It’s potato salad season!

Do you ever wonder where your food comes from? Or how the cabbage in the premade coleslaw gets from the farmer to the supermarket? Cranston’s Eastland Foods is the local linchpin of the produce supply chain.

Eastland Foods has been owned and operated by owner Tony DeMarco’s family since his father opened a small facility in Providence in 1963. When it started, the family was strictly processing potatoes. Since then it has expanded to all kinds of produce: cabbage for coleslaw, peppers and onions for kebabs, fruits for fruit cups, and more.

“We’re a processor, so we’re in between the farmer and the manufacturer,” said Operations Manager Tom Glasgow when describing the company. “The veggies come in, and they’re peeled, sliced, diced, shredded — cut in some way — and then our customers take those cut vegetables and make things you see at the deli counter.”

In a sustainable and cyclical fashion, the produce waste generated from the facility goes right back to the farms. “We lose about 30% of [the produce] we’re making, and that goes to the pig farmers. The pigs are fed through our waste, which is unique,” said Glasgow.

“Summers are definitely busier,” said owner Tony DeMarco. During this time of year, Eastland Foods brings in anywhere from 100,000 to 150,000 pounds of potatoes a day.

Eastland Foods moved from the small facility in Providence to a new Cranston facility in 1990. The new facility’s workfloor is a large warehouse space with several different production lines. Each production line has several workers, each with their own specific task.

For example, potatoes are first put through a peeling machine that takes off the skin with a sandpaper-like mechanism. Then, the potatoes are checked by workers to remove minor imperfections with a knife. The potatoes are then sent through a dicing machine to cut them into the equal, bite-sized cubes found in premade potato salad. In order for the potatoes to not turn brown through oxidation, the cubes are sent through a salt-based bath. When they emerge, they are hand-checked by workers for quality control.

“We’ll do eight to ten thousand pounds of kebabs a day during the summertime. That would make literally hundreds of thousands of kebabs,” said Glasgow. The peppers and onions are cut by hand at the facility. “Certain things you can’t do with a machine, and the kebabs are one of those things,” he added.

Freshness is a top priority for the company. “We don’t do any frozen [food], everything is freshly cut and freshly shipped. We receive our orders and process them throughout the day, ship them out overnight, and the customers get them the next day,” said Glasgow.

The shipping radius stretches well beyond the state of Rhode Island. Eastland Foods ships directly to manufacturers as far south as Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and as far north as southern New Hampshire. Then those manufacturers use the produce to create packaged products which are then shipped all over the East Coast.

“It has a family vibe to it when you walk in,” said Glasgow about the workplace environment.

Eastland Foods is truly a family business. Tony DeMarco started working here with his father when he was 10 years old and has never worked another job.

When Tony’s father died, his mother, Josephine DeMarco, kept the business going until he was ready to take over.

“She’s still going strong as the matriarch of Eastland Foods,” said Tom Glasgow.

DeMarco’s sisters work in the office, as well as his son and nephew. “It’s unique because it’s very much a family company, but we employ a lot of people, so it’s nice that it still has a small atmosphere to it,” Glasgow added.

Tony’s son, Anthony, has been working at the company for 10 years. “We have the people in place to continue,” said DeMarco. “It would be good to see the younger guys keep it going.”

Eastland Foods has a lot of love for the state. “Doing business in Rhode Island is great. It’s getting tougher, and you don’t see as many businesses in Rhode Island. We ship a lot of stuff out of state, and so whenever we can do business with people in the state it’s great,” said Glasgow.

The company has over 150 employees, providing safe and reliable jobs for local people. They also have important connections within the Cranston community, indirectly providing produce for the Cranston Senior Center and Cranston Public Schools.

In addition to potato salad season, the other busy time of the year for Eastland Foods is Thanksgiving when the company processes butternut squash. “New England’s unique because butternut squash is as ubiquitous as potatoes and turkey. We do a ton of butternut squash, around 80,000 pounds every day during the month of November,” said Glasgow.

During the Thanksgiving season, the company distributes directly to Stop & Shop locations, so this coming holiday be sure to check the underside of the pre-cut butternut squash containers for the Eastland Foods logo. That way, you’ll now know exactly where your food comes from.