The new local leadership has awakened the company’s efforts to be more visible and involved
Amy’s Kitchen plant manager Josh Self greets fairgoers from a booth set up at the Jackson County Fairgrounds on Wednesday. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune]
From sponsoring free parking at the Jackson County Fair to helping local nonprofits, Amy’s Kitchen is making its biggest effort in a decade and a half to get to know its Southern Oregon neighbors.
The Petaluma, Calif.-based vegetarian convenience food giant has kept a low profile since expanding into southern Oregon in 2006. But Josh Self, who has been managing the company’s White City plant since October, has a new look that includes a more prominent place. to the local community.
“Some people don’t know we’re local,” Self said in a phone interview Wednesday while heading to a booth at the Jackson County Fair. It’s the company’s first stand in nearly 16 years in southern Oregon.
Self said he admires the community presence of other large businesses in the Rogue Valley, such as how Harry & David sponsors a Medford baseball park and is active in local community events such as the Medford Pear Blossom Parade .
“We want to be involved in the outdoors, supporting things that fit our brand, that fit what Amy’s is about,” Self said.
Self said his main goal since taking on the role of plant manager in October is to create a “better presence in the community.” He described the co-sponsorship of free fairground parking with the People’s Bank of Commerce as an early step toward that goal.
“This was one of the first big things we’ve done for the community,” Self said.
They want to do more. Self said the company donated more than 150,000 meals to the Oregon Food Bank last year, and earlier this spring began a partnership with Community Works to provide meals to victims of domestic violence housed at the non-profit Dunn House temporary shelter.
“We’re looking for more opportunities locally to donate,” Self said.
During the 2020 Labor Day fires, the Expo became the site of a mass evacuation for people displaced by the Almeda and South Obenchain fires. He said part of the reason Amy’s is starting its outreach with the fair is so the next time there’s a community emergency, they’ll have a relationship with The Expo to help.
“I think the key is networking so people know we’re available,” Self said. “As we mature in what we’re trying to do, who knows where we’ll end up?”
It all adds up to the company’s biggest attempt at visibility since Oct. 24, 2006, when Amy cut the ribbon on its 176,000-square-foot facility in White City.
According to Mail Tribune archives, the arrival drew a crowd that included Rachel and Andy Berliner, who founded the company in 1987 to create suitable vegetarian meals for their daughter, Amy, and involved Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, who flipped the ceremonial switch.
The Antelope Road plant, which added another 120,000 square feet in 2015, was the company’s first expansion outside of California. In addition to its processing plants in Santa Rosa and San Jose, California, the privately held company also operates a processing plant in Pocatello, Idaho.
He said Pocatello has a larger footprint, but the southern Oregon plant and its 800 employees is currently the company’s largest producer. When it started in 2006, it was primarily a pizza plant.
The Southern Oregon frozen food line makes pizza, entrees, meal bowls and all of the company’s gluten-free burritos.
“Wheat burritos are made in Santa Rosa,” Self said. The Santa Rosa plant makes many of the company’s most labor-intensive products.
On a typical day, the Southern Oregon plant makes 80,000 gluten-free burritos, up to 80,000 pizzas and 250,000 cans of soups, chili and refried beans.
As with so many other businesses in Southern Oregon and around the country, a key reason behind local outreach is recruiting. The company currently has 30 open positions, with the biggest needs being maintenance and production mechanics.
Especially on the canning line, kitchen functions are operator positions. Staff at these positions can work with up to 77,000 pounds of tomatoes going into a kettle at one time.
“We call it a kitchen, but it’s really big,” Self said.
He said the White City plant aims to hire and develop talent from within, and described the positions at the plant as jobs with a lot of upward mobility. Of the 10 managers who report to him, five started in the hourly ranks.
“My entire management staff grew as this plant grew,” Self said. “It’s irreplaceable to have that.
“They can use those past experiences to set us up for success.”
Contact Mail Tribune Web Editor Nick Morgan at 541-776-4471 or nmorgan@rosebudmeda.com. Follow him on Twitter @MTwebeditor.
