S. Abraham & Sons Focuses on Locally Sourced Ingredients for Fresh Salad Lineup
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — S. Abraham & Sons Inc. (SAS) is switching produce sourcing for its Fruit Fridge Farms brand salads to locally grown lettuce from Revolution Farms, Michigan's largest year-round lettuce farm.
Located in Caledonia, the hydroponic greenhouse will provide salad and lettuce blends that go from farm to store in less than two days, ensuring fresh convenience on the go.
The salads will be made from the Revolution Farms Michigan Spring Mix blend, which combines Bibb, Red Oak and Sweet Crisp lettuce for an elevated everyday mix combining crunch, nutrition, and flavor, the company said.
"As families travel more, their food should travel less. Partnering with Revolution Farms brings an incredible innovation to fresh foods on-the-go. Their lettuce is traveling 95 percent fewer miles to our kitchens, where it's made into salads and travels to store shelves in as little as two days," said George Bennett, chief marketing officer at S. Abraham & Sons.
"Working with Revolution Farms means our customers get fresher, more nutritious and safer salads that are grown year-round, closer to home," he added. "We are thrilled to make this switch and provide more ready-made options at thousands of convenience stores across our marketing area."
Revolution Farms' three-acre indoor farm has the capacity to produce more than 1.5 million pounds of fresh lettuce and salad greens for the Midwest each year. It recently added two additional acres that are part of a fully automated system, taking the non-GMO lettuce from seed to package without ever touching human hands.
"Fresh and convenient are two words that we believe can and should go together, and Revolution Farms' vision of farming means the same freshness you expect at home or in a five-star restaurant can be accessible on the go," said John Green, CEO of Revolution Farms. "Our partnership with S. Abraham & Sons brings together our mission to reach more people with fresher, healthier, more nutritious food, and raise awareness of how to eat local greens all year round."
The farm's lettuce reaches c-stores in as few as one to two days, less than half the time it takes for lettuce grown in and shipped from California, Arizona and Mexico to make it to store shelves in the Midwest.
A subsidiary of Imperial Trading Co., Grand Rapids-based SAS is a grocery distributor servicing convenience, grocery, drug, campus retail and small-format stores in eight Midwest states. Headquartered in Elmwood, La., Imperial Trading has six distribution centers serving 19 states.