How Superior-Grown Produce Is Teaching Job Skills To Adults With Disabilities

SUPERIOR, Wis. — Next time you’re in the grocery store, check out the produce section and see if you spot some vegetables with the “Bay Produce” stickers on them. It turns out, there’s a whole mission behind those vegetables that is helping adults with disabilities learn job skills.

Bay Produce in Superior is part of the Challenge Center, which supports those with disabilities. It’s supported by the Diocese of Superior.

“Our goal is to get guys employment in the community, so adults with disabilities, they work here and we kind of train them into punctuality, getting along with others, listening to your supervisors, and hopefully we get them gainfully employed in the community,” Richard Fisher, a grower at Bay Produce, explained.

The program built its first greenhouses back in 1986, then expanded it to a total of 21 of them 10 years later.

Vegetables grown and sold by the program include beefsteak and grape tomatoes, lettuce, basil, and cucumbers.

“We get great feedback, all the local grocery stores, Super Ones, Cub Foods, and a lot of the local restaurants carry our products, Duluth Grill is a good supporter of ours,” Fisher said.

During the busier months, about 30 adults with disabilities work in the greenhouses to help grow and maintain the plants, then when the vegetables are ready, they pick them and package them up.

“You’re always planting new things, so you always see the stages of growth from young to very old, seed to harvest basically,” Fisher said.

The same growth could be said about the adults who join the program, and leave with a set of invaluable skills that will help them with the next steps in their lives.

“It’s great because I learn from them they learn from me and then we try to get them ready for time in the community, and it’s a lot of fun to work here,” Fisher said.

Bay Produce also recycles as much as it can, from its water and soil, to the leaves that are brought to WLSSD and turned into compost.

The program also donates tomatoes to CHUM, which turns them into pasta sauce.