b'EDITORS LETTERSouth Georgia:At the Global Tableabundance of natural resourcesincludingare considered imperfect and unable to sitting on top of the Florida Aquiferandbe sold to supermarkets. This basically communities offer exceptional logisticaldiscarded food needs a place to go. So infrastructure and a highly skilled andin Moultrie, Colquitt County, a $90 million affordable workforce. agricultural processing facility will chop, can, and flash freeze the regions leftover Discover how Alma, Bacon County attractedvegetables.La Regina Atlantica, a U.S. subsidiary of an Wheres the beef? The classic pop-cultureItalian producer of homemade pasta saucesMain Street Americaphrase became famous in 1984 with a seriesLa Regina di San Marzano. The companyCongratulations to Downtown Bainbridge of Wendys commercials. In a memorableis investing $20 million on a new foodfor celebrating 30 years as an accredited comedic approach, Wendys threw shadeprocessing facility, adding 250 employees toMain Street America program. at its competitionMcDonalds and BurgerBacon Countys existing food manufacturing Kingfor the lack of meat and a mostlybase. larger bun approach to selling hamburgers. Fast forward nearly 40 years, and during 2020-2021, consumers were asking,For I command you today to love the Lord your wheres the beef? for a different reason. The empty grocery store shelves leftGod, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his consumers wondering, Wheres the food?commands, decrees and laws; then you will liveWhile national manufacturers scrambledand increase, and the Lord your God will bless to keep up with demand, more and moreyou in the land you are entering to possess.people turned to local sources for their food supply. For example, in the Spring- DEUTERONOMY 30:162021 issue of South Georgia Business Magazine, we featured Danforth Family Farms, a family-owned pork producer in Nashville, Berrien County, that transitionedOpening in Valdosta, Lowndes County In 2018, Bainbridge was selected as a to selling directly to the consumer when theand bringing 75 new jobsis Bimbo QSR,Georgia Rural Zone, which provides qualified pandemic closed national meat processinga subsidiary of the Mexican multinationalbusinesses and investors with tax credits facilities. company Grupo Bimbo. The company isfor job creation and renovation efforts to investing $25 million to upgrade an existingexisting downtown properties. In this issue, we showcase how Georgia, speculative building.Even during the pandemic, Downtown especially South Georgia, plays a big part in feeding people across the globe. Here inYou cant miss the 14-foot-tall Coca-ColaBainbridge experienced a growth surge, the Peach State, food and fiber productionbottle on display at the new Coca-Colawith 21 new businesses opening in 2021, represents $13 billion annually and is theBottling Company UNITED sales andcreating 95 additional jobs. During the states leading manufacturing sector indistribution center in Tifton along I-75. Thepast three years (2019-2021), Downtown terms of employment and gross state$65 million facility, with more than 200Bainbridge welcomed 39 new small product.employees, opened in fall 2021 businesses, creating 169 jobs. South Georgia is creating the perfect spotRemember when your parents told you toeditor@sgamag.comfor food and beverage companies to thrive.eat everything on your plate and not letsgamag.comSmack in the middle of the states richyour food go to waste? Its estimated that agricultural base, South Georgia has anabout 30% of fruit and vegetable crops 4 SG MAGAZINE| WINTER 2022 BUSINESS + CULTURE5'