5 Dallas Best-Kept Wellness Secrets

office fresh fruit delivery

“Off The Beaten Path” Suggestions for Healthy Living in DFW.

HIKING

Cedar Hill. If you park on the east side of the Cedar Hill 9th Grade Center during non-school hours, you’ll find an open field with a steep slope that serves as a trailhead for some of DFW’s best hiking. You will be led into more than four miles of trails which sit on property once owned by Northwood University, with terrain reminiscent of the best of the Texas Hill Country. Cedar and juniper frame tracks narrow and wide, and there’s even the remnants of an Exertrail (monkey bars and all) over to the east. The elevation changes are as challenging as one can expect in our area, with limestone primarily underfoot to keep the trail from getting as muddy as its Cedar Hill Nature Preserve counterpart. 1515 W Belt Line Rd, Cedar Hill, TX 75104.

BIKING

Oak Cliff Nature Preserve. While many cycling enthusiasts know about this south Dallas gem, there are many casual trail riders who have lived here for decades with no idea of its availability. The trailhead can be accessed by taking the DART Rail Red Line to its Westmoreland Station terminus, and from there, 6.5 miles of intersecting trails can provide hours of interesting technical riding among the pecan and bois d’arc. The preserve is part of the Texas Land Conservancy and maintained by the Dallas Off-Road Bicycle Association2875 Pierce St, Dallas, TX 75233.

EATING

ORCHARD At The OFFICE. This Richardson-based office fruit delivery service has a single purpose: to deliver fresh fruit to businesses in the DFW area. Offerings come in artfully-arranged fruit baskets or in bulk packages for larger operations. Bananas, apples, avocados, clementines, and even mangoes and grapes are available to offices any day of the week. They’re ideal for offices looking for healthy snacks or to make the most of their wellness budgethttps://orchardattheoffice.com 972.295.9091.

DRINKING

Eiland Coffee Roasters. Another Richardson business, Eiland imports coffee beans from all over the world and roasts them in an enormous cast-iron apparatus in their warehouse. They specialize in coffee by the pound, and the beans they supply from various Ethiopian, Brazilian, and Sumatran regions (to name just a few) will make you a coffee snob. Recently they’ve put more energy into their retail side, so whether you’re looking for a vendor for your business or a great-tasting latte, they’re a great choice. http://www.eilandcoffee.com 532 N. Interurban St, Richardson, TX 75081.

WORKOUT

Sweat Society. Just southeast of Frisco’s main square sits a workout facility that serves as an antidote to the big box gym concept. Sweat Society is more of a shared workout experience with seasoned trainers guiding clientele through High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) methods. Loyalty remains high as regulars feel like family, and the skillset of the training staff gives every session a personalized feel. https://sweatsociety.net 7151 Preston Rd Suite 141, Frisco, TX 75034.

Fresh Fruit At The Office Sells Itself

fresh fruit at the office sells itselfWe don’t sell our fresh fruit delivery service so much as offer it. “Would you like fresh fruit delivered to your office?” After that, it’s simply a matter of sorting out the details. ORCHARD At The OFFICE is proud to provide fresh fruit delivery to businesses throughout the Dallas / Fort Worth area. It’s what we do and it’s all we do. Our singleness of purpose gives us the ability to focus on providing the highest quality service to the best of our ability.

FRESH FRUIT SELLS ITSELF

Our fruit baskets consist primarily of “the ABCs” – apples, bananas, and clementines. Bananas are the most popular fresh fruit, not only in Texas but in all of the United States. Americans consume an average of 13.5 pounds per person! The apples we use are primarily JAZZ, a cross between Gala and Braeburn with a subtle sweetness and enduring firm texture that satisfies most palates. Of course, we offer a variety of other fresh fruit, including grapes, berries, mangoes, and so on. With the popularity of the ketogenic diet, we’ve also seen a spike in avocado demand and are happy to accommodate.

fresh fruit in fitness center

OFFICES ARE GETTING HEALTHY

In the past decade, one of the major corporate catchphrases has been “wellness programs.” Company-driven initiatives to promote employee health are encouraged and incentivized. In its worksite wellness manual, the Texas Department of State Health Services lists a variety of measures that businesses can take to improve the fitness of their workforce, including health fairs and “healthy food.” This is, of course, where fresh fruit comes in. (For more information on what your company can do, refer to this D Magazine blog post on “Getting The Most From Your Wellness Program.”)

SUPERIOR CUSTOMER SERVICE

In 2017, we shared some of our secrets on ORCHARD At The OFFICE customer service, and we could probably write a dozen or more articles on the topic…especially as we learn more all the time. The most salient points for anyone thinking “what’s the best office fresh fruit delivery near me?” that comprise the ORCHARD At The OFFICE difference are:

  • We’re local. As a Texas-based company, we can be attentive to your needs in a way that is simply not possible for any larger operation. We’re your neighbors in DFW and Greater Houston and think of you as such.
  • Personalized attention. It never benefits us to oversell. We want you to get “the best banana for the buck”. We’ll work with you to get the quantity and variety you want in a mutually-beneficial arrangement.
  • Simple financial terms. There are never any contracts, so you can try us out with no commitment. We’re certain our fresh fruit and obsessive customer care will keep you coming back. We’ll work with you to provide the service you need. Payments can be made by check (paper or electronic) or credit card.

