DANIEL TYLER GOODEN

PHOTO: KEEPING WATCH FROM START TO FINISH, Neal Poche, vice president and chief of operation at Blue Runner Foods watches as employee of the year Beverly Perry catches the canned beans as they roll out with new labels and head for packing. (Staff Photo by Daniel Tyler Gooden) Blue Runner Foods has been bringing a taste of South Louisiana to nearly every major city in the country for years now. In that, some would call the company a cajun food embassador. Others would say Blue Runner is what it always was, local food from local people for a local dinner table. As of yesterday, Neal Poche, Vice President and Chief of Operations and resident of Hester, retired from the company after 27 years of watching and helping Blue Runner Foods grow to feed the country. Today, employees of Blue Runner Foods clean, cook, can and label their foods in the company’s fourth building to date. Beans are the main staple of the food line. Red, white, pintos, limas, navy and other beans all are canned and shipped off to the markets. Gumbo and some vegetables are also cooked and canned as well. There are three lines of cans the company works with 16 ounce, 27 ounce and six and three quarter-pound cans. Each can needs a different process, so they run each line one at a time, said Poche. The beans come in either 100 pounds or one ton sacks. The beans are cleaned and picked through by hand to remove any unworthy beans. Four cookers, taking 725 pounds of beans each, cook the beans. After cooking, the beans are pumped down to the machines which fill the long line of waiting cans. The beans are then recooked in a pressure cooker, after which the cool and are labeled, packed and shipped out. “We go through about five million 16 ounce cans a year, said Poche. The process is a good mixture of machine and man. Blue Runner employees are active in every process, making sure everything is at its highest quality, just as it has been from the start. Cans are pulled every four hours to ensure Food and Drug Administration standards and all batches are logged, recording time, temperature, pressure and other vital information. The high quality of Blue Runner Food is as much a part of tradition as the taste of the food itself. Pierre Chauvin first began the company at Union Point, St. James Parish in 1918. “It was originally called Blue Ribbon. Mr. Pete would take the blue ribbon at the state fairs,” said Poche, pointing to an old picture of a state fair display on the wall. Later on the company got a call from Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, and rather than bother with lawyers, Chauvin altered the name to Blue Runner. “They kept the rosette and the first place ribbon on the can label for years, until they needed more space for required nutrient values and such,” said Poche. Chauvin started canning black berries and figs. The figs were a favorite of his. As the generations grew older, people began to favor figs less, until no one farmed fig trees, and Blue Runner dropped them from their product line. As the company grew, they produced many different foods, from figs to vinegar to sugar syrup. In 1944, Chauvin retired, but by 1946, the boys were coming home from World War Two and began working in the fields again. The local farmers needed someplace to take their produce and Chauvin was asked to return and take charge of the company again. They started building a new plant in May 1946, and by harvesting season, they were grinding cane into syrup. By 1950, they were back to canning food. Poche came on board in 1974. For the last 15 years Poche had been working for Louisiana State University managing a farm. With a animal science degree, his chemistry background as well as both having experience with the products and managing people was an asset to Blue Runner. He was hired on as Chauvin’s assistant manager. Around 1978, “it all dropped in my lap,” said Poche. The owners, including Chauvin, had grown fairly old and running the plant was left up to him. At the same time the FDA, EPA, DEQ and other state and federal agencies were becoming active in the industry. Poche stepped into his job, updating Blue Runners machinery to fit the state and federal food requirements. “All this testing was required. That wasn’t done before,” said Poche. In 1993, the older owners decided to get out of the company. Poche, Jack Thomas and his son, Ricky Thomas, bought the company. Since then, the company has grown, and continues to grow steadily. Blue Runner Foods are sold in almost every major city across the country. It’s often heard that if you don’t cook your own red beans, you use Blue Runner. The only thing more admirable than the taste and quality of the food canned at Blue Runner Foods, is the respect the company has for its community. There isn’t a day that goes by that an agency or community group calls to ask for help. Blue Runner delivers truck loads of food to needy communities. “We sent no less than 4,000 cases of food to the food banks between New Orleans and Baton Rouge over Christmas,” said Ricky Thomas. Local food banks like St