LEAMINGTON, ON & DELTA, OH - While the holiday season is wrapping up, NatureFresh™ Farms is still celebrating its major wins of the season. Specifically, the greenhouse grower volunteered with local partners, spread cheer at holiday events, and donated food to help feed its community—all of which demonstrate an integral part of the NatureFresh Farms identity.

NatureFresh kicked off the 2018 holiday season by sending a group of volunteers to Southwestern Ontario Gleaners, a charitable organization in Leamington, ON, that NatureFresh regularly donates bell peppers to as a means to help the organization distribute nutritious food, like healthy soup mix bags, to people both locally and internationally. According to a press release, the NatureFresh team helped prepare roughly 25,000 servings of soup in just one volunteer season.

This season, NatureFresh also zeroed in on a community it has called home for the last twenty years, participating in Leamington’s Annual Christmas Parade on November 24^th by giving its Greenhouse Education Center trailer a festive makeover. Peter Quiring, Matt Quiring, John Ketler, and dozens more from the NatureFresh team walked with the float in the parade.

In its Ohio community, NatureFresh also ran a Holiday Sweepstakes campaign in Fulton County, Ohio, that called community members to nominate five deserving families to receive $500 grocery gift cards and food baskets before Christmas Day.

“Our employees in Ohio really drove this initiative—a lot of them knew neighbors or friends who would benefit from a helping hand during the holidays. They came to us asking what NatureFresh could do to support their community—so that’s where it all began,” Cornelius Neufeld, Operations Manager, said about the sweepstakes.

The company also launched a cross-company food drive during the holidays to take its initiatives of feeding its community tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers a step further. According to a press release, the NatureFresh team collected 6,330 non-perishable food items to donate to the Salvation Army in Leamington, ON, and The Open Door in Delta, OH.

“These donations were given in my name as a gift from my team—it was incredibly humbling to see how everyone was inspired to give back to people in need in our communities in such a meaningful way,” Peter Quiring, CEO, said about the donation.

Lastly, NatureFresh also supported Talking Over Turkey, a Leamington-based initiative that works to bring hundreds of food boxes to families during the holiday season. A press release noted that approximately 200 Leamington-based families received a healthy holiday food box thanks to donations from South Essex Fabricating, NatureFresh Farms, and NatureFresh Farms Sales.

Whether it’s the holidays or not, NatureFresh Farms makes it a priority to connect with its community in a meaningful way and participate in year-round growing and giving—truly demonstrating the generosity of the produce industry.

For more fresh produce news like this, keep reading AndNowUKnow.

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