Ribbon cutting for Sanger company rebuilding after fire

by FOX26 News | Saturday, May 20th 2017

SANGER, Calif. (FOX26) — Initiative Foods of Sanger is celebrating the first step in rebuilding after a devastating fire last July.

A ribbon cutting was held on Thursday at the facility on Industrial Way.

The fire destroyed the plant and all its inventory, but founder and President John Ypma promised employees and customers a speedy comeback. “The new line will be making baby food and have the capability to make 10 to 20 million units of baby food per year,” Ypma said. “We will be producing for a number of customers, and the product will be on store shelves sometime in the second half of the year.”

The equipment was custom designed and features the latest in technology in food processing, ensuring the very highest quality and safest food available is produced.

Ypma says Initiative Foods will add 10 to 15 employees as production begins and will add more people as production increases in the coming months.

Initiative Foods packs organic and non-organic baby food for many of North America’s leading grocery retailers.

After the fire left Initiative Foods employees without jobs, the company hosted a job fair to help them find work as rebuilding began.

Dozens of companies offered workers positions and a GoFundMe campaign was established to assist workers.

Ypma said the new facility makes good on his promise last summer to come back stronger than ever.

2017-06-30T13:39:38-07:00