Community Involvement

Community is something that has always been very important to us. Recently we made the news and therefore have had the opportunity to make a few partnerships that have been very visible. I would like to take a moment though to back up and share some things that we do on a daily and annual basis that isn’t always seen in the “spotlight”. For every “gorgeous” tomato or sweet bell pepper that leaves our warehouse and enters the retail world, we have many that are deemed “unmarketable”. We have partnered with numerous charitable organizations in our community to ensure that these items do not go to waste and furthermore get into the hands (and bellies) of those who are less fortunate. For example, In 2020 we donated over 26,000 pounds of produce to the Salvation Army, and 12,000 pounds to Outreach for Hunger/Food Bank.

We are proud of the additional partnerships we have in Chatham-Kent. One of these is “The CK Gleaning Project” which is operated through the CK Food Policy Council and supported by CK Public Health. Gleaning is an initiative that works with local producers to get leftover produce to our emergency food providers and community partners that use it to increase food access, availability and food skills in the community. Another partnership is the “CK Mobile Market”. The Mobile Market is operated through Family Service Kent as a program of the Chatham Kent Prosperity Roundtable. It is a weekly market traveling to communities across Chatham-Kent to hand out fresh, local produce boxes to anyone who needs one! Anyone can get a box. If someone is able, they can pay it forward by donating and help to make sure fresh, local produce is available for the next person who needs it. Any amount donated will help cover a produce box for someone, and keeps the market growing!

At the beginning of the pandemic, in spring 2020 we were contacted by a business who wanted to partner together in making hand sanitizer for our community given the huge shortage that was taking place. This evolved to 9 businesses teaming up, each bringing something to the table. We donated 1,000 litres of hydrogen peroxide. The final product was “Nurses #9” hand sanitizer which went directly to our local hospitals and medical facilities.

Recent publicity after a social media post went viral gave us the amazing opportunities to partner in ways throughout the community that we hadn’t done in the past. Here are just a few highlights from the last 6 weeks:
Bryanna (Ladybug Creations by BL), a 12-year-old girl from Brantford made her way with her Dad to our produce stand to buy tomatoes and peppers for the little pantry she stocks for people in need using her own money from jewelry she makes. A few days later she returned so that we could “gift” her with more produce for her community. Bryanna reached out once again saying that the people had spoken, and they wanted our tomatoes and peppers! Bryanna’s initial visit served as inspiration for others to share in their own kindness with many other local produce businesses from her area stepping up to donate as well.

We were contacted by Brent Wilken and Tim Haskell on behalf of Come Together CK. They saw the stories being shared of people traveling near and far to buy our flats of tomatoes to take back to their communities and had an amazing idea for our own community in Chatham-Kent. #noonewithoutatomato was born with the vision of kind donors stepping forward to purchase our tomatoes and amazing volunteers spreading throughout the community to handout tomatoes to everyone. It started in Shrewsbury and the movement grew to Wallaceburg, Chatham, Dresden, Blenheim, Tilbury and Walpole Island. We loaded countless trailers full of beefsteak tomatoes headed out into the community!

We partnered with Canadian Tire Essex after the owners, Stefan and Rena reached out. We loaded up 160 flats of Beefsteak tomatoes and 115 flats of Tomatoes-on-the-Vine at the price of $6 per flat. This trailer went back to their store location where they sold them to the public for $10 per flat. All proceeds stayed local, going directly to their Essex Chapter of Jumpstart to help all kids in Essex and surrounding areas have a chance to play organized sports and physical activities.

Independent of what we have done with our product, we also sponsor many local youth sports teams and athletes including soccer, gymnastics, hockey and events such as the “Tuukka Cup: 3-on-3 Road Hockey Tournament” in honor of a young boy from our community who passed away from brain cancer.