http://www.springintoactionnyc.com/

Columbia University’s Urban Design Lab has a some...

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:55:07 -0500

Columbia University’s Urban Design Lab has a some incredibly informative graphics about our food system. We wanted to share this one in particular. What do you think this says about our food system, and how do you think it’s changed?

Seeking Operations Manager to Help Change the World of Food Processing in NYC

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:31:28 -0500

Spring Into Action is seeking a passionate, self-starter with experience in food processing to join their team as Operations Manager.

Spring Into Action is a new social enterprise that will process and deliver regionally grown produce to food manufacturers and food service institutions in New York City. Beginning the spring of 2012, we will partner with regional farmers and food hubs to source high quality, seasonal produce. At our New York City facility, we will then sort, repack, and coordinate delivery through distribution partners and the company fleet, and as needed, wash, cut, and bag produce according to customer specifications.

Spring Into Action was founded to create jobs for folks in our community who are rebuilding their lives after periods of incarceration. Though our goal is to create 100 jobs in the next 5 years, our Operations Manager will initially have between 2- 6 direct reports.

Duties and responsibilities - The Operations Manager will:

Work with the team to create processes to source, process, and distribute regional produce safely and effectively
Oversee the daily operations of the food processing facility – managing incoming supply, inventory, workflow, staffing schedules, on-time delivery of product
Train, manage, coach, and grow employees from within the company
Work with the start up team to create a culture of responsibility, respect, collaboration, growth and excellence
Be responsible for quality control in both processing and distribution
Ensure that operating systems, equipment and procedures comply with all current state, federal, and local legislation, and meet best practices for safety, efficiency, and sustainability. Propose and implement changes as necessary.
Work with partner intermediary and the CEO on personnel issues such as hiring, performance reviews, disciplinary action, and termination
Monitor key process parameters that encompass the plant personnel, productivity, employee safety and maintenance
Other responsibilities as needed

Qualifications:

5+ years of progressively responsible experience in fresh produce processing/distribution with a minimum of 2 years of supervisory experience
Sense of humor, comfort with ambiguity, self-starter, problem solver, active sharer of knowledge
Commitment to the company’s social mission
Demonstrated strong communication (written & verbal), analytical/problem solving, organizational, and interpersonal skills
Knowledge of USDA regulations, HACCP compliance, OSHA safety, health and environment laws, regulations and standards
Background in scheduling, cost control, process management, inventory control, quality assurance and food safety
Ability to lift 50 lbs. and work for extended periods of time on their feet in cool, damp temperatures (50 degrees)
Active driver’s license

Preferred Qualifications:

BA/BS degree in Food Science, Engineering or other relevant area
Background in fresh-cut and/or regional food processing
Experience with basic machinery maintenance
Knowledge of sustainable practices, including reusable/recyclable packaging and energy efficient production
Bilingual / fluency in English and Spanish would be a plus
Commercial Driver’s License a plus

Compensation: Commensurate with experience. Benefits package includes health care, vacation, sick and personal time.

If interested, please submit a cover letter and a resume to Katie Broadbent at Katie@springintoactionnyc.com. Applications will be accepted through the end of February 2012, and interviews will be conducted on a rolling basis.

Everyday we come to work with the end goal of creating jobs for...

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:37:56 -0500

Everyday we come to work with the end goal of creating jobs for folks when they come home from prison. Often times, all someone needs is a chance to show the world and their family that they have in fact changed for the better. We hope more people and organizations join us to help provide opportunities for people to change.

In the above interview from npr.org, Michel Martin discusses reentry and recidivism with Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Jennifer Gaskins who was incarcerated for several years.

It’s always great to hear success stories. If all goes to plan, we will have a number of our own very soon.

Last week, we went to visit Acumen Capital’s other...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:12:29 -0500

Andrea and Jes

Andy and Jeff talking shop

Brooklyn Grange

Last week, we went to visit Acumen Capital’s other building in Long Island City. The meeting was truly inspiring and eye opening. These are pictures of us touring the rooftop farm.

Approximately one week before Thanksgiving, we had the pleasure...

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:09:00 -0500

It's a Sign

Group with Council Member Diana Reyna

Jes liking what she sees

Loading Dock Bays

Great space for wash&chop

Nice Cafeteria

Approximately one week before Thanksgiving, we had the pleasure of touring a historic Brooklyn building, a potential location of our new regional food distribution and processing company. Not many people know this, but Pfizer used to be Brooklyn’s largest employer. They had a fortress of a building in South Williamsburg that they recently sold to Acumen Capital, a forward thinking real estate company. Acumen Capital has an impressive investment track record. They previously bought the Standard Motor Products Building in Long Island City, which returned over 800 jobs to the area and currently houses the Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm.

