Our Suppliers
Even before Fresh Food Weekly received charitable status in 2022, the vast majority of our produce donations came from The Holland Marsh. In addition, all produce donations received from farmers in The Holland Marsh were given “indefinitely”. Meaning, these farmers had so many vegetables, they gave as much as we needed, whenever we needed, as long as we could pick it up.
Gaetano Green Acres Farm
Tony Gaetano is the owner of Gaetano Green Acres Farm located in the heart of The Holland Marsh, and supplies local Loblaws with various lettuces, celery and celery root. He also ships his product to New York.
The Marsh's Climate
A key ingredient to The Holland Marsh’s excellent food growing rates is its climate. Tony says that a good, deep frost in the winter kills harmful bacteria and diseases, which reduces the use of pesticides.
The Marsh's Soil
The nutrient levels in the Marsh’s soil are very high and deplete slower than other types of farmlands. As a result, farmers in The Holland Marsh are coveted by grocery stores and so there’s a ton of farmers with big grocery store contracts.
Grocery Store Contracts
When farmers have contracts with grocery stores, they need to guarantee their supply to cover all the store’s demand - whether there’s a lot of demand or a little.
Tony says that some grocer agreements use computers to recommend a volume based on the previous year’s sales, and then he increases production by 10 percent over the contract volume to guarantee supply. For Tony’s contracts, it means he needs to have a minimum of two extra fields available per item under contract.
This usually leads to having an extra two fields of produce to be donated instead of ground back up in the soil by the till. In the event of reduced demand, Tony harvests the product and stores it in refrigerated stores until demand resumes back to normal. This practice has drastically limited his waste which is almost down to zero because he donates to local food charities.
Additionally, every year he performs a soil analysis test to evaluate the nutrients a plant requires for optimum quality and shelf life. Tony conducts tissue analysis tests three times on the plant while it’s growing—-sometimes four times—-to top up any nutrients that are deficient due to extreme weather conditions such as excessive rainfall or extreme drought.
Tony believes that The Holland Marsh is the richest natural resource in the world, and to protect this productive soil, he says Marsh farmers have adopted conservation practices such as cover crop and oil seed radish. One prevents soil erosion and the other releases natural nutrients that become trapped within the soil. Farmers in The Holland Marsh are continuously experimenting to improve their practices and this is why it still remains so nutrient-rich today.
Dominion Farm Produce Ltd.
Tony Tomizza is the owner and operator of Dominion Farm Produce Ltd. in Bradford, Ont., and is the longest packer and shipper of carrots and onions in Ontario. He also packs parsnips and beets. Ninety percent of what he packs is from farms in The Holland Marsh and surrounding areas. Due to the growing seasons of onions and carrots in our region, there’s a few months of the year in which Dominion imports carrots from Georgia (USA), and Mexico, and imports onions from California.
Being the longest packer of carrots and onions in a region where carrots have a farmgate value of $130 million annually and onions have a farmgate value of $160 million annually, Dominion supplies all the major grocery store chains except for Sobeys and Walmart, with their largest customer being Loblaws. They’re also the largest donor of onions to The Daily Bread Food Bank who pickup by the crate weekly (one crate contain 1,100 pounds of produce). Tony also donates his root vegetables to other charities throughout the Greater Toronto Area including Second Harvest, The Mississauga Food Bank, HarvestHands, and The Ontario Christian Gleaners to name a few.
Fresh Veggies at 60 Aileen
New farmers need to get a lot of expensive certifications in place before they can start selling produce to grocery stores. For new farmers, this often takes years to do and in the meantime, they can’t sell all their product in grocery stores yet. Matt Reesor owns 'Fresh Veggies at 60 Aileen' in The Holland Marsh and he was our very first Holland Marsh donor.
When Fresh Food Weekly first started giving out free fresh produce to low-income families, our first Holland Marsh farmer was Matt Reesor, owner of ’Fresh Veggies at 60 Aileen’. Fresh Food Weekly would join Matt out on his fields and harvest the lettuce with him.
From there, we’d take the lettuce and drop if off at the Barrie Community Fridge, where people were waiting for it since it came weekly. Fresh Food Weekly was literally giving out produce that had been harvested within half an hour.
Barrie Hill Farms
Berry-picking was always a great way for teenagers to get their 40 hours of community service hours that are required to graduate high school. It was also great for local families looking for ways to get more involved in the community.
One of the ways we learned to save time on packaging was by bringing stackable containers so volunteers could pick berries directly into the same containers the berries would be delivered in.
Gleaning activities always occurred on the day before delivery days, and were always scheduled in the evening because that’s when the temperatures were coolest and teenagers were available.
Local Farmers' Markets
One of the first ways we started receiving fresh food donations was by going to local farmers' markets when they ended, with a bin—-and eventually coolers on wheels, and with permission from the market’s manager, we’d walk around to all the vendors to take any extra produce they didn't sell, so we could include it in our weekly deliveries. This method of procuring fresh food donations only work when deliveries occur weekly, though, because the shelf life of produce various when receiving a wide range of produce items.
In the summer of 2021, Fresh Food Weekly went to the Barrie Farmers' Market (Saturdays at 12PM), the Orillia Fairgrounds Farmers' Market (Saturdays at 12:30PM), and the Southern Georgian Bay (Midland) Farmers' Market (Sundays). Each farmer's market would produce 300-500 pounds of fresh food each.
All Our Suppliers & Food Donors
