In a time of great uncertainty, we have witnessed every single essential farm worker step up to the plate to ensure our food system remains stable and food continues to be delivered from farms to families safely and consistently. These people – including our Crop Workers, Pickers, Packers, Forklift Drivers, Cleaners, Maintenance Workers, Growers, Bio Scouts, Administrators, and Management staff – are all working above and beyond so you can have continued access to food that keeps you nourished. That is why, alongside our healthcare workers, first responders, and grocery store staff members, the heroic efforts of farm workers at every level of the food supply chain need to be acknowledged.
One thing this challenging situation has brought to light is the critical importance of farms for keeping the world fed. We are thankful to our retail partners, suppliers, customers, communities, and fellow industry leaders for recognizing the vital role we as an industry play in people’s daily lives! We want to do the same and shine a special spotlight on our tenacious, dedicated team members – the heroes of fresh produce.
The Heroes of Fresh Produce
We want to recognize the important contribution of each one of our Grow-To People to the bigger picture – keeping food on the table for millions of North Americans when they need it most. But first, listen in as our Director of Sales Matt Quiring shares a special message of thanks for the incredible work of our fresh produce heroes.
The Growing Side
There are many people responsible for growing the Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cucumbers your family enjoys.
Our Growers and Assistant Growers ensure every single plant – which, for many of them, is millions at a time! – is growing in the proper conditions and getting the care it needs to be fruitful. Our Growing team works closely with our Greenhouse Manager, Supervisors, and Bio Scouts so they know exactly what our plants need on a daily basis to stay strong, healthy, and nourished.
None of our produce would get picked without the contributions of all our Greenhouse employees. They come into the greenhouse every day to maintain the plants and harvest our crops with incredible speed and care. Their consistency and determination help us stick to our picking schedules and ensure produce is constantly making its way from our farms to your table!
There are many other team members who work behind-the-scenes to keep the growing side of our business running smoothly. Our Energy team keeps our facilities powered efficiently and sustainably, and our Maintenance team fixes, assembles, and troubleshoots all our equipment, machinery, and tools in no time. Our IT staff can be seen in every department helping to keep all our team members connected with one another, but with such a high-tech operation, they are also crucial to keeping all our growing technology running smoothly. And we can’t forget our Cleaning staff who are working tirelessly to keep every corner of our facilities – not just our greenhouses, but our warehouses, distribution centers, and offices, too – properly sanitized.
To the team members working on the growing side of our business – we thank you and appreciate everything you’re doing to grow nutritious food for our communities!
The Warehouse Side
Once our freshly picked Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cucumbers leave the greenhouse, their next stop is one of our warehouses.
These facilities are always busy with Warehouse Supervisors, Box Makers, Line Leaders, Forklift Drivers, and Pack Line Workers ensuring the produce we’ve picked is packed efficiently and according to food safety standards. Our Warehouse teams keep a close eye on the quality of the produce and the final packages going down their lines, as well as ensure the constant cleaning of our packing areas. These Grow-To People work together to ensure a safe, efficient flow of product through our warehouses!
Wherever food is being handled, our Compliance team is there to ensure strict food safety protocols are followed. But the Compliance team is also responsible for ensuring health and safety protocols are followed to keep our team members safe at work. With additional COVID-19 measures being put in place to keep our team healthy and protected while working, the extra efforts by our Compliance team have not gone unnoticed.
To the teams working in our warehouse facilities – you are keeping our supply chain moving and at the same time ensuring our food is handled safely! Your work is essential, and we can’t thank you enough for continuing to put your best foot forward every day.
The Distribution Side
The next step in our food supply chain is bringing packaged produce to our distribution centers to be properly packed for shipping. Our distribution centers are also equipped to receive produce from our growing partners.
Our Production team is running efficient lines in our distribution centers to prepare thousands of boxes of fresh produce for shipping every single day! These teams are supported by the Dry Goods department to ensure they have all the dry products they need to properly package our shipments. They’ve also got our Commodities and Receiving teams on their side – these teams coordinate all the produce orders we receive from partner growers. Our Quality Control department is another important group to acknowledge – they are the ones constantly making sure only the highest quality and freshest produce is readied for shipment.
