvesting artichokes and pruning grapevines, the workers on a recent morning trickled into an open-air warehouse to receive the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
They were spared the frustrating online registration process that most Californians must navigate and the hourslong waits that were typical at mass vaccination sites. Once they agreed to be immunized, an employer or organizer scheduled their appointments. Then, all they had to do was show up.
Rosa Torres, who packs dates, said she never imagined it could be so simple. “God answered my prayers,” said Ms. Torres, 49, an immigrant from Mexico, who was resplendent in matching lime-green shirt, wool cap and mask to mark the occasion.
A single mother, she said she could not afford to get sick and miss work.
“As soon as we got word vaccines were going to be available, we were making plans,” said Janell Percy, executive director of Growing Coachella Valley, a farmer group that is working with the Health Department. Ms. Percy spends frenetic days juggling calls between the county about vaccine availability and growers who inform her of the number of vaccines needed to cover their crews.
On a recent morning, she thought all 350 vaccine slots for the next day had been filled, only to hear from a grower that he had nine extra shots from his allotment.
“I got to find a grower who wants these so they don’t go to waste,” Ms. Percy said as she updated the sheet where she keeps track of distributions with a pencil and an eraser.
The challenges to getting farmworkers vaccinated go well beyond worries about their immigration status. The odds of being able to sign up for a vaccine online are low in a population that often lacks broadband access and faces language barriers. Many cannot easily reach vaccination sites in urban areas because they do not have reliable transportation or the ability to leave work in the middle of the day.
“Farmworkers are living in a reality that is foreign to most of us, and they are invisible to most of us, but they produce billions of dollars in food distributed across the United States,” said Conrado Bárzaga, chief executive of the Desert Healthcare District.
In March 2020, the federal government designated farmworkers as essential — a status that enabled them to continue working under stay-at-home orders but also put them at heightened risk of getting the virus.
Policymakers have struggled with how to protect them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised giving agricultural workers early access to the vaccine, but states have taken a range of approaches.
Most have not yet started vaccinating agricultural workers, though many have identified them as a priority population.Most have prioritized people age 65 or older, and the average age of farmworkers is 39, with more than half under 44.
In California, several counties hope in March to expand eligibility to the entire agricultural work force. Colorado, Idaho, Michigan and Wisconsin are among states that have said they intend to start vaccinating farmworkers in the coming weeks.
But other states have taken steps that could discourage workers from coming forward.
In Florida, a citrus powerhouse, people must prove residency to get a vaccine, a requirement that tends to deter unauthorized immigrants. Some pharmacies in Georgia, where people older than 65 are currently eligible for vaccines, have turned away immigrants unable to show a Social Security number. In Nebraska, where immigrants are the backbone of the large meatpacking industry, people without legal status will be vaccinated last, officials said.
In Riverside County, farmworker advocates and growers have been fielding calls from across the country about the vaccination effort, which is considered a model for how to administer vaccines to this population.
“It’s not just that they prioritized farmworkers — they developed a comprehensive, innovative strategy to ensure vaccine access and acceptance in farmworker communities,” said Alexis Guild, director of health policy at Farmworker Justice, a national advocacy organization.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, after a visit to a Coachella pop-up site on Feb. 17, announced that California would make 34,000 vaccines available to farmworkers in the Central Valley, the state’s agricultural heartland. “What this county has done no other county in the state had done,” he said. “We need to replicate this program all up and down the state of California.”
But some in Riverside County, which stretches from working-class Los Angeles exurbs to the Salton Sea, have questioned whether farmworkers should be at the front of the line.
On a recent evening in Beaumont, about a 30-minute drive from the Coachella Valley, people who had snagged appointments for vaccines through the process available to most California residents — mainly over 65 — idled in their cars for hours in the parking lot of a local middle school.
David Huetten, 73, said those confined to wheelchairs in his retirement community had been unable to reach vaccination events like this one. “When you have seniors and teachers who haven’t been vaccinated, I wouldn’t put farmworkers at the top of the list,” he said.
