Driving the Interests of American Family Farming Directly to Our Nation’s Capital
Farmers Restaurant Group welcomed our brand-new 18-wheeler to Washington, D.C. yesterday full of food supplies coming directly from North Dakota. It was our inaugural trip of what will become a regular drive to cut out the middleman and help support family farmers.
Every day, we are working to help family farmers earn a greater share of the food dollar by unbundling the industrial food chain and sourcing our food directly from those that grow and produce it. Farmers Restaurant Group is now trucking almost all of the sugar we use in our restaurants and wheat for our vodka in our very own truck, operated by the farmer owners of the North Dakota Farmers Union.
Co-Owners Dan Simons and Mark Watne, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union, were there to meet the truck, along with Roger Johnson from the National Farmers Union. “The farmer’s share of the food dollar has reached an all-time low at 14.8 cents to the dollar,” said Johnson. “This is a figure that strikes a chord with family farmers and ranchers everywhere who are dealing with the sharpest decline in net farm income since the Great Depression.”
What we are now calling our “food truck” couldn’t have been timelier, as we will continue our work to support family farmers and educate our guests on the importance of family farming in our hope of driving the interests of family farming across our nation’s capital.
Michael Curtin, CEO of DC Central Kitchen, was also in attendance. Our truck not only will it be bringing supplies for our restaurants and in-house distillery, but we are working to help bring food supplies for the good people of the DC area who depend on DC Central Kitchen. Farmers Restaurant Group has supported their work to provide 12,000 daily meals to those in need.
Members of the Keany family and their team from Keany Produce & Gourmet joined the Massachusetts Avenue gathering. They will continue to help us distribute our North Dakota products, as well as other family-farmed ingredients we use in our recipes, to all of our restaurants across the DC area and to our Founding Farmers in King of Prussia, PA.