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GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2016 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 6 Farm Fresh To You Continued from PAGE 1 of the back of her parents' Buick station wagon. Kathy kept track of her customers and what they liked and didn't like in binders full of account records. By 2000, the company was distributing about 500 boxes a month. About 15 years ago, her sons, who'd grown up with the business, took it over after Kathy's death just after Thaddeus had graduated from college. Since then, the company has been growing aggressively throughout California, expanded its net- work of family farms, has added value- added farm products to the offerings and penetrated into food deserts with a busi- ness model that Barsotti says is scalable and adaptable elsewhere outside California. "We are serving food deserts in the Central Valley, Manteca, Stockton, some rural com- munities that are classified as food deserts. We can go there; we just need to have enough people to justify sending a driver out there," he said. "All of the food deserts in the Bay Area and Los Angeles – we go to all of those places." Contents of the boxes change according to what's local to those regions. A purchas- ing team stays in touch with the whole net- work of farms to find out what's in season and available in their area, and they build local menus for each region each week. "It is a full-time job for a whole team of peo- ple," Barsotti said. The weekly boxes are packed in two facilities, one in Sacramento and one in Los Angeles. Sourcing and dis- tributing season produce that's mostly local to each region across the entire state is the most difficult piece of the model – Barsotti calls it " pretty complicated and logistically rich," but the result is that Barsotti can sell the regular-size box that will feed a family of four for a week for $33. "We're pretty good at what we do. We've been doing it for a long time. The owners grew up doing this, growing produce and hustling pro- duce at farmers markets. We understand it quite well," he said. "We're in the business. We know each week, what the best local or- ganic produce is, and we make that selec- tion for our customers, and they don't even have to think about it." Customers can choose to be surprised by what shows up in their weekly box, or they can log onto the company's website to find out what the company plans to send and alter their box according to their own preferences. A customer might cancel this week's carrots, add more fruit or opt for spinach instead of kale. Recently Farm Fresh To You began offering customers a few direct- from-the-farm processed food products sourced from farmers who also provide fresh produce products to the business, including jams, granola, juices, dried fruit, nuts, olive oil and tomato sauces. "We're excited about the specialty flours we have," Barsotti said. "Our niche is focusing on products that come straight off farms, and that includes processed things that preserve a crop." Customers can also decide before they go on vacation, they'll donate their weekly box to a local food bank instead of suspending the service. Farm Fresh To You works with food banks in San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego that serve the communities in which the company's cus- tomers live and the affiliated family farmers grow. We've been able to get tens of thou- sands of pounds of fresh local organic food to our customers' local food banks, and we're really proud of that," Barsotti said. "We believe that everyone should be able to eat healthy food, but we recognize that not everyone can afford it." New customers find out about the serv- ice either through meeting with Farm Fresh To You sales representatives that set up shop at local events such as home and garden shows or green festivals, through word of mouth from existing customers or by learning about it through the media ex- posure that the business has been attracting since a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote about it in the mid 1990s. These days, customers sometimes find the business online at www.farmfreshtoyou. com, where customers can sign up for de- liveries of various sizes of boxes that con- tain fruits and vegetables. All fruits or all vegetables in a seasonal mix vary according to the specific area in which the customer lives, depending on what's in season there. "What 'local' means exactly also changes with the season. Summer and fall, most of the stuff's coming from our farm," Barsotti said. "In the winter, we want to make sure our customers still have a good selection, so they don't go back to using the grocery store, so we'll source in southern California for vegetables. Apples come from the Pa- cific Northwest." All of the produce, except bananas, is grown in the U.S. by family farmers. Barsotti