In the nearby town of Banning, Olga Rausch, a 73-year-old retired waitress who had still not been able to sign up for a vaccine, questioned why farmworkers should go before other blue-collar workers who also cannot afford to stay home from work. “There are a lot of people living in crowded conditions,” she said. “Why aren’t busboys, dishwashers and people working at the 99-cent store getting the vaccine?”
Most people, however, felt it made sense to prioritize farmworkers. “They’re handling our food,” said Don Tandy, a 66-year-old Vietnam veteran.
Health officials everywhere are grappling with how to achieve equitable vaccine distribution. President Biden has repeatedly said that delivering the vaccine is core to his coronavirus response, but early data shows that doses have been slower to reach some Black and Latino communities with an elevated risk of infection.
In Riverside County, Hispanics represent nearly half of the population but have so far received only 20 percent of doses. Vaccinating farmworkers is a first step toward addressing the equity problem, said U.S. Representative Raul Ruiz, a physician who grew up in Riverside County.
“We have a moral responsibility to make sure that we do not leave people behind simply because they lack resources or live in certain ZIP codes,” said Mr. Ruiz, a Democrat, who has been visiting rural communities to encourage residents to get vaccinated.
It has not been easy.
Like many Americans, some farmworkers worry the vaccine is not safe, because disinformation has proliferated on social media. Others fear that being vaccinated could expose them to immigration enforcement.
Prime Time International, the nation’s largest grower of bell peppers, invited workers to register for the vaccine last month, and “the first question was, ‘Is immigration going to be there?’” recalled Garrett Cardilino, director of field operations for the company.
To assuage those fears, Riverside County enlisted grass roots organizations to reach out to farmworkers and reassure them.
“There is no chip to track you; there is no negative effect; you don’t lose your fertility,” Montserrat Gomez, an educator with TODEC, a legal-aid nonprofit organization that serves immigrants, told a group of about 30 workers in masks gathered by a spinach field in the town of Winchester.
“The vaccine is now available for you,” she said. “Many people wish they had this opportunity.”
Asked whether they knew anyone who had been stricken by the virus, most of the workers raised their hands. Several knew someone who had died.
Rose Perez, a 36-year-old worker at Full Farms, a vegetable farm in the city of Hemet, said she remained suspicious of the vaccine, even though her sister had become gravely ill with the coronavirus. “I read that nurses died after taking the vaccine,” she said. “No one in my family is taking it.”
Domingo Juan, a Guatemalan, also said he did not trust the vaccine: “This sickness has been around for a long time. Suddenly there’s a cure?”
But after the talk, several workers returned to the fields to harvest bok choy and said they were ready to sign up.
Among them was Luis Valdivia, 48, who recently recovered from the virus but had to go without pay during his illness. “I suffered too much, lost 37 pounds,” said Mr. Valdivia, his voice still hoarse after weeks of intense coughing. “I’ll take the vaccine; that way, I’ll be able to keep working.”
Two rows over, America Aguilera, 46, said she could not remember undocumented immigrants getting preferential treatment for anything in her 21 years in the United States. “With all due respect,” she said, “it’s about time we got the opportunity to be first at something.”
In 2019 California’s farms and ranches received more than $50 billion in cash receipts for their output. This represents a slight increase over reported cash receipts compared to the previous year.
California agricultural exports totaled $21.7 billion, an increase of 3 percent from 2018. Top commodities for export included almonds, pistachios, dairy and dairy products, wine and walnuts. California’s agricultural export statistics are produced by the University of California, Davis, Agricultural Issues Center.
California organic product sales totaled more than $10.4 billion in 2019, an increase of 3.5 percent from the prior year. Organic production encompasses over 2.5 million acres in the state and California is the only state in the U.S. with a USDA National Organic Program.
California’s agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities. Over a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California. California’s top-10 valued commodities for the 2019 crop year are:
By Kristin Macey. CDFA Director of Measurement Standards
The year 2020 began on a hopeful note – as all new years do. Very soon, however, it transformed into the year that introduced a “new normal” to the world as we know it. That’s why this year’s theme for the U.S. National Weights and Measures Week (March 1 – 7, 2021) is titled, “Measuring Up to the New Normal.”
