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1. Taylor Farms Honored with McDonald’s “Self-Managed Excellence” Award

   June 2, 2020 5:18 pm

   This month Taylor Farms was honored with McDonald’s first ever “Self-Managed Excellence” Award for outstanding leadership in food safety, quality, and sustainability.

   During the awards ceremony, McDonald’s highlighted a few other reasons behind their selection of Taylor Farms for the award:

   • Bruce Taylor is challenging the entire industry to address labor pressures, from field to facility to transportation labor, and challenging his team to be industry leaders in engineering and the use of automated harvesting machines in an effort to not only reduce the amount of labor but just as importantly, provide employees a more comfortable work environment.
   • Taylor Farms recognized years ago that diversification of growing regions is critical for assured supply. Its built-in contingency plan now covers all of North America with a focus on smaller growing windows.
   • Taylor Farms has an agile supply chain that has supported McDonald’s not just in the US, but also in other areas all over the world.

   

   “McDonald’s is focused on pushing suppliers to lead the way, think long term, proactively pursue solutions to issues, and strategically plan for the future. This award is an amazing recognition for all the work our teams do across the system”, said John Millwater, Account Manager, Taylor Farms. “Our leadership team, our ag team, our quality team, our plants, our national teams, are all the reason why we won.”

   The more than 20-year partnership between McDonald’s and Taylor Farms stems back to Taylor Farms’ beginnings in South Bay Florida, when we first started supplying McDonald’s with iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, and we’re honored to be their partner.

   

2. Taylor Farms Honored at American Cancer Society Celebration of Life

   5:10 pm

   Taylor Farms is grateful to be this year’s honoree at the American Cancer Society’s Monterey Fashion Show Celebration of Life.

   The ACS traditionally dedicates the day to a company or individual that “has inspired others and illustrates the true meaning of making a difference.”

   “The fashion show is not only uplifting, it’s a mission driven event – to find better treatment and a cure for this disease. The tradition of the fashion show is to dedicate the whole day to a company or individual who inspires others and illustrates the true meaning of making a difference, and Taylor Farms does just that.  As the honoree this year- Bruce Taylor and Taylor Farms certainly exemplify the true meaning of giving and making a difference – and they have been making a difference for 21 years, supporting the fashion show since the beginning,” Sponsorship Chair, Shirley Lavorato

   

   The annual Celebration of Life Fashion Show, themed “In the Spotlight” this year at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel, took place on Friday, April 15th. The event included activities such as a silent auction, a luncheon, entertainment, and a fashion show featuring a number of models still fighting cancer and defying the odds.
   

    

    

   

   

    

    

   The premier event is one of a kind in the country, bringing the community together for a cause — helping save lives, helping people stay well and get well, helping to find cures, and fighting back against a disease that has taken too many lives.

    

    

    

    

   For nearly a century, the American Cancer Society has fought for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. By taking what is learned through research and turning it into action, ACS has contributed to a 15 percent decrease in the overall cancer death rate between the early 1990s and 2005. That means avoiding about 650,000 cancer deaths and creating the potential for more birthday celebrations. Overall, 11 million cancer survivors in America will celebrate a birthday this year.

   

   Taylor farms is deeply honored by this recognition, and we are proud of our ongoing commitment to making a difference in the communities where we live and work.

    

3. Taylor Farms Home Town of Salinas Gets High Marks In New American Well-Being Report

   4:53 pm

   The Taylor Farms family is thrilled that our own home town of Salinas ranked second on the latest Gallup-Healthways State of American Well-Being report on how residents of 190 U.S. cities feel about their physical health, social ties, financial security, community and sense of purpose.

   We’re especially proud that Taylor Farms plays an active, ongoing role in helping to revitalize Salinas.  We specifically built our headquarters in downtown Salinas to rekindle investment and greater community engagement.  And our new Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology aims to attract a group of innovating entrepreneurial technology-oriented companies to Salinas to work collaboratively with farmers to make positive change for the future of agriculture.

   

    

   The Gallup-Healthways report notes that the residents of high-ranking cities like Salinas have the lowest levels of stress in the country, eat healthy on a daily basis, and like their daily activities.