We are very grateful to the office of Council Member Reyna for telling us about this tremendous space and for touring it with us. Acumen’s broker Nick was great, but it was extra helpful to understand the significance of the building from the local City Council Office.

As it stands, the fourth floor of this building is slated for food manufacturing. Some tenants have already moved into the ground floor as they wait for the facilities upstairs to be outfitted. It turns out that many of the safety precautions needed for producing pharmaceuticals are the same for processing food. Food manufacturing and processing are therefore logical second uses for the space.

We are very excited about the building and Acumen Capital, but this deal is not yet done. There are a number of details to be checked and confirmed on both sides, and hopefully, these can be handled quickly.

In summary, it was a pretty cool morning in Williamsburg.

This week has been all about finding space that works...

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 10:18:34 -0500

Building Deuces

Building 1

Building 3

This week has been all about finding space that works and calculating how much we will need. That’s why we went to Hunts Point to check out a few potential locations

What we are working on at It takes a Region Conference in...

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:11:34 -0500

What we are working on at It takes a Region Conference in Albany.

Our Goals:

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:56:00 -0400

To create 100+ jobs that provide personal, professional, and economic growth for those who want it

To create high quality products or services that our customers value
To generate revenue and mission fulfillment for our nonprofit partner
To enhance the communities we operate in
To generate reusable seed money to invest in other businesses that support our mission
To inspire others to change the way they look at people impacted by the criminal justice system and emulate what we are doing

Location, Location, Location

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:20:27 -0400

Last week, after we made the decision to jump head first into the local food distribution / wash and chop business, we immediately turned our attention to potential locations. Curiously, Jes met Mike from Organic Food Incubator at a conference earlier in the week, and by Thursday morning we were on a tour.

Organic Food Incubator is an amazing space run by the inspiring entrepreneurs who founded BAO Fresh Kombucha. Any food start-up would be lucky to share a home with Mike, Mike, Peter, and the rest of their crew as they take over the NYC healthy beverage market with their delicious products.

Right now, we are trying to figure out if this space will meet our needs. No matter what, this is an amazing opportunity for any food entrepreneur. Please forward the Organic Food Incubator’s information to anyone who is starting a food business in NY - especially those who need certified organic space.

Below is a description of the Incubator along with BAO’s twitter info.

“Organic Food Incubator is a newly renovated, well-lighted, clean and spacious commercial kitchen space in Long Island City has been configured as New York City’s only Organic Food Incubator™ (OFI). The facility is available to rent for organic and non-organic food and drink companies who are in need of access to a NYS Department Agriculture and Markets commercially licensed, USDA organic and kosher certified kitchen to help grow their business.”

Like Organic Food Incubator on Facebook

@DrinkBAO / Like BAO Kombucha on Facebook

Can't Get Enough Local Food

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:41:00 -0400

The End of Snacks

In our last post we showed some details of the product development process for our healthy and locally sourced “snack pack” that moms and kids would both enjoy.

While Product development is fun, we quickly realized that it can take a really long time, especially without food product experience or one of “grandma’s secret recipes.” Also, we learned that artisanal food product production is generally mechanized and outsourced once a product reaches scale to avoid expensive facility build-outs. This was very unattractive to us because of our social mission of employing large numbers of people coming home from prison.

Even though we strongly believe there is a need for healthier snacks in the market, we decided to pull the plug on our snack pack project.

Our Fearless Leader

Luckily, the demise of our snack packs coincided with some great news: Jes Rooks came on-board as the new President and CEO of Spring Into Action!

Jes has brought focus, passion, good vibrations, curiosity, and twenty years of experience as an all-star in environmental and re-entry related non-profits. With Jes at the helm, we have worked diligently to figure out what business to start, and we are happy to have made a decision just last week.

The Decision

Keeping with the local food theme, we will start a business that addresses the challenges restaurants, institutions, and schools face when they want to buy high quality and safe locally grown produce all year round that consistently arrives on time. We will do this by starting a distribution company that also sanitizes, chops, and packages vegetables ready to be eaten.

We are thrilled with this decision because we all love local food and can’t wait to help connect small and medium farms with the enormous market for food in New York City. The entire team has full to-do lists and we aim to be operating by January 2012.

