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Nature Fresh Farms Has Expanded Operations With A New Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas
The new 61,000 square foot Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas, provides a new major hub of fresh produce
Leamington, ON (December 2, 2020) – Nature Fresh Farms has expanded operations with a new Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas, with future developments planned for next year.
The new 61,000 square foot Distribution Center in Laredo, Texas, provides a new major hub of fresh produce. Since the opening of the facility, they have employed over 30 team members with more positions available for hire. The center will help service Nature Fresh Farms Mexican winter program and allow for direct shipping of product, shortening their supply chain. With this fully operational facility, the company will be able to bring fresher produce to customers located in the Southern United States.
Laredo Division Manager, Sergio Restrepo, said the new Distribution Center is in response to Nature Fresh Farms continuous growth. “The acquirement of our new center is part of our plans to optimize our distribution network,” shared Sergio. “With this, we are able to further strengthen our logistics and operations, ensuring that we can better meet the needs and expectations of our consumers and customers.”
Nature Fresh Farms has had a streak of sustained operational growth with their newly completed Phase 7 and 8 greenhouses, and a large expansion planned for their Leamington location with more details to follow. The company also has future plans for expansion in Ohio with an extension of acreage, in addition to their current 45 acres of greenhouse, and the construction of a new Distribution Center.
“We are looking forward to further developing our Ohio location with many new initiatives planned,” said Vice President, John Ketler. “We see significant opportunities in the continued construction with these new facilities needed to support our growth.”
Nature Fresh Farms has experienced rapid growth over the last few years. Today the company has over 600 employees, 200 acres of greenhouses Tomato, Pepper, and Cucumber plants, with multiple facilities across North America.
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About Nature Fresh Farms -
Continuously expanding, Nature Fresh Farms has become one of the largest independent, vertically integrated greenhouse vegetable farms in North America. As a year-round grower with farms in Leamington, ON, Delta, OH, and Mexico, Nature Fresh Farms prides itself on consistently delivering exceptional flavor and quality to key retailers throughout North America, while continuing to innovate and introduce more viable and sustainable growing and packaging solutions.
SOURCE: Nature Fresh Farms | info@naturefresh.ca T: 519 326 1111 | www.naturefresh.ca
West Warwick, Rhode Island - High School, Sodexo Unveil New Hydroponic Farm
Kendra Port/klolio@ricentral.com
October 15, 2018
Photos by Kendra Port
WEST WARWICK –– West Warwick High School this week officially unveiled its new state of the art hydroponic farm and served up a number of delicious recipes using freshly harvested produce grown right on campus.
The Leafy Green Machine is a turnkey farming system located inside a shipping container that can grow the equivalent of 1.8 acres of farmland in only 320 square feet. West Warwick High School partnered with the district’s food service provider, Sodexo, and a small startup company out of Boston called Freight Farms, to purchase the unit, which now sits in the school’s courtyard.
On Thursday faculty and staff held a Hydroponics Harvest celebration event at the high school where kitchen staff used recently harvested lettuce to demonstrate some of the meals they will eventually be making for students once the machine is fully operational. Right now the school is only growing different types of lettuce as staff learn how to run the machine, but the Sodexo staff proved that you can make a lot of different meals with a simple head of lettuce.
Staff served up vegetable lettuce wraps, spiced lettuce cake bars, lemon pudding wraps, lettuce beef wraps, lettuce soup and leaf lettuce bread, all made with the fresh lettuce grown in The Leafy Green Machine over the last several weeks and harvested that morning.
Each table in the high school cafeteria was adorned with a colorful display of fresh lettuce from the farm for the celebration.
It’s only about 20 steps from the farm to the school kitchen, says Sodexo General Manager Donna Walker, and “you can’t get any fresher than that.”
Naturally the school plans to use the farm to produce food for all of its students, but eventually they would like to grow enough to feed the entire district. They also plan on using the farm as a teaching tool, and to start a Leafy Green Machine Club in the future to gather students to help run it on a regular basis.
The plants in the farm start out as seeds that are planted in a special seedling area in the pod for about three weeks. Afterward they are transplanted into vertical racks where they will grow for the next five weeks. In about eight weeks total the plants will go from seed to harvest and eventually onto the plates of students and teachers. They plan on growing things like basil, kale, Swiss chard, spinach, arugula, dill and parsley down the road.
