The Chicken Farmers of Ontario (CFO), an entity that’s required to protect chicken farmers and ensure they are paid, recently awarded a new kosher processing quota to “Premier Kosher.”
How Premier Kosher received this contract ahead of a group of young Jewish businessmen from a kosher, traditional background is truly a cautionary tale.
Full disclosure. I know these young Jewish entrepreneurs – SAM’S Kosher. They had applied, and in my view, should have been more seriously considered.
The story begins in May 2013, when Chai Kosher Poultry closed down. SAM’S submitted an application to the New Entrants Program, which permits new chicken farmers to process their own small quota of quality kosher chicken (70,000 kilos) for the community. SAM’S saw a real need and worked to fill it.
READ: WAIT…ARE THOSE VEGGIES KOSHER?
Shortly thereafter, the CFO inexplicably generated a “request for proposals” to build a kosher chicken processing plant that could accommodate an average of 700,000 kilos of chicken yearly.
Understandably, this had a serious impact on SAM’S Kosher. A kosher chicken processing plant of this size would dwarf their small enterprise. SAM’S Kosher called it a day.
There were rumours that there may have been interest in the request for proposals, but no one presented a professional and comprehensive plan addressing all the criteria for a successful bid.
In March 2015, with no submissions put forward, the Kashruth Council of Canada (COR) along with CFO encouraged SAM’S to reconsider putting forward an offer.
They were young, engaged and had a lot of moxie, and seeing a community need, they decided to go forward. Knowing there were few competitors, SAM’S Kosher felt comfortable in taking its time to develop a substantial proposal.
This was a major undertaking, occupying many hours of discussion and negotiation. It was a time-intensive task – engaging investors, lining up the supply chain, spreading the word – carried out with gusto.
Perhaps the most unique aspect was SAM’S idea of ethical Jewish business ideals – they wanted to give back to the community. David Brown, a respected financial advisor and a friend of SAM’S Kosher, helped develop an ancillary financial model that would see a five-cent per kilo “chicken tax” imposed on all sales. This would result in a windfall $1-million annual revenue to be donated to Jewish education.
In November 2015, SAM’S Kosher officially submitted its final bid to the Chicken Farmers of Ontario. The process would have the CFO pre-approve any serious bid and subsequently forward it on to Deloitte for an audit.
Even though SAM’S was the first and only bid received, with no others in the offing, the CFO held on to their offer, and it is here that things become strange. Without informing SAM’S Kosher, the CFO actively began soliciting other bids. Only one serious offer came in – from a trucking company, Premier Express Lines.
And by now, you have surmised how this ends: a trucking company with no communal experience and no prior involvement or real understanding of kashrut was awarded the processing plant. Premier Express Lines became “Premier Kosher!”
READ: FACEBOOK FOOD GROUP CRIES FOWL OVER KOSHER CHICKEN QUALITY
In the end, this is not a story about Premier Kosher. Instead it speaks to the apathy in our community.
Toronto is the fourth-largest Jewish community in the Diaspora. Here was an opportunity for a group of young, modern Orthodox Jewish go-getters ready to establish a kosher chicken enterprise and, in so doing, give back to the community by helping to fund Jewish education.
Sadly, they lost their bid for establishing a kosher chicken processing plant to a trucking company, and the community is seemingly the poorer for it. Premier Kosher, I’m sure will do a fine job, but understandably, it will not support Jewish education nor have a “Yiddishe tam.”
I know that I have been one to support the idea of being less parochial and more outward looking. However, this is not that time. This was a lost Jewish communal opportunity.