Business: Ag: Blowers links firm to Disney
Church Brothers marketer helps with outreach

BY ROBERT WALCH • FOR THE SALINAS CALIFORNIAN • JULY 28, 2008

 
Walk into her Salinas office at Church Brothers Produce and you can’t help but smile when you see the life-size cardboard cutout of Mickey Mouse directly behind Katy Blowers’ desk peering down over her shoulder.

You’ll then notice clamshell plastic vegetable containers in the shape of Mickey’s head on Blowers’ desk, posters featuring other Disney characters and vegetables on an adjacent wall, and a pile of vintage fruit and vegetable crates sporting colorful labels stacked in the corner.

All this paraphernalia underscores what has been uppermost on Blowers’ mind since Church Brothers became a co-packer for the Disney Garden line of vegetables and snack items.

The 2006 alliance between Church Brothers and Disney Garden marks the Salinas firm’s move into the retail sector. Along with commodity vegetables, such as celery, broccoli and salad mixes, the company now produces a line of value-added vegetable products, including lunch-box items, quick snacks such as celery with peanut butter, and “Foodles,” a combination of veggies with dips, under the Disney Garden label.

As a member of Church Brothers’ marketing department, Blowers says she has been “dedicated to Disney” for the past two years.

“We had to develop special product lines and new packaging for this project,” she said. “We started out with the commodity vegetables, but now the mix is up to 40 products.”

Because each of Disney Gardens’ 20 co-packers is responsible for its own sales, Blowers’ job involves working with Disney’s Imagination Farm to create trade advertising, brochures and graphics for the products.

She also works with Church Brothers’ sales staff and oversees the firm’s Disney Garden Web site, handles community outreach that encourages children’s healthy eating habits, and arranges for Church’s information booth at trade shows, such as the Produce Marketing Association’s Foodservice Conference and Expo, held in Monterey this past weekend.

This spring Blowers became one of 12 individuals selected from a nationwide pool of applicants to participate in the 2008-09 United Fresh Leadership Program. The program involves four weeklong trips, which are intended to expose the participants to various aspects of the produce industry.

“Our first trip was here in California where we spent the time in the Salinas and Central valleys,” Blowers said. “We visited orchard and various row crop operations, and then finished up at U.C. Davis, meeting with professors in the ag department.”

In September the group will spend a week in Washington, D.C., followed by spring trips to Florida and Las Vegas for the national convention of the United Fresh trade group.

“I was told this would be a life-changing experience,” Blowers said. “We are kept on the move all day, so it is quite intense but very worthwhile. I was totally exhausted when that first week was over, but the information and opportunities to network were priceless.”

Blowers was joined by two other local participants, Mark Shaw of Markon and River Ranch’s Bryan Thure, in this year’s leadership program.

A Salinas native, Blowers knew while attending Notre Dame High School that she wanted a career in some aspect of marketing. But it took her awhile to pursue that goal after she graduated from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in 2000.

After working for two companies as a buyer’s assistant and a transportation department floor manager, Blowers joined Church Brothers three years ago. She set up CB Logistics, a division of the firm, before she was finally able to focus on her first love — marketing.

ROBERT WALCH of Monterey writes Ag Profiles for The Salinas Californian. Contact him in care of The Salinas Californian, P.O. Box 81091, Salinas 93912; fax to 754-4293; or e-mail to newsroom@thecalifornian.com.