Hydroponics is the practice of growing plants in water with a nutrient solution, according to Freight Farms Representative Dana Lucas, who attended the harvest celebration Thursday afternoon. There’s no dirt involved in the growing or planting process and the farm uses a number of LED lights to act as the sun. The nutrient solution feeds the plants and can adjust the farm’s pH as needed. The temperature levels can also be automatically adjusted based on a plants' needs. There’s even an app for the phone or computer where farmers can view or modify the farm’s settings 24 hours a day, meaning they can grow produce year round without having to worry about the growing season.
“It’s the coolest thing for me to see the farms in action,” said Lucas. “I love seeing them in high schools.”
Freight Farms now has over 200 farms throughout the country.
“This is an exciting joint venture,” said West Warwick Superintendent Karen Tarasevich. “We value our long standing partnership with Sodexo in so many ways.”
She said The Leafy Green Machine is just another way to give students and staff hands-on learning experiences, and she was excited when Sodexo brought the proposal forward to the West Warwick School Committee last year.
“This is one opportunity with one machine that has already served the purpose of expanding the mindset of what we can do,” she added. “This celebration of the first harvest is just the first steps towards feeding the world.”
Sodexo Regional Manager Mark Tucker said the company is always looking to create a partnership with local school departments to provide services beyond the lunchroom.
“We’re really looking to find a way to bring another avenue for students to learn, develop and have access to a machine like this you normally wouldn’t see,” he said. “This is helping us bring nutritional meals to students and redefine local. We all want to do our part and buy local and we’re happy to be able to do that here.”
“Hopefully this is bigger than just growing leafy greens,” he added. “Hopefully it will be an opportunity where we can continue to revitalize students’ minds.”
Lucas was one of the Freight Farms team members assigned to go out and train new users in how to operate the machine.
“Everything is regulated and it takes very little for a farmer to start up their farm,” said Lucas. “Anybody can be a farmer and be successful. It’s totally revolutionary for farming. You don’t need to check if your conditions are good or the nutrients in your soil. Data is being collected by computers and that data will allow us to feed the world. We take pride that students can learn not only about plants but about farming.”
Sodexo’s Hydroponic Consultant Amy Lynn Chauvin has been helping to maintain the farm over the last couple of months, working alongside teachers to get it up and running. Chauvin is a teacher with six years of hydroponic growing experience. Chauvin provided guests with tours of the farm Thursday, fielding question after question about how the whole thing works. Lucas said Chauvin is running the farm like a well-oiled machine and said its one of the most well maintained farms she’s seen in action.
West Warwick High School Science Teacher Haley Winsor has also been a major part of the program.
“Students have been talking a lot about this,” said Winsor. “There’s a lot of interest in getting in there. We’ve had a few students coming in and we need to continue to teach them how to maintain the cleanliness of it.”
Fellow West Warwick High School Science Teacher Gina Poulos said the school is already looking at ways to implement The Leafy Green Machine into the curriculum. The school will even be starting a Freight Farm Committee, which has its first meeting next Wednesday.
“Some faculty have already emailed me sharing ideas and we’ll discuss all this and how to incorporate it into all different parts of school,” she said.
Other administrators of the program include West Warwick Schools Finance Director Joseph Spagna and Director of Facilities Kenneth Townsend.
Follow Kendra Port on Twitter @kendrarport
Mucci Farms Opens In San Antonio!
August 23rd, 2018 | San Antonio, Texas
Mucci Farms announces the opening of a brand new distribution facility in San Antonio, Texas, strategically located to optimize service in the southern United States. “We are thrilled to continue our expansion into the US with a southern facility that can help us service the region effectively,” said Joe Spano, Vice President of Mucci International Marketing. “As a company committed to efficient execution, our main focus was to reduce food miles as well as our carbon footprint to better serve our partners and customers.” The company plans to begin operations over the next 8-10 weeks.
With an appetite for a larger US footprint, the announcement comes on the heels of their first harvest from Phase 1 of a 3-Phase 60-Acre Huron, Ohio expansion. The organization has been actively searching for a strategic opportunity to serve current and potential clients in the south and the southwestern United States. “San Antonio was a logical city for us because it is a major southern crossing, and this location will help us increase efficiencies and assist with logistics,” remarked Danny Mucci, President of Mucci International Marketing. “Through this facility, we’ll be able to distribute our full lineup of products to the region in a timely manner, allowing consumers to take advantage of maximum shelf life and high quality of our produce.”
Growing fresh produce for over 50 years, Mucci Farms is a vertically integrated Greenhouse farming company with over 200 acres of Lettuce, Tomato, Pepper, Cucumber and Strawberry farms in Canada and the United States. Headquartered in Kingsville, Ontario, the Award Winning company is dedicated to continual investments in automation and technology along with a high level of research and development to offer consumers the most flavourful fruit and vegetable varieties in the world.