USDA Stays in the Box, Thus Boxing Out the Majority
First of all, thank you for your time in this this process. You all do not have to respond, nor do I expect you too. I am lost for words, heartbroken, and disappointed. Like many, I spent quite a bit of time pouring my heart and soul into ways to save the American farming industry. I built a box, a plan, and a roadmap poised to feed as many people as I can and grow something I felt this world needed. While I can type forever on this, I am speechless as an advocate and voice for this industry. In a city of 8 million, how can awarding one company all of something benefit the industry as a whole? Am I pleading my case in a way yes because I know that people know brands such as mine could produce and execute this program, but I am more confused about the industry? In Houston, weeks ago, I went outside the box to start helping banks. I saw the banks trapped with products, shippers dumping products, and people needing assistance. This gave me the idea to begin offering assistance in packing boxes to help the banks here.
I have money, and this wasn’t about the money it was about keeping the supply chain moving, the employees In our industry working and finding a future in farming that eliminates waste, thus reaching more people in need. This was a way to jolt life into an industry that hasn’t stopped working since COVID struck. This gave us hope that we can all work together in order to unite farmers and those who needed assistance. Again, I think you all for the time in this as I know it wasn’t easy. I’m not angry but just disappointed because this will, in the end, create more havoc and divide within our industry than help. We have struggled through romaine fiasco’s, and other recall just to survive in a beat-up sector. I hope you all think hard about an approved list of suppliers in this rather than set awards because it will give you all and this industry more hope. Some of these awards are bigger revenue than the actual companies have. I’ll leave you with the article below, and I hope you will find time to google some of my work in this industry. I would like you to see what I have done in an industry that has needed to go outside the box.
https://foodtank.com/news/2020/04/23-organizations-eliminating-food-waste-during-covid-19/
Brent Erenwert
Produce Industry Activist
Terminal Manager at BHANDAL BROS INC
4 年absolutely
Retired for now.
4 年Brent it would be real interesting to get some feedback from some of my past fellow employees at Feeding America and the Local Food Banks. I spent 2 years developing a proper distribution model of produce out of Texas for Texas Farmers and Food Banks using TDA funds. I am stunned at some of the names and awards on the list. Luckily there are also some good ones on there, but not nearly enough in my humble opinion. What I believe will happen is that a lot of those unknown entities will probably have to hire out the business to those that are actually capable of doing it for them. There is no way for them to not only build the facilities needed and have the rest of the infrastructure done to distribute it out properly, but the real important part is the contacts that are necessary to get it done and to those that need it in a timely and cost effective manner. They will most likely just take a bunch of money off the top and try to bid it out to the lowest bidder to try and cover it as best they can. Worst of all is that I really doubt that we will have proper oversight into this as we need to make sure those that need the food actually get all that they should under the program and that we did not just waste 1.2 billion dollars.
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4 年Very interesting Brent Erenwert I have heard about some of the supply chain issues on the news but your commentary really exemplifies the issues happening every day right now. We must as a society think smarter then we ever have with almost 20% unemployed this isn’t business as usual. We need innovation as well as execution.