Martin County Quiet Heroes: Robert Erneston Produce
Holly Erneston Parker and friend Rita Diapoules during a break from loading boxes at the Stuart pick up spot for drive-through groceries.
Robert Erneston Produce finds a new way to serve during social distancing
A Stuart business has come to the rescue in an unexpected way. Wholesale supplier Robert Erneston Produce, a steady presence on the Treasure Coast for more than 30 years, is now offering drive-up retail food sales. Orders are placed online, and (preferably) paid online. Simply drive up in your vehicle and friendly people will put your boxes in your car. You can practice social distancing by staying inside.
You can order all kinds of fruits and vegetables, plus dairy products, eggs, fresh juice, chicken, ground beef and sausages. You can also order bleach, paper towels and dish soap and other household goods. A big seller is a non-produce item—toilet paper!
“Right now, all the restaurants have to mostly close and country clubs and schools are out also. Most of the places where we usually sell wholesale products are not there so we got creative. We even talked about selling door-to-door and then came up with this idea. One of our employees posted it on Facebook letting people know we want to serve the community because people were having a hard time getting fruits, vegetables and even meat in the stores and we are able to get it without a problem,” said Holly Parker, one of four daughters of Patti and Robert Erneston, who began the company in 1989. The other three daughters are Emily Holland, Lisa Gibson and Brittany Jones.
Holly continued, “Our biggest concern right now is to keep these jobs because we don’t want our employees to be laid-off. They aren’t just employees--one of the things that is special about Erneston Produce is our company-wide sense of family.”
“I love that as the work day starts, at 2-3 in the morning, many of them hold hands and pray together. It’s really neat to see the Lord helping us reach a lot of lives in the community through these jobs and we want to continue to be there for our employees and their families,” she said.
Robert’s grandfather came from Greece and started a produce stand in West Palm Beach about 90 years ago and the businesses grew from there. Robert worked at Erneston and Sons in West Palm Beach until 1989 when he moved his family north and started Robert Erneston Produce in Stuart.
At the company, the four sisters share most of the administrative and paperwork side of the business, plus take orders if needed. Between the four families, there are a total of 12 kids, ranging in age from three to 17.
Saturday’s Stuart pick up took place at Covenant Fellowship Baptist Church, where friends, family and church staff helped to deliver the orders to customers. Jay Holland, youth pastor at the church, is Emily’s husband and was there to help, along with Travis Parker, Holly’s husband.
“We want to help our community plus there are 50 families supported by the jobs they have with the company and we want to do anything we can do to help them,” Jay said. ”People are scared to go to the stores right now. We are trying to keep families with jobs and keep other families safe.”
“We are praising the Lord for the business. If not, none of the guys would have gone to work today,” said Lisa, whose husband Brent Gibson runs the company these days.
Orders can be placed as late as midnight the day before delivery, on a first-ordered, first-filled basis, while supplies last. Please use this online order form to place your order. $25 minimum order.
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