CDFA’s Division of Measurement Standards (DMS) has maintained a sense of relative normalcy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. For the most part, DMS remained open for business because weights and measures is an essential function to California agriculture and our food supply. That’s because DMS protects the infrastructure needed to process and transport food from farm to table.
Here are examples of that – fuel is necessary to operate farm equipment, and to transport commodities to processors, distributors, and retailers. Processors weigh commodities brought in from farms and ranches, and producers are paid based upon weight certificates. Retailers are held accountable for accurate prices so that consumers, some of whom lost jobs during the pandemic, are not overcharged for goods and services. County departments of weights and measures rely on DMS to certify their measurement standards used when they test commercial scales and meters for accuracy.
That’s not to say there weren’t some interesting occurrences in 2020. Early into the pandemic when there were reports of price gouging, DMS responded with a useful guideline for county sealers to disseminate to the public. There were also reports from county agricultural commissioners/sealers about irregularities in the boxes of N-95 masks they were distributing as protective gear to local farmworkers. It turned out that a new manufacturer was underfilling the number of masks in its boxes, a bad thing if the farmer is counting on fifty masks for fifty workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed some things for good, like working from home and shopping for groceries. However, you’ll be happy to hear that some of the basics haven’t changed. Every day, several hundred California weights and measures inspectors go out to inspect and test weighing and measuring equipment, store prices, and pre-packaged products. All to provide the businesses they regulate and consumers like you with that same level of protection you’ve always had.
U.S. shoppers expect them and so grocery stores do, too — but how do you deliver a summer fruit like grapes all 52 weeks of the year?
It’s not as easy as shipping them from as far away as Brazil, though that’s part of it. Only the heartiest grape would survive the trip still looking fresh and crunchy.
That’s where Kern County fruit breeders come in. Their sophisticated but conventionally based selection methods yield grapes that not only offer long shelf lives but also withstand the temperature fluctuations common on long journeys.
In doing so, local companies have helped raise and now support consumer expectations that are relatively new. Bananas may have become a perennial staple long ago, but having grapes as a year-round fruit became practical relatively recently.
“Virtually all of the grape varieties we have been developing for the past decade or so have been bred to withstand longer transport periods,” David Marguleas, president of local breeder Sun World, said by email. “Whether fruit is distributed across the country or across the world, shelf-life is important to the farmer, the retailer and of course the consumer.”
DAILY EXPERIENCE
For Sun World and locally based fruit breeder International Fruit Genetics, longevity and heartiness are among many characteristics growers draw out to entice grocery store customers. While taste and texture are also critical, the industry understands that making fruit available every month feeds into the all-important, day-to-day experience their products must offer.
Plus, growers have learned the hard way that major retailers tend to forget about suppliers who drop off their radar for months at a time. A better way to serve buyers is to keep delivering products and don’t stop just because the grape growing season ends in the northern hemisphere.
“It’s getting to the point where … if you’re not in their face, you know, year-round then you lose them,” said Kevin Andrew, senior vice president at Bakersfield-based farming company Illume Ag, which plants varieties licensed by IFG and Sun World.
The benefit doesn’t only fall to South American farmers. Most grape growers in Kern, where table grapes are the county’s second highest-grossing crop, also export to Asia and Australia. Marguleas said it’s important to them that the varieties they plant hold up during the several weeks it usually takes to get a freshly harvested shipment to buyers faraway.
STRATEGICALLY CONSISTENT
Andy Higgins, CEO of Bakersfield-based IFG, said breeding as much year-round fruit as possible is part of the company’s quality and support strategy.
One reason it licenses to 14 countries, he said, is to ensure consistent deliveries to consumers. Having staff in each of those countries is part of executing that strategy. Higgins said overseas employees measure and monitor local crops, checking for consistency across various countries of origin.
The company’s laboratories in Delano, which use advanced fruit-breeding techniques but like Sun World do not employ genetic modification, put promising new grape varieties through a rigorous set of tests designed to simulate different conditions shipments endure.
