C&C Produce services military families, employs successful chef demos
C&C Produce services military families, employs successful chef demos
Five years ago, C&C Produce began supplying one of the government commissaries with a full line of produce. At present, the company services a total of six commissaries: Fort Leavenworth, Fort Leonardwood, Fort Riley, Offutt Air Force Base, Whiteman Air Force Base and McConnell Air Force Base.
Nick Conforti, owner of C&C Produce, said, "Our focus has always been to provide excellent-quality produce at a good price, but we also focus on helping our military families eat healthier." The Defense Commissary Agency and C&C Produce have implemented two programs to help the commissaries reach this goal: "5 A Day" and "It's Your Choice, Make It Healthy.
Along with these programs, C&C provides a chef who performs demonstrations at each commissary twice a year to help promote the "It's Your Choice, Make It Healthy campaign. Chef Dan Turner is a culinary arts professor at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS. Chef Turner brings a great personality to the demonstrations.
He said that his objective is "to keep it simple, make it fun and allow everyone to try something new. While he is preparing the new recipes, he interacts with the customers fielding their questions regarding subjects such as the produce, handling and care, nutritional information, and utensils and cookware. This helps keep the demonstration interesting and lively.
The produce department, along with the store director, cross-merchandises products that will be featured in the recipes. This way, everything is in one place and the customers do not have to look all over the store for a particular item.
C&C provides a merchandiser, John Lesmeister, to help with the set up. Mr. Lesmeister also assists the produce manager in setting up the entire produce department for everyday business. During and after a demonstration, overall produce sales are up and the particular item that was featured stays popular for several weeks.
The Fort Leavenworth Commissary recently held a demonstration featuring Portabella mushroom sandwiches. According to Glennie Morris, store director, it would normally sell five to six cases of mushrooms in a week, but, "they sold 35 cases in one day and sales are still on the rise. Ms. Morris also commented that each of the items that were cross-merchandised with the mushrooms have also seen an increase in volume.
Mr. Conforti and his team at C&C Produce, DeCA and the PBO office, along with Chef Turner, have put together quite a successful program to help keep military families happy and healthy.
Nick Conforti, owner of C&C Produce, said, "Our focus has always been to provide excellent-quality produce at a good price, but we also focus on helping our military families eat healthier." The Defense Commissary Agency and C&C Produce have implemented two programs to help the commissaries reach this goal: "5 A Day" and "It's Your Choice, Make It Healthy.
Along with these programs, C&C provides a chef who performs demonstrations at each commissary twice a year to help promote the "It's Your Choice, Make It Healthy campaign. Chef Dan Turner is a culinary arts professor at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, KS. Chef Turner brings a great personality to the demonstrations.
He said that his objective is "to keep it simple, make it fun and allow everyone to try something new. While he is preparing the new recipes, he interacts with the customers fielding their questions regarding subjects such as the produce, handling and care, nutritional information, and utensils and cookware. This helps keep the demonstration interesting and lively.
The produce department, along with the store director, cross-merchandises products that will be featured in the recipes. This way, everything is in one place and the customers do not have to look all over the store for a particular item.
C&C provides a merchandiser, John Lesmeister, to help with the set up. Mr. Lesmeister also assists the produce manager in setting up the entire produce department for everyday business. During and after a demonstration, overall produce sales are up and the particular item that was featured stays popular for several weeks.
The Fort Leavenworth Commissary recently held a demonstration featuring Portabella mushroom sandwiches. According to Glennie Morris, store director, it would normally sell five to six cases of mushrooms in a week, but, "they sold 35 cases in one day and sales are still on the rise. Ms. Morris also commented that each of the items that were cross-merchandised with the mushrooms have also seen an increase in volume.
Mr. Conforti and his team at C&C Produce, DeCA and the PBO office, along with Chef Turner, have put together quite a successful program to help keep military families happy and healthy.