   Our Taylor Farms Team loves making a difference in our local community.  We support causes we believe in like The Boys & Girls Club and fund important projects including the neonatal facilities at the Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital. We also sponsor local coaches, through the Golden Whistle Award, who are strong mentors and leaders in our community, award scholarships, and make our neighborhoods, parks, and schools better. We’re thankful and proud of our success, but the most inspiring part for us is sharing our success with our community.

   

   Introducing our outstanding 2015 scholarship recipients!

4. Taylor Farms Helps Fund the “Read to Me Project” Student Literacy Program

   4:47 pm

   As part of our ongoing commitment to education and literacy, Taylor Farms recently funded a Read to Me Project in seven 4th grade classrooms at La Gloria Elementary School in Gonzales, CA. Our sponsorship will support direct program costs including materials, books and classroom/student coordination.

   

   This is the second year Taylor Farms has partnered with the Read to Me Project; with a sponsorship of books for the organization’s Holiday Book Wrap event last December. Seven hundred 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students in Salinas Valley, Greenfield and Gonzales schools selected a book and gift wrapped it for their preschool sibling.

   “Taylor Farms believes in giving back to our communities through education,” says Margaret D’Arrigo-Martin, vice president of community development at Taylor Farms. “We are proud to support literacy programs such as the Read to Me Project – the project not only enhances reading confidence, it encourages siblings to read to one another.”

   

   The Read to Me Project is a read-aloud program that motivates and trains upper-elementary age students to read to their infant, toddler, and preschool age siblings. The Project provides participating classrooms with age-appropriate books, which are checked out and taken home to daily. The project is helping to change lives by preparing children for school and long-term success.

5. Taylor Farms Helps Demonstrate Opportunities in the Ag Industry to Students at Local High School Trade Show

   4:21 pm

   Last week, Taylor Farms was represented  at the 19th Annual Everett Alvarez High School International Agribusiness Academy trade show. This event helps showcase the careers and opportunities available in agriculture, teach the students the history of the Salinas Valley, and allow students who had recently job-shadowed at companies to act as ambassadors.

   

   Taylor Farms hosted three high school juniors who previously had the opportunity to job-shadow at both the processing facility and the fields, where they saw the automated romaine harvester in action!

   Following their shadow experience, these students put a display together that was featured at the show, representing their experience at Taylor Farms and how they now act as ambassadors of the company. The show floor is open to all students at the high school so they can walk around and ask questions about each company. Our ambassadors were knowledgeable on what we do and able to talk about the history of the company, as well as how our products are made and harvested. They even made Lemon Cauliflower Cupcakes for everyone to sample. (Delicious recipe below).

   

   The trade show is an open house setting with almost 50 company booths, demonstrating all of the different opportunities available in the community. This event originally began with just the Ag. Business Class and has grown to involve all of the classes at the International Agribusiness Academy.

   

   “The students have little first-hand knowledge of the agriculture industry until they get out and experience it themselves through the job shadowing with the various companies,” says Janice Souza, teacher at Everett Alvarez High School. “It has been fun these past 19 years to see the difference in each of the students when I first take them to their job shadow, and share the excitement when they return.”

   Lemon Cauliflower Cupcakes

   INGREDIENTS

   • 1 18 oz. packaged lemon cake mix
   • Optional: 1 cup white chocolate chips
   • 3 egg whites or 2 whole eggs
   • 1 cup cooked mashed Taylor Farms Cauliflower Pearls (cooled)
   • 1 cup water
   • 1 cup toasted coconut

   INSTRUCTIONS

   Preheat oven to 350°.

   In a large mixing bowl of an electric mixer, add the dry cake mix and other ingredients and mix on low speed for one minute. Scrape bowl and continue to mix at medium-high speed for 4 minutes until batter is well combined.

   Line muffin tins with 24 cupcake papers. Use an ice-cream scoop to fill papers a little more than half full with batter.

   Place tins in preheated oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until cake springs back when lightly touched.

   Remove cupcakes from oven and place on a cooling rack. Dust cooled cupcakes with a light dusting of powdered sugar, or frost with a nondairy whipped topping.

   Store frosted cupcakes in the refrigerator until ready to eat.