“We’ll screen our genetics based on that,” Higgins said, adding that temperature fluctuation is among other variables tested.
FINDING REASSURANCE
Operational coordination helps, too. Higgins said one grower-customer got nervous upon noticing its first crop of what was supposed to be a green variety was showing up a little redder and yellower than expected.
The company was able to check with farmers elsewhere who’d grown the same variety before and had excellent results despite the first season’s surprising appearance. Higgins said their success reassured the grower and its buyers that consumers would enjoy the grapes despite the color aberration.
Some specialty grapes may have never been available year-round, Higgins admitted. But that’s OK, he said, because IFG has developed and continues to breed varieties that arrive in grocery stores just as another goes out of season.
That way, he said, shoppers just might push their carts past the table grape to see what tasty new variety became available this week.
Andrew at Illume said consumer expectations have risen to the point that shoppers expect to see grapes every time they go shopping, just as they would expect to see lettuce.
That leaves grocers no choice, he said: “They have to have it.”
U.S. food waste is estimated to be 30-40 percent of the food supply and Californians throw away approximately 6 million tons of food waste annually. To help reduce food waste and increase food recovery, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is announcing a Food Recovery webpage.
“California’s agricultural industries already are doing so much for food recovery for animal feed, industrial uses, and composting.,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “This webpage highlights the significance of that work and offers tools to help consumers understand how they can join the effort.”
One section examines the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Food Recovery Hierarchy, which prioritizes actions to prevent and divert food waste.
The Food Date Labeling section outlines best practices the industry is advancing to reduce food waste due to confusion over date labeling, such as favoring a “best if used by” date over a “sell by” date.
The Resources section offers infographic fact sheets, food donation resources, helpful links to state and federal partners.
Farmers and ranchers still have time to respond to their 2020 Local Food Marketing Practices Survey, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). NASS will continue to accept responses through April to ensure an accurate picture of U.S. local and regional food systems.
“The Local Food Marketing Practices Survey is conducted in support of the growing demand for local and regional food systems,” said NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer. “The data are vital to understanding the many benefits of this sector. They will inform industry decisions and assist producers, researchers, policymakers, USDA officials, and more. NASS is committed to giving producers every opportunity to be counted in this special study.”
The 2020 Local Food Marketing Practices Survey is part of the Census of Agriculture program and as such is required by federal law. These federal laws require producers to respond and USDA to keep identities and answers confidential. Over the next several weeks, NASS will follow-up with additional mailings and phone calls to farmers and ranchers who have not yet responded. Producers are encouraged to complete their questionnaire online at www.agcounts.usda.gov, by mail, or phone as soon as possible. All information collected will be used for statistical purposes only and published on the NASS website in aggregate form this November.
The 33rd annual California Small Farm Conference will feature CDFA secretary Karen Ross and agency staff during its series of educational webinars, videos and online forums February 22-28.
Hosted by the Community Alliance for Family Farmers (CAFF), this year’s virtual conference features farmers, ranchers, industry professionals, students, and local food advocates digging into topics of soil health, appropriate-scaled technology, small farm marketing, and social issues..
Secretary Ross will join the “Meet the Ag Policymakers” panel the afternoon of February 25. CDFA Direct Marketing Program staff will discuss new regulations impacting certified farmers’ markets during the “Farmers’ Market Manager Training” session the morning of February 22.
A new book shows why California has led the nation in farm sales since 1948 and explores future challenges.
California Agriculture: Dimensions and Issues , by the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics, details the past, present, and future of many of California’s major agricultural commodities, including grapes, tree fruits and nuts, vegetable crops, dairy, livestock, nursery and floral production, and cannabis. The new 18-chapter book, written by agricultural economists at UC Davis, UC Berkeley, and UC Riverside, addresses issues such as labor, water, climate, and trade that affect all of California agriculture.
“California agriculture overcame many obstacles to become the nation’s number one farm state. Leading agricultural economists are generally optimistic that California agriculture will continue to thrive in the 21st century, despite continuing large challenges,” said Phil Martin, UC Davis Emeritus Professor of Agricultural and Resource economics, who is co-editor of the new publication.
