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J. Kings’ ‘Buy Local’ Initiative Set to Help Customers |
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Locally Grown Produce Calms Food Safety Fears and Lowers Food Costs
HOLTSVILLE, NY – J. Kings Food Service Professionals, an ID Top 50 broadliner here, is capitalizing on its longstanding relationship with Long Island and New Jersey farmers to help its operator-customers get ahead of the consumer-driven local sourcing trend.
“We’re educating our operator-customers about what’s in season and offering them recipes and applications. We’re a local distributor on Long Island that’s employing local families and we want to support local farmers,” Sinead Corcoran, marketing director, told ID during our visit to the distributorship.
 | | The J. Kings team promotes local farms and local restaurants. From left, Sinead Corcoran, Geraldine Pollack and John King. |
Earlier this week, the distributorship launched a sun-filled, open-air fresh produce farmers market for operators and chefs on its property that eventually will feature some 35 local sources. According to Corcoran, the market will showcase trendy produce, including asparagus, rocket arugula, French breakfast radish, baby spinach, romaine lettuce and other specialty items.
“Our goal in creating the Long Island Farmers Market is to make it as easy as possible for operators and chefs to have access to the outstanding array of fresh, high-quality produce grown here on local farms,” said John King, founder, president and “chief customer officer” of the distributorship.
King said many independent restaurant chefs that he deals with in the metropolitan region from Suffolk County, NY, on Long Island, west to New Jersey, are one-man operations that are time challenged, and consequently lack the resources to monitor consumer trends.
With demand for locally grown produce in restaurants strong due to consumer interest, witness Whole Foods, King said, he wanted to become a conduit between chefs and consumer interest.
“We want to be the local company that’s bringing local produce to operators and chefs and educating them about when they should be buying it,” he said. “This is what consumers want.”
The distributorship’s fresh produce accounts for 35% of its business, while the locally grown segment is 5%, according to King, who said he would definitely grow this category.
Corcoran said the local farmers market initiative, coupled with its new Great Restaurants of New York program, shows the distributorship is generating local awareness and driving consumers to neighborhood restaurants.
“All of our independents are feeling the challenges of the rising food costs and, without a doubt, they need to join the local craze to bring in business. At a time when ‘stay-cations’ are becoming more popular, we are trying to send the ‘stay-cationers’ to local restaurants,” Corcoran elaborated. “It is so very important that the consumer recognizes that these local restaurants support local communities, local farmers and local distributors, and by visiting these restaurants they play an important role in preserving the unique local flair of Long Island.”
With a wide range of participating farms, many of which grow produce exclusively for the industry, the distributorship will be able to offer fresh produce every Wednesday to Saturday until Halloween, King said. Corcoran said the market, which is open to consumers, offers its customers the ability to acquire produce that is at its peak ripeness.
“We waited until June 25 because we wanted the first crops to be ready. Now we have three booths from Long Island and three from New Jersey. By July 25 we’ll have 25 from Long Island and five from New Jersey,” he said.
Corcoran added, “The best time to eat produce is when it’s in season. We want to make chefs aware that locally grown tomatoes are bursting with flavor this week and that’s what they should have on their menus. Most chefs are recognizing that.”
J. Kings, which is a member of IFDA, UniPro Foodservice, Tailor Made Distribution and Pro*Act, is offering its customers additional benefits of procuring from local farmers market, one of which is food safety assurances. King and Corcoran pointed out that while tomatoes are still stigmatized because of the recent Salmonella contamination, they could assure their operators that the tomatoes that they’re offering are safe.
| “Our local initiative will help us deal with high food and fuel costs.” – John King |
The reason is that they demand that the farmers that are participating in the program comply with good agricultural practices and have provided the distributorship with the appropriate documents. Eight farmers were denied access to the market because they lacked food-safety compliance paperwork.
“We require that our farms are compliant with food-safety procedures. If they don’t submit proof, we don’t do business with them. We can’t take the risk,” Corcoran said.
King noted that while others in the industry are struggling with sourcing questions, he isn’t because he knows exactly where the tomatoes that he’s providing came from. The food-safety guidelines that the distributorship is using were prepared by Michael Jantschke, food safety director with Pro*Act.
“Anybody who buys them from us knows that they’re safe and they can tell their patrons who ask about the Salmonella outbreak and they’re offering safe Long Island beefsteak tomatoes,” he said.
Finally, the distributorship is offering its customers the potential of future cost savings.
“When we pick up produce from local farmers, we’re backhauling it to our distribution center from a delivery to an operator. As a result we don’t have $6-7 of freight charges per case built in as do products from California, which today are still more competitively priced due to volume. However, there may be a time when fresh and local may be less expensive than California. Our local initiative will help us deal with high food and fuel costs,” King said.
Corcoran said operators can take advantage of information about local farmers that is on its website and reposition it on their menus so their patrons can learn about the source of produce on the menu.
With comments and questions, contact The Editor. |
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