ANY BUSINESS, ANY SIZE.

Some of the offices we serve have a staff of 5. Others have a workforce of 3,000. Therefore, we’ve developed options that will accommodate any office. While our most common order is a weekly delivery of a Premium Large Basket which holds 50+ pieces of fruit,  we’ll gladly deliver smaller orders such as our Mini Basket (16+ pieces), all the way up to our “Fortune 600 Special”, a bulk special that will satisfy hundreds of staffers. Whatever your needs, we’ve got you covered.

Visit the ORCHARD At The OFFICE website to get Wellness Delivered today.

If you’d like to speak with someone directly, call 972-295-9091.

Laughter, Humility, Dedication: The Heart of Community Service

office fresh fruit delivery

Harvest Project Food Rescue keeps its feet on the ground and a smile on its face.

It’s early Saturday morning. Danae Gutierrez pulls into Lipman Family Farms, a massive produce wholesaler, driving her old white pickup with her son Dorian riding along. She uses it because it gets the job done. She makes this trip every Saturday morning because she gets the job done. Her mission: to pick up as much unsalable but sufficiently edible produce as the flatbed will allow, and drive it down to one of several locations throughout DFW – in this case, San Francisco De Asis Episcopal Church – where a team of volunteers will work to sort the food for redistribution.

It’s called the Harvest Project Food Rescue, and each word in the name is completely accurate.

“We didn’t even have a name when we first started!” laughs Ms. Gutierrez, recalling the origins of an organization that started, and has remained, humble. “We didn’t have a truck or anything. We really started with nothing. That’s why I couldn’t take all the grapefruit!”

To explain that statement necessitates a bit of history…

Gutierrez and her parents emigrated to the United States when she was seven. With low-income potential, her family often experienced food insecurity, unsure of where their next meals would come from. For this reason and many others, her parents placed a high value on education, and Danae’s intellect and vibrant, outgoing personality served her well throughout her formative years. She is not afraid of hard work and is willing to step in when she sees that “somebody needs to do it!”

When her son Dorian became a student at Cigarroa Elementary in Dallas, she saw a need for leadership at the PTA. Before long, she was elected President and even received a DISD Volunteer Impact Award for School Support. During this time, she met Luis Carrillo, a fellow PTA board member who was also working with Dallas Mexico Casa Guanajuato, a community center serving the Mexican citizens of Dallas. Carrillo was seeking quality produce for the senior citizens, as the contributions they were receiving were not always usable. Gutierrez said, “well, somebody needs to do it”, and in the summer of 2014, she went about the process of talking to the produce wholesalers near the Farmers Market.

“I went to this one place, and they had twenty-five boxes of beautiful grapefruit!” Gutierrez recalls. “They had a couple of blemishes on the skin, so they weren’t for sale, but they were in great shape. So I took a box and they were saying, ‘when are you coming back for the other twenty-four?’” She laughs and says, “That’s when I realized there were literal tons of produce going to waste, and we just had to get it to the people who needed it.”

Ms. Gutierrez smiles as she recalls the origins of Harvest Project, as she smiles about many things. Her positivity and tenacity transform the seemingly onerous task of food rescue into a positive mission.

Since 2014, Harvest Project has grown – cautiously, responsibly, and humbly. Gutierrez wants to be sure the nonprofit never gets so ambitious that it overreaches its primary purpose. “We don’t want to have people who are counting on us to be waiting around, because we’re spending too much time going too many places.” In a given month, Harvest Project will take its seven vehicles to seven locations – some weekly, some semi-weekly, some monthly. They now serve thousands of families every month in locations ranging from South Dallas to Arlington.

The volunteer arm is fully self-supporting, in that all of those who serve at each site are participants. Gutierrez explains, “The people who assist are willing to show up early and get things sorted and set up, because they get first choice of the produce.” As always, humility is the acme of the project, and this is a big part of the training as well: since the volunteers are participants, it is made clear that they are to treat their fellow recipients as equals. “We won’t allow people to be like, ‘oh, we’re the ones giving you the food, so we’re better than you.’ Because the volunteers are receiving contributions, and getting first pick of the produce is a perk, everyone’s in the same boat – and we usually have too many volunteers! There’s a waiting list of people willing to help.”

The process of “food rescue” goes beyond distribution. Participants in the programs are given valuable tips on preparation, storage, financially-responsible shopping…even composting. Self-support is always the goal.

While the organization may have started with Hispanic leanings, the participants and volunteers come from all over the globe, as one would expect when dealing with a community as culturally-varied as DFW. “Food insecurity can affect everyone,” Gutierrez says, “and it was humbling for me to find that even I had assumptions of what need looked like, and every week I see proof that it’s a challenge that transcends cultures.” But just as the challenges can be transcendent, so too can solutions, and participants work to find ways of overcoming language and ideological barriers to make Harvest Project work.

