Projects


A Heritage of Quality and Innovation

Wendell Turner, president & CEO of Diversified Services Corporation and subsidiary Heritage Fare, Ltd., has learned to roll with the punches over the last 25 years. After establishing his food distributorship in Cleveland in 1981, he struggled to compete with the buying power of Sysco and other larger companies. Later, when he started making and marketing his own line of ethnic sauces and seasonings, well-entrenched grocery giants made it difficult for Turner’s loyal, local supermarket customers to compete.

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Agricultural Incubator Foundation and Northwest Ohio Cooperative Kitchen

As a Director to the AIF, CIFT assists in achieving the mission of educating the community on agriculture and stimulating interest in and respect for agriculture as a mainstay for the area economy. One effort in doing so is reflected through the small business assistance provided by NOCK. CIFT provides business and technical assistance to entrepreneurs exploring the establishment of a food business. This commercially designed outlet offers a location for the development and production of specialty, value-added foods. To date, seven businesses have entered the marketplace with additional approaching production capability while more than 130 have benefited from the information, business and technical assistance provided. Two catering businesses have utilized the facility as a means to accommodate expansion efforts.

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CIFT's Local Produce Initiatives

Direct Marketing initiatives and outreach associated with local produce is a focus of the Rural Income Enhancement program. Multiple avenues have been pursued to explore how and where local producers can enhance their operation and expand market potential. One such effort is visible through the Farm to Chef program and the “Fresh Sheets” distributed weekly to more than 25 farmers and 150 local chefs searching for fresh ingredients for their tasty creations. These ingredients range from certified organic and heirloom varieties of produce to poultry, meat, eggs, specialty baked goods, and value-added items such as jams and chutneys. Farmers are connected to restaurants therein establishing a method of communicating desired products and means of accessing them.

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Environmental Stewardship Goes Beyond Compliance

As a supplier to General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler, Carlisle Engineered Products knew that ISO 14001 standard compliance was inevitable. So, company management came to EISC for assistance.

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Fighting Childhood Obesity

One of CIFT’s longest standing members is Heritage Fare, Inc., a Cleveland based producer and marketer of ethnic specialty foods. Over the past four years, CIFT has completed a number of projects with the company. The results of these projects are now culminating in significant positive results for them.

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Producing Safer Eggs

A major CIFT project has the potential for providing huge economic benefit to Ohio and its institutions, enhancing revenues for Ohio egg producers, all while improving food safety for the American public. The project involves the development and commercialization of an Ohio-developed technology for the sterilization of eggs still in the shell.

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Waste-to-Energy Research Center

One of the most significant and far reaching CIFT initiatives of the past year is the establishment of a permanent program dedicated to the development of technology to produce energy from food and agricultural waste products. In cooperation with Dr. Floyd Schanbacher, Professor in the Department of Animal Sciences at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, CIFT has constructed several pilot scale anaerobic digesters that are being used to evaluate different operating conditions for producing biogas, which contains up to 70% methane, from animal waste, vegetable processing waste, meat processing waste, crop residues, and other agricultural waste streams, either individually or in combinations.

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CIFT, 5555 Airport Highway, Ste 100, Toledo, Ohio 43615-7320
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CIFT News...

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