probably wouldn't offer bananas at all, since they're strictly a tropi- cal fruit, but Farm Fresh To You customers want them, so Barsotti compromises a bit by offering them fair trade organic ba- nanas. "Our cus- tomers sign up because I'm a farmer. I know what's good," Barsotti said. "I take the health of our farmworkers seri- ously, and we make sure that all of the products we grow comply with U.S. labor laws." While some cus- tomers are aware of the social justice as- pects of Barsotti's purchasing, not all of them either know or care about anything other than that the business provides a dependable supply of fresh, local, organic produce. "I know we're doing that, and when a customer signs up, whether they know it or not, they're affect- ing my planting schedule and the jobs that come out of that. We're connecting cus- tomers directly to our field," Barsotti said. "We are trying to transform the food sys- tem. It can't be done on a tiny scale. It's a big thing. There are millions of people who need to eat better. Our objective is to find how we can get local, organic food to peo- ple at an affordable price." GN MODERN OATS Oatmeal Expands Offerings MODERN OATS, the all gluten-free, non- GMO verified and 100 percent whole grain oatmeal brand owned by Innovative Bever- age Concepts, Inc., is excited to introduce four new protein and nutrient-rich flavors of oatmeal, paving the way for healthy, de- licious and fast breakfast options for today's on-the-go savvy consumer. The company unveiled its latest offering at the 2016 Win- ter Fancy Food Show. "At MODERN OATS, we are continu- ously innovating and striving to have the best oatmeal products in the category to satisfy the palette of the modern con- sumer," said Richard Principale, President and Chief Executive Officer for Innovative Beverage Concepts. "Growing our product line with these new flavors is a continua- tion of that commitment – our goal has al- ways been to create products that people can rely on when it comes to both taste and quality of ingredients." The four new flavors continue to bring more to the mornings, with Vermont Maple and Coconut Almond providing a unique and gourmet flavor with carefully sourced maple sugar and generous shreds of Fil- ipino coconut, and the 5 Berry (No Sugar Added) and Just Oats flavors bringing a de- licious product to the market that is low in sugar and packed with protein. All MODERN OATS products are non- GMO certified and crafted with the most nutrient-rich, protein-rich, certified gluten- free whole rolled oats sourced from family run farms throughout the upper Midwest of North America. MODERN OATS prod- ucts are packaged in portable, recyclable 2.6-ounce cups. MODERN OATS sells in six-cup variety packages for a suggested retail price of $21 or a 12-pack variety for a suggested retail price of $40. It is available for consumer purchase at www.modernoats.com, and wholesale options are available for coffee shops, cafes, fitness centers, specialty shops and more. Contact customerservice@ modernoats.com for wholesale inquiries. GN Tunisia Signs on as Partner Country for Summer Fancy Food Show Tunisia grabbed headlines this fall when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a Tunisian democracy group. Now it is hoping to garner more attention for its distinctive foods as the partner country for the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. The show is the largest marketplace for specialty food in North America. It takes place June 26 – 28, 2016, at Javits Center. Tunisia has a rich culinary history fla- vored with Arab, Greek, French, Turkish and Spanish influences, but its food is not as widely known in the U.S. as that of other Mediterranean and North African countries. That may start to change. At the show, more than 38 Tunisian companies will present a wide range of products including olive oil, pasta, dates, biscuits, confections, spicy harissa, can- dies, jam, tuna and organic products in a special pavilion at the international trade event. There will be chef demon- strations and tastings each day. "Tunisian food has a place on Amer- ica's table today with strong demand for healthy, flavorful foods," says Chris Nemchek, Senior Vice President of the Specialty Food Association, Owner and Producer of the Summer Fancy Food Show. "The show will provide a forum for Tunisian food companies to reach im- portant new markets." The pavilion is sponsored by the Tunisian Export Promotion Center(CEPEX) and Tunisian Olive Oil(PACKTEC). Food processing is Tunisia's third largest manufacturing sec- tor. Tunisia first exhibited at the Summer Fancy Food Show in 2002. This year's presence is its largest yet. "As partner country, Tunisia has an opportunity to promote its image and Tunisian products in the U.S. market," says Sami Hassene, deputy director, CEPEX. GN

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