Cherry Capital Foods

Sept. 18, 2015

Delivers Well Beyond Cherry Country

Our region has become an undeniable beacon for food connoisseurs. From casual cafés to fine dining establishments, eateries have adopted the farm-to-table mantra and upped the ante with innovative ingredients and unexpected preparations. Freshness and creativity are the bywords, no matter if the setting features white tablecloths or patrons bellying up to the bar. Large supermarkets and specialty food shops now routinely stock a bevy of unique local foodstuffs.

Feeding this foodie frenzy is the mission of Cherry Capital Foods. The company has a unique perspective and role as the middleman between producers and end users of products ranging from beets to goat cheese, chocolates to meats.

“We pick up food from over 400 farms and processors, and have close to 2,000 customers,” said Evan Smith, CEO.

Despite its name, Cherry Capital Foods doesn’t restrict itself to the greater Grand Traverse region. The company works with suppliers across the state, from Ann Arbor and Dexter in the southeast to western Michigan operations in Fremont and Caledonia, as well as cherry capital-esque locations like Kingsley, Northport, Beulah and Traverse City.

“We let our customers define [what is] local,” said Smith. “Communities overlap and become interdependent.”

Smith sees what is happening both statewide and in this region as something very special. Citing crop diversity, rising culinary prowess, and the increasing fame of the state’s – and the region’s – wine and craft brew industries, he says the sky is the limit.

“We [Michigan] have the second most diverse agriculture crops. We have an opportunity in northwest Michigan to be that Silicon Valley-type spot,” he said.

Cherry Capital Foods was founded in 2007 by Eric Hahn, who soon brought in John “Chip” Hoagland. In 2009, Hoagland hired Smith, CFO at the specialty food company Food For Thought, as a consultant. Hahn soon left and Smith assumed the role of CEO at Cherry Capital.

What started with a single pickup truck and a few employees has grown into an enterprise with two offices (the second is in Okemos), 60 employees and 14 trucks.

The company now operates out of the old Glacier Dome, the hockey facility where Bob Seger, Todd Rundgren, Gordon Lightfoot and others performed in the 70s.

The company still uses some accoutrements from the facility’s previous life. The hockey boards separate the company’s storage area from rental units used by other companies, and Smith proudly shows off his new desk, crafted from even more old hockey boards and topped with plexiglass from there, as well.

Smith says it makes sense for the food industry to cultivate a business based on local use of foodstuffs. Not only does it bring money into the local economy, it helps make food safer, given the pitfalls of disease, climate change, the use or overuse of natural resources (such as the drought in southern California), even the threat of bio-terrorism.

“The food system is vulnerable, so it makes good sense to bring many of those [foods] closer to home,” he said.

Connecting specific farms with individual customers gives Cherry Capital Foods clients, and their customers, assurance regarding where their products came from. Many restaurants proudly showcase the farms they buy from on their menus. In many cases, Cherry Capital Foods is the middleman that made it possible.

“In 2010, it took off with the farm-to-table movement. We were part of that, with the MLUI [now Groundwork], chefs and the culinary program [at NMC]. We provide transparency and a mechanism for that connection,” said Smith.

Customers are happy to utilize that mechanism. Chris Mekas of Lynn & Perin Specialty Foods in Frankfort says the service goes above and beyond.

“They’re always getting new products. They contact us to see if we need anything and what they can do to help us,” said Mekas.

Richard Withim is the executive chef at the Leland Lodge and an enthusiast of what Cherry Capital Foods brings to his tables. Among other items, they provide him with cream and dairy products from Guernsey Dairy of Northville and eggs from Vande Bunte/Konos in Martin.

“I love working with them,” he said. “It’s great to have access to high quality and support the local economy. There’s no reason not to use the company.”

While he could always deal directly with the source producer, Mekas says having the ability to work with one proprietor for many sources makes his job much easier.

“They offer us the ability to pick up great items without having to talk to a hundred different people. It’s hard to go to Detroit or Lansing to get a case of this or a case of that. For us, it’s one-stop shopping.”