The Grow-To People on our Shipping team represent a critical link between our facilities and the end-consumer – they are the ones coordinating the final shipments of our products from our distribution centers to grocery stores across North America. And of course, we cannot forget our heroic Truck Drivers who are delivering our Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cucumbers safely and reliably.
To all the Grow-To People working on the distribution side of our company – your hard work is impacting the daily lives of millions of people, ensuring they can pick fresh produce off the store shelf on their next grocery trip. Thank you for everything you’re doing to keep our supply chain strong and nimble.
The Office Side
The work our office staff is doing across all our facilities is incredibly important and cannot be overlooked – they purchase the supplies we use on a daily basis, keep our team connected and informed, maintain our company’s relationships with retail partners and consumers alike, and manage our financial assets.
Our facilities need a wide range of supplies, parts, tools, and materials to get fresh produce picked, packed, and shipped to our customers. The Purchasing department makes sure we have everything we need to get the job done right!
Our Sales, Procurement, and Logistics teams are also in constant communication with one another to ensure not only that we have the best produce in the right quantities, but that it is all allocated and shipped to every valued customer whose order needs to be filled. The constant teamwork and problem solving that happens between these teams is extraordinary! And to take it one step further, our Administrative team members provide support at every level of our operations, tackling a range of administrative tasks that ease our minds and make our days run smoothly.
During uncertain times especially, it is important to keep our customers, industry partners, and media contacts assured that our supply chain is still operating efficiently. This is where our Marketing team comes in – they always ensure our network stays informed and up to date.
To do absolutely everything that we do – from paying our growing partners, to purchasing equipment, to compensating our team for their incredible efforts – we rely on the Finance team to manage our financial assets. These analytical, detail-oriented Grow-To People are crunching numbers all day long, and we can’t imagine what we would do without them.
Present throughout all our facilities is our Human Resources department! Especially in challenging times, these passionate Grow-To People are always there supporting our teams to ensure engagement is up, new talent is onboarded, and labor planning and payroll continues to run efficiently. Our Human Resources team members also work closely with government bodies to ensure we remain compliant. This team has been working especially hard to support our Senior Management team as COVID-19 initiatives designed to keep our workers safe and secure are developed and rolled out across our company. And a special note of thanks needs to be shared with our Temporary Foreign Worker team who are ensuring the needs of our international workers are looked after.
To all our team members working in or around the office every day – you may not pick or pack our produce, but your work is essential for coordinating its final delivery to the people who need it most! We can’t thank you enough for helping us achieve incredible feats, and amidst a global crisis, no less.
All these teams – at the greenhouse, warehouse, distribution center, and office levels collectively – need strong leaders to keep us moving in the right direction. Our Senior Management team continues to do an incredible job maintaining company morale, keeping all operations running at peak efficiency, and ensuring our employees can continue working to support their families in a safe environment. Thank you to our Senior Management staff for being inspiring leaders every day.
We may all have different job titles, roles, skill sets, and responsibilities at Nature Fresh Farms, but the Grow-To People have pulled together to achieve something incredible – providing uninterrupted access to fresh produce for millions of people so they can keep their families fed with nutritious food.
Thank You: To & From Our Communities
We are beyond grateful for the many messages of thanks we’ve received for the work our team is doing to keep our food system stable, but we have also made sure to express our own gratitude to other essential workers in our communities.
Our team has been receiving dozens of thank you messages from youth, parents, and teachers in our communities acknowledging the incredible efforts of our team as essential farm workers. Check out the video below to see some of their heartfelt messages of thanks!
But there are many other essential workers within our communities that deserve our thanks, including healthcare workers. We wanted to do our part to support their efforts, so we delivered a fresh load of Tomatoes, Peppers, and Cucumbers to healthcare workers at the Windsor Regional Hospital earlier this month. We also donated 10,000 masks for the hospital workers to keep themselves protected on the front lines. This was the least we could do to express our appreciation for the heroism of our local healthcare professionals!