Sometimes these differences can provide educational opportunities. “In one area, we have a lot of participants who are refugees from Myanmar,” Gutierrez says, “and I was picking up the produce to bring to that mission, and I got all these banana leaves. I thought, ‘What is anyone going to do with a banana leaf?’ So we get out there, and all these refugees got so excited! I didn’t know that in Myanmar banana leaves are used like husks are used for tamales in Mexico. Not only did I learn something new about a culture, but also I now know how to use a banana leaf to make food in my home!”

The key to the success of Harvest Project Food Rescue is a clarity of purpose and humility. Provide produce and education for communities in DFW experiencing food insecurity one banana at a time – and with a smile.

ORCHARD At The OFFICE, the largest provider of fresh fruit delivery to offices in Texas, is proud to contribute to such an important organization and salutes the inspiring work of Ms. Gutierrez, who has been a member of the ORCHARD At The OFFICE team since 2017. We are grateful to the many others like her in every community, whose names so often go unmentioned.

If you would like to make a donation to Harvest Project Food Rescue, visit http://www.harvestproject.co.

Meet Chris Buchanan and Kevin Long of ORCHARD At The OFFICE

Happy office workers

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Buchanan and Kevin Long.

Chris and Kevin, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
The seed for ORCHARD At The OFFICE was planted in 2010, when our “Chief Banana” (that’s what it says on his business card), Kevin Long, was working as a Creative Director for an advertising firm and decided to bring fresh fruit into the office in lieu of the usual sugary snacks. The fruit was devoured instantly, and Long knew he was onto something. By October of that year, he was ready to convert the potential to kinetic, and ORCHARD At The OFFICE emerged.

In the years since growth has been exponential. For some time we’ve been the largest office fruit delivery service in North Texas, providing Metroplex businesses large and small with tons of bananas, Jazz apples, the ever-popular clementines, plums, grapes, berries… a whole variety of fruit flavors.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Trial and error is, of course, a necessity of growth. Nothing is truly a mistake if one learns from it, and if we did everything the exact same year after year, we’d surely stagnate and eventually wither away!

The biggest challenge we’ve faced – and I doubt it’s unique to us – has been the issue of training and documentation. When it’s just a couple of people running a business, very little is written down: everyone just “knows”. Once the business grows and new people are brought in, knowledge gaps become apparent. After I heard myself saying “Did you not know that? Oh, wait… how would you have known?” I realized we needed to make a concerted effort to put documentation together and create training procedures.

What are you most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others?
Critical to our success is our singleness of purpose: we provide fresh fruit to D/FW offices, pure and simple. Focusing on doing one thing exceptionally well allows us to stay on track. Now, there are plenty of people who could simply provide fruit to offices. The two things that have allowed us to thrive, even as competition has emerged, our dedication to premium quality and superior customer service.

“Premium quality” means that we’re willing to apply the extra time and dime to giving our friends-in-wellness the “best banana for the buck”: top-of-the-line fruit, hand-inspected, and always guaranteed. “Superior customer service” means, not just individual attention, but the goal of a 24-hour turnaround for any issue. No phone trees, no dismissing customer concerns under the guise of “company policy”. We care about our customers and their wishes, and we’re rather obsessive about exceeding their expectations.

Contact Info:

Providing Superior Customer Service

superior customer serviceAs ORCHARD At The OFFICE is firmly in the service sector, superior customer service is the principle by which our company lives and dies. Our organization simply must be experts in how to provide great customer service. Everything comes down to managing customer expectations. There is an art to this, which at times requires utter pragmatism and a bit of “going with a gut feeling.” Still, there are the general principles to which one can adhere. Below are examples of the premises by which ORCHARD At The OFFICE operates.

Immediate Response to Customers

We pride ourselves on a 24-hour turnaround in resolving customer issues. Key to that is communicating back: if they leave a message, return the call. If they send an e-mail, reply right away. Simply validating the customer’s concerns by acknowledging the message was received and a resolution is forthcoming goes a long way. It is a vital component of how to retain customers.

Inform Customers of Temporary Difficulties

At ORCHARD At The OFFICE, “our problems are NOT your problem”. In the coming months, the oranges we supply will be less plentiful owing to Hurricane Irma’s impact on the U.S. crop. We are taking the position that this will not impact what our customers pay for our product. However, during the hot summer months when citrus crops, in general, are not of the quality one can find the rest of the year, we have learned to let our customers know in advance, and to offer alternatives. Customer service sometimes means heading issues off at the pass.

Give a Little to Get a Lot

There’s an attitude of caring and a system designed to promulgate superior customer care. That’s why, at ORCHARD At The OFFICE, “the buck stops here.” Getting fresh fruit to your business is all we do and that is the heart of superior customer service.

Chris Buchanan is the Operations Wiseapple for ORCHARD At The OFFICE.
getfruit@orchardattheoffice.com
Visit http://orchardattheoffice.com to get healthy fruit delivered to your D/FW business.