For over 70 years, California has led the nation in farm sales due to its specialization in high-value commodities, such as fruits, nuts, vegetables, and other horticultural crops. The book uses the most recent Census of Agriculture data to show that, of the $64 billion of these crops produced in the U.S. in 2017, California produced nearly half by value ($31 billion).
More than 44 percent of California’s $50 billion in farm sales in 2017 were fruits and nuts, with 17 percent of sales from vegetables and melons, and 14 percent from nursery and other horticultural specialties crops. Many of these high-value specialty crops are also very labor-intensive and face challenges from increased cost and decreased availability of agricultural labor. The book discusses how California growers effectively responded to these labor challenges by adopting labor-saving mechanization. California remains competitive with producers elsewhere by relying on superior plant varieties, integrated pest management, and improved irrigation methods that increase both the quantity and quality of California agricultural commodities.
Water, climate, and trade pose challenges and opportunities for California agriculture. In the last decade, water scarcity and decreased water quality, along with regulations to address these issues like the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, have prompted farmers to use scarce water to irrigate more valuable crops, as with the switch from cotton to almonds. Increased regulations and the increasing scarcity of water affect high-value specialty crops as well as the dairy and livestock industries that accounted for 24% of California farm sales in 2017.
Climate variability, including drought and heat stress, affects farm worker welfare, crop yields, and dairy productivity. Retaliatory tariffs resulting from the 2018 trade war reduced U.S. agricultural exports to China by close to $14.4 billion per year, as exports of dairy, livestock, and specialty crops fell.
California agriculture has a rich history of overcoming challenges by pursuing innovative research, adopting new technologies, and adapting to changing conditions. Learning how California agriculture has succeeded in the past suggests that the state can maintain its dominant role as an agricultural producer in the future.
SunTerra Produce developed the carton held here by company founder Steve Brazeel for the Farmers to Families Food Box program.
By Mindy Robinson
Prior to the pandemic, SunTerra Produce enjoyed an excellent reputation as a grower, packer, and shipper of fresh fruits and vegetables. The Newport Beach, CA-based operation partners with more than 14 farms in the U.S. and Mexico, adhering to food safety standards throughout the harvest, storage, and distribution of a diverse range of produce.
Their typical customers include a variety of retail, food service, processor, and wholesale customers in North America.
Today, SunTerra includes local food banks among its customers.
“Food banks weren’t out looking to buy produce,” says Steve Brazeel, founder and CEO of SunTerra. “So they were not a viable customer in our eyes.”
Although farms have crops left over after harvest, Brazeel admits he and his peers would throw it away if it didn’t live up to their customers’ standards.
“Farming is so competitive, and the margins are so tight, that donating a bunch of stuff doesn’t usually bode well for the bottom line,” he says.
So why did Brazeel, a smart businessman, add food banks to his customer list?
It Started With a Government Program
Prior to the pandemic, even in Orange County — one of the wealthier communities in the U.S. with the median house priced at $785,000 — food banks were already moving 500,000 pounds of food per month.
When the pandemic hit and more people were out of work, the need increased.
In late April 2020, USDA created the Farmers to Families Food Box (FFFB) Program. In the first round of funding, SunTerra bid for and was awarded $6.27 million to distribute family-sized boxes of fresh food to people who needed help.
Suddenly, SunTerra had a new set of (USDA-sponsored) customers — local food banks and food charity organizations. And significantly, the food banks had a new supplier — one that was uniquely qualified to provide truly fresh produce.
How Food Banks Work
Most growers contribute a modest amount of produce to local food banks. Those who never sold to food banks (rather than donated) may not realize they can be a viable customer.
Brazeel learned that dealing with food banks is very similar to dealing with large warehouse customers such as Costco.
SunTerra brings the produce to food bank warehouses that have the refrigeration capacity to properly store fresh produce.
“In our (food box) networks, 60% of the produce goes to traditional large food banks,” Brazeel says.
Those food banks then move the boxes into the community through smaller neighborhood organizations.
The other 40% of the food boxes are distributed in touchless, drive-through, truck-to-trunk events.