Blog

This blog will expand on how we discovered this business model, and the adventures we go through as we get things started. You can expect more frequent posts from our whole team. Also, we will be tweeting @SpringActionNYC and updating our facebook page so please follow/like us if you haven’t already.

Our first seven attempts at dips! Great textures and the taste...

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 09:43:00 -0400

Our first seven attempts at dips! Great textures and the taste is coming along.

Breaking News: "Snack Packs!"

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:54:12 -0400

We’ve made some exciting decisions since announcing the Ideas for Impact Challenge winner earlier this month, and wanted to bring you all up to speed on where we’re headed next!

A Fresher Twist on Carrots and Dip

Just last week, Spring Into Action decided to launch a three month “snack pack” pilot project because we know how hard it can be to find healthy, satisfying and accessible snacks. We think you deserve better - and that’s why we want to create a snack that pairs local, pre-cut veggies (think carrot sticks) with a protein-rich and delicious Greek yogurt dip.

Our immediate goal is to

Create the world’s tastiest Greek yogurt dip
Solidify relationships with local farmers
Get to know you, our customers
Find the best way to get our snacks to you
Share our values through our snacks

We aren’t yet sure if “snack packs” are for us in the long term, but we know that we want to become the NYC area’s leading producer of healthy snacks and prepared meals for people who want to eat local and nutritious food, but don’t always have the time or energy to cook. In doing so, we hope to support local farmers and create jobs for people who are rebuilding their lives.

How can you get your hands on our packs?

To start, we will distribute through local CSAs (specifically Holton Farms), health food retailers, gym chains, and institutions (hospitals, summer camps, schools etc.). Moving forward, we would like to expand to larger area food retailers, and add other products to the mix such as, pre-washed and chopped local produce, stir-fry kits, and seasonal soups.

“A Little Help From Our Friends”

We’ve gotten this far in large part from amazing the support and ideas of many different people. It would mean the world to us if anyone could share their experience in food production or contacts in recipe development, local food sourcing, and branding/storytelling, and food distribution.

Thanks very much and stay tuned for the developments we post over the next few weeks.

Some Statistics...

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:06:00 -0400

Three Cheers for our Winner: Holton Farms!!

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 10:09:05 -0400

Three Cheers for our Winner: Holton Farms!!

Spring goes to StartingBloc

Tue, 31 May 2011 17:20:00 -0400

109 young people were just inducted as StartingBloc fellows over Memorial Day Weekend. We had the good fortune of pitching our business ideas to all of them.

We were really happy that everyone responded positively to Spring Into Action’s ambitions. We were also happy to meet several speakers who are doing similar work. More news to come. Check out this awesome program!

When starting a business, is it better to first identify the target customer or develop the product?

Tue, 03 May 2011 17:56:00 -0400

What do you think?

The Osborne Association: Lighting the Way

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:38:00 -0400

Yesterday morning we attended the Osborne Association’s Lighting the Way Fundraising Breakfast. This event was truly inspiring and reminded us exactly why we are so passionate about helping people and families have a second chance in life. The stories of redemption in spite of immense challenges and pain are made possible by the support the Osborne Association gives to its participants. We were humbled by all that Osborne does and accomplishes, and with the increasing rate of prison closings in New York, they are needed more than ever.

Osborne’s programs are at risk from the same budget cuts that make them more necessary in the community. We would be very grateful if you would consider making a donation to support this important organization and all of the great work that it does for some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

We are very proud to be a partner of the Osborne Association and can’t wait to get to work, starting up businesses with them.

Please click here to donate.

Drumroll, Please... Announcing our semi-finalists!

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:36:00 -0400

Out of 125 fascinating entries, the following five people have been crowned the first ever “Ideas for Impact” semi-finalists:

Jurrien Swarts – Farm fresh food prepared into microwavable meals for locovores and people living in “food deserts”

Heather Burkman – Digitizing small business records and storing hard copies off-site

Nickalas Goettling – Seal coating asphalt roads and parking lots

Kendra Pierre-Louis – Restoring brownfields through phytoremediation

Michael Cozzolino – Manufacturing decorative architectural wood wall panels

Congratulations to Jurrien, Heather, Nickalas, Kendra, and Michael!

Stay tuned to find out which of these semi-finalists will win the coveted “Noble Prize for Social Impact” on June 1^st, 2011.

Maybe we should start a bakery?

Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:29:22 -0400

Maybe we should start a bakery?

We need more success stories of people who get out of prison....

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 17:10:00 -0400

We need more success stories of people who get out of prison. “My main concern is to make enough money so that I don’t have to worry about being homeless.”