Purchasing Options: Food
Background
During the first few years of the Partnership’s work, we selected seven local food vendors with the capacity, experience, systems and health and safety records to meet Anchor needs. They are all selling to institutions and retail outlets. These vendors are all based in the Central Corridor, employ local workers, and provide high quality products that meet the strict health and safety requirements of the Anchors. All of these vendors will deliver directly to the Anchor institution. Some of the products are also available through local distributors such as Bix.
We are gaining traction with our local food purchasing options.
At MCTC, we shifted some purchasing from Sodexo food services to local groceries and deli food vendors. At Fairview, Regions, and HealthEast, we engaged Sodexo to source local produce from Corridor vendors. Sodexo’s 12 distributors/vendors with operations in MN collectively provide $25 million to our health care partners: 0.53% from Corridor-based suppliers and 16.2% from Minnesota-based suppliers.
As of March 2020, Sodexo continues to look for ways to expand a partnership with The Good Acre, a local food hub that works with small-scale farmers, many of whom are Hmong, to bring their produce to large-scale buyers.
Sodexo has collaborated with our health care partners to review their food purchasing and found that some individual entities within our health care partner organizations source significantly more food purchases on a percentage basis. For example, Mercy Hospital, part of the Regions network, spends 17% with Minnesota suppliers while Regions spends 1.8%. Sodexo is planning to conduct additional analyses to determine if there are Minnesota-based products that these smaller entities within larger health care partner organizations are purchasing that the partners could purchase as well, therefore increasing Minnesota spend.
Image courtesy of Bergin Fruit and Nut Company
Bergin Fruit and Nut Company
Joshua Davies
Bergin Fruit and Nut Company
2000 Energy Park Drive
Saint Paul, MN 55108
800.486.6808
JoshuaD@BerginFruitandNut.com
Bergin Fruit and Nut Company, Inc. creates and distributes healthy food products, specializing in fresh produce, nuts, trail mixes, and treats. A family owned business since 1951, Bergin is located in St. Paul, Minnesota. Over time Bergin has grown into a leading distributor of nut products throughout the Midwest, carrying a wide variety of produce, nuts, trail mixes, grains, dried fruit, candy, and organic items.
Products
Bergin offers over 30 signature trail mixes each containing its own unique combination of high quality ingredients. The Nut Division imports, roasts, and develops its own unique and healthy snack mixes. Some examples of the bulk and individually packaged snack mixes include:
Antioxidant Mix
Fisherman’s Mix
Low Glycemic Snack Mix
Healthy Heart Mix
Mountain Mix
Cranberry Trail Mix
Bergin also offers beans & grains, confections, dairy, dried fruit, fresh produce and peanut butter. The Bulk and Fresh Cut Produce Division is a fully integrated operation with special expertise in the sourcing and processing of value-added fresh cut produce.
Image courtesy of Garden Fresh Farms
Garden Fresh Farms
Dave Roeser
Garden Fresh Farms
875 Pierce Butler Route
Saint Paul MN 55104
droeser@gardenfreshfarms.com
612-886-6631
Garden Fresh Farms was started in 2010 in a 20,000 sq ft warehouse just outside St. Paul, MN. GFF has developed several systems to grow herbs and produce using sustainable methods indoors for consistent year round growth. In 2011 GFF added sprout manufacturing and converted outdoor spaces into seasonal crop permaculture. In 2013 GFF won the National Sustainability Award in the Clean Tech Open, the Minnesota Cup Clean Tech Division, and opened new farm in Frogtown. Garden Fresh products are sold at Whole Foods.
Products
Sprouts
Lettuce
Herbs
Fish
Image courtesy of La Loma Tamales
La Loma Tamales
Enrique Garcia Salazar
La Loma Tamales
1837 East 38th street
Minneapolis MN 55407
612-728-9591
enrigqueg@lalomatamales.com
La Loma Wholesale was developed in 2005. The wholesale division of La Loma Tamales is run and operated out of the central kitchen at 1837 E. 38th Street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. La Loma Wholesale currently offers their hand made tamales in a frozen retail package that is sold at many Hispanic Stores and at large number of mainstream retail outlets throughout Minnesota. These tamales are also available in institutional packaging and are sold to many finer food establishments in Minnesota.
Products
Chicken with green sauce tamale
Pork with red sauce tamale
Vegetarian tamale
Oaxaca (spicy chicken in banana leaf) tamale
Image courtesy of Nina Wong Sauces
Nina Wong Sauces
Nina Wong
Nina Wong Sauces
1500 East Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis MN 55414
612-676-1818
ninawong88@yahoo.com
Nina spent nearly two decades with the Wong family restaurant, Rainbow Chinese Restaurant and Bar, located on Eat Street in Minneapolis. In 2005 she opened East River Market which evolved into ChinDian Café, a full scale restaurant.
As her menu grew, customers started asking how they could take Nina’s signature sauces and syrups to use at. Nina now offers a full line of sauces and syrups that make it easy to create the flavors of ChinDian Café at home.
Products
Ginger Syrup
Lemon Syrup
Black Stir Fry Sauce
White Stir Fry Sauce
Egg Roll Sauce
Sweet and Sour Sauce
Dumpling Sauce
Image courtesy of Tortilleria la Perla
Tortilleria la Perla
Naoimi Payan
Tortilleria la Perla
2616 27th Avenue South
Minneapolis MN 55406
Phone: 612.724.1134 or 612.729.5829
Started by the Payans in 1993 to produce fresh tortillas, Tortilleria La Perla now employs nearly 50 full time people and generates $3.2 million in sales annually. Five of their six children work full time for the family business, and the youngest helps out when not in school. Tortilleria la Perla distributes tortillas throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin, selling in Cub Foods, Rainbow, Target, Wal-Mart, and to more than 150 small businesses.
Products
Fresh Tortillas
Tortilla chips
Tostados
Image courtesy of Morningstar Coffee
Morningstar Coffee
Jose Vido
MorningStar Coffee Company
2309 Snelling Ave. S.,
Minneapolis, MN 55404
Toll-Free: 800-409-7350
Local: 612-729-9310
Fax: 612-729-9601
MorningStar Coffee is hand selected from the best small farms all over the world, including its own. As a third-generation coffee grower, Jose Vido –founder and owner – learned his business growing up on his grandfather’s coffee plantation in Brazil where organic, sustainable, fair-trade practices were simply the way it was done. MorningStar began in 1996 out of a tiny building with a tiny 5-pound roaster in St. Paul’s Midway. Unique hand crafted blends are roasted fresh each morning. Morningstar’s Wholesale Division provides fresh, small-batch handcrafted coffees and teas, accessories, high-performance equipment, expert maintenance service and products to grocery stores, co-ops, restaurants, cafés, and catering companies. Products are Fair Trade Certified, MCIA Organic, MN Kosher, and USDA organic.