Two San Diego CA area farm-to-table innovators are teaming up to provide the freshest possible produce to 13 Souplantation restaurants in San Diego and Temecula.
Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp, the parent company of Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, announced an agreement with Encinitas-based Go Green Agriculture Inc that calls for Go Green to supply 100% organic lettuce to Garden Fresh’s San Diego County Souplantation restaurants.
Go Green has begun supplying the locally grown lettuce to the restaurants. Lettuce supplied by Go Green will be used in a favorite lettuce wrap recipe featured for lunch and dinner in area Souplantations.
“Our commitment to farm-to-table freshness is once again bolstered with our agreement with Go Green Agriculture,” said John Morberg, Garden Fresh chief executive officer. “For nearly 40 years, our restaurants have been bringing farm-fresh food to our guests. Now with Go Green, we will have organic lettuce grown literally in our neighborhood in an environment that capitalizes on integrating technology with agriculture for the absolute freshest and highest-quality product. The partnership with Go Green supports our ‘Discover Fresh’ brand revitalization campaign announced late last year, which includes a focus on farm-fresh food and made-from-scratch menu items.”
Pierre Sleiman, Go Green Agriculture founder and CEO, said, “We’re thrilled to begin working with Garden Fresh. We’ll be supplying our organic lettuce to Garden Fresh from our organic hydroponic farm in Encinitas. With hydroponic technology, our system uses up to 80% less water than conventional outdoor farms—an added benefit in our current drought situation. We will be delivering fresh organic lettuce to Garden Fresh within hours of harvesting, and you can’t get fresher than that.”
Last summer, Sleiman was recognized at the White House at the “Champion of Change” event. He received a “Future of Agriculture” award, recognizing his innovative use of technology for sustainable delivery of fresh produce products to the marketplace.
Garden Fresh has 125 company-owned restaurants in 15 states. The company is headquartered in San Diego and has two brand names: Souplantation in Southern California and Sweet Tomatoes elsewhere.
For more information, access www.souplantation.com or www.gogreenagriculture.com.
