“Our western vegetable deal picked up immensely the minute the northeastern movement began to slow down around the beginning of October,” Kevin Bartolotta, president of Bartolotta Inc. in Torrington, CT, told The Produce News. “The only exceptions are eastern potatoes, onions and a few other commodity items.”

Industry associates started calling Bartolotta the “Celery King” several years ago, and he decided to turn it into his company brand name. Today he continues to do a major celery business, especially from California and Florida.

“We do major business with Duda Farm Fresh Foods’ celery,” said Bartolotta. “They are the absolute experts when it comes to celery.

“Although celery is our big load item, we’ll also be moving a lot of broccoli, spring mix, spinach and Romaine hearts during the holiday season,” he added.

The Bartolotta family; Kevin, president of Bartolotta Inc., with daughter, Sierra, and wife, Angela, at the Boston Bruins vs. Carolina Hurricanes’ hockey game on Saturday, Nov. 15. Established in the early 2000s, Bartolotta also brokers a full line of western and eastern commodity produce items. In mid-November, seasonal produce was in the process of transitioning from the north back to Mexico and Florida. Although it is pretty much a full-line house of vegetables, it does very little in the fruit category.

“Business is great now, but summer was slow on product from the West because prices were high there,” said Bartolotta. “During that time — about three months’ worth — we handled excellent supplies of high quality and strong volumes of local product. We move back and forth and up and down across the country to supply our customers with the best-quality product year-round. But when Canada, Ohio and Jersey are in full swing in the summer, my business tends to slow down. Three yearly quarters are strong for us and one is somewhat mild — and this has been a pretty consistent fact over the years.”

He added that the company expects to be extremely busy through the end of the year. However, it feels about a week-long lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas. During that time, Bartolotta and his wife, Angela, and daughter, five-year-old Sierra, take the opportunity to spend a week at their timeshare apartment in Cancun, Mexico.

A longtime supporter of the Friendly Hands Food Bank in Torrington, Bartolotta has donated food to the organization for many years. Volunteers pack boxes of food products to give to those in need in the community.

Friendly Hands works year-round to help people, but during the holidays its needs increased substantially. Bartolotta is always there to do whatever he can to make sure that the food bank gets what it needs and is especially generous during these times.

Bartolotta’s Thanksgiving donation to Friendly Hands Food Bank is a major part of how the company celebrates the holidays.

“This year we are donating produce for 275 Thanksgiving baskets that will be handed out to people in need,” he said.

The satisfaction he has gained from being a loyal friend and supporter of the group inspired him to step up his fundraising efforts. In 2012, he held his inaugural fundraiser to benefit Friendly Hands by reaching out to suppliers and customers across the country. That year he raised $19,000.

In 2013, when the Northeast was ravaged by Superstorm Sandy, Bartolotta realized that there were other organizations that also needed his help. He decided to choose another organization and share the donations. He chose the Staten Island Rotary Foundation, which was accepting donations and distributing them to people who were in dire need of help following the storm. The fundraiser pulled in $30,000, which was divided equally between Friendly Hands and the Rotary Foundation.

This year, Bartolotta partnered in the project with Rob Goldstein, owner and president of Genpro Inc., headquartered in Rutherford, NJ. Goldstein’s human resource director also became involved in organizing the fundraiser. The partners chose two nonprofit organizations; Dorothy’s Place, headquartered in Salinas, CA, and the Wounded Warrior Project, in addition to Friendly Hands Food Bank.

“Rob and I reached out to a lot of suppliers and customers asking for their donations during this year’s fundraiser,” said Bartolotta. “We raised $36,150, which was shared equally with the organizations. He’s partnering with me again for the 2015 campaign.

“But we’re thinking even bigger for next year,” he continued. “I’m now talking to a potential third partner, and we are looking for others to join in who feel that their efforts can help those in need.”

The fundraisers have typically run for a month between February and March.

Back to the produce industry, Bartolotta said that his business is growing nicely. The company had a New Jersey operation for about a year, but the manager moved on to another company so Bartolotta closed the office.

“My manager is now my customer, so this little story has a nice ending,” he added. “But I’m seeing new customers throughout New England, including at the Boston Market. And our growth in the New York City and Philadelphia Metropolitan regions is growing nicely.”

Bartolotta was looking forward to the weekend following his conversation with The Produce News. He and Angela were taking Sierra to her first hockey game of the year.

“Angela and I are big hockey fans, and Sierra is quickly becoming one,” he said.