One community that has particularly benefited from the program is the Navajo Nation located in Utah, where SunTerra food boxes are distributed in partnership with the Utah Navajo COVID-19 Relief Program.
A Future Without Government Money?
In the 2020 USDA FFFB Program, the U.S. government paid SunTerra and other contractors to provide food boxes to local food banks and other food charities. And Brazeel believes there is still a future for food boxes in SunTerra’s business plan, even without support from the USDA. He notes two main takeaways from the FFFB Program that have potential in the future.
1. Fresh Produce Is Good for Food Banks
“One takeaway is that the food banks, for the first time, got a chance to see what ‘No. 1 produce’ looks like when it is delivered consistently, regularly, freshly, on time, every time.
“They were shocked by the efficiency of the supply chain,” Brazeel explains.
The food banks were even more delighted by the shelf life and quality of the produce.
“The food banks thought this stuff was going to be a ticking time bomb, because they’ve never had produce that was actually fresh from the field,” Brazeel says.
What food banks realize now is that, if properly handled, fresh produce is a great product for their clients.
“When I first started, I put strawberries and lettuce in some boxes, and the food bank said, ‘This is going to explode in a day.’ I said, ‘No, I packed that yesterday; that’ll be good for 10 days.’ And they said, ‘Ten days? It’ll be out of here in two days.’”
That’s faster than any Walmart distribution center, Brazeel notes.
“Literally, what’s harvested yesterday is in someone’s fridge today,” he says.
That means now that vulnerable families have had access to fresh produce, food banks are going to reevaluate their budgets, Brazeel says.
“They do have money to purchase items. They will buy less canned goods and more fresh fruits and vegetables,” he says.
2. Food Banks Are Good for Farmers
Farmers who participated in the program now see food banks as a potential customer, Brazeel says. And while food banks demand fresh, nutritious, safe produce, it doesn’t have to be perfect.
“It can have a blemish or two, or it doesn’t have to be a specific size, and it can be packed using misprinted or unused packaging,” he says.
He clarifies that the point is not to grow extra produce for the food bank market; instead, farmers can plan ahead.
“If someone is sorting out undersized or oversized fresh produce, don’t put it in a fancy waxed box that costs $2; instead, put it in a cardboard box, cool it, and send it over (to SunTerra) because I’m going to use it today. And it’s going to be in someone’s fridge tomorrow.”
While Brazeel learned food banks could be good customers, he also discovered that SunTerra can pack and distribute food boxes on a large scale. It has the warehouse space and packing lines in place. Even more importantly, it has a mature line crew management team who stepped up to handle the internal logistics of packing the food boxes.
For example, with only seven days’ notice, on the first day of allowable deliveries, SunTerra delivered seven truckloads of food boxes to seven different food banks located in four different states. They efficiently sourced products from 15 different grower-shippers from four different states into more than 10,000 boxes (250,000-plus pounds total).
But growers do not need to have large, integrated operations to build a good food bank business, Brazeel says. Small and mid-sized farms can partner with larger grower/packer/shipper operations that can easily use small truckloads of produce to fill food boxes (boxes do not have to have identical items).
“I love the way the food box program works now, in the sense that you free flow around and take products that the market doesn’t want,” Brazeel says.
Any farm can realize extra profit from selling less-than-perfect produce in less-than-perfect packaging while making fresh food available to people who need it. It’s a win-win-win situation.
Working with Food Banks Pays in Other Ways
Providing food boxes has benefits beyond the bottom line.
“They are fun to do, and they’re exciting, and I think they’re something that is going to be in the future,” Brazeel says.
The people he met deeply impressed him.
“They are a teacher or an accountant or have some other job during the day. And they’re just dedicating their time to hand out food to people. They’re not making any money on that. It’s not their job.”
Working with food banks taught Brazeel something else. Something about community.
“There are so many people out there doing awesome things in our communities that I never saw in my own community. So it connected me more to my community. So as long as there’s any sort of demand for any type of food boxes — private, public, government program, or otherwise — we would love to continue to do it.”
