The Smell of Lasagna Is the Air

Lately I've been stocking up on food from the Stouffer's outlet at the north end of town, right near the plant that makes many of the items I buy there. They sell products that are basically fine but don't quite meet retail standards. For example, right now they have cartons of 12 turkey dinners for less than $1 apiece because the boxes are misprinted with a 9 minute cooking time rather than 6.

I believe in the idea of voting with my dollars, though I confess I'm more committed to that in theory than in actual practice. It can be really complicated to (1) balance competing values, (2) know where and to whom my dollars are actually going, and (3) know what is involved in bringing the products I'm buying to market.

This I do know: Stouffer's is owned by Nestle, a multinational corporation, but the local plant is a strong contributor to the economic health of our community (and a sometimes contributor to the scent of the air, which is a good thing IMO).

On our way home from Jack's science fair at school today, my mother-in-law asked me if I'd mind stopping at the Stouffer's outlet. While we were there, I chatted with a friendly employee and learned a few more things.

• While many of the ingredients for the products made in the Springville plant are not local, the company makes a concerted effort to buy local whenever it can. (I'm a little nervous for the cows in the picture above.)
• Not all of the products they sell at the outlet store were made at the Springville plant. If items made in other plants get damaged in transit and Springville is the closest distribution point, the items come to the Springville outlet.
• The local operation employs as many as 1,600 people. That's a big deal in our community of about 26,000.
• The company focuses on implementing green practices like reusing, reducing and recycling. The employee told me that he, personally, had been reprimanded for discarding a carton in a dumpster instead of recycling. And he took me into the staff-only area to show me signage about safety and environmental procedures employees are expected to follow.
• I pretty much have to be related to an employee or be a VIP like the governor to get inside the massive, multi-story freezer at the plant. He said I would be blown away by the number of pallets it can hold if I could see it. That made me even more determined to get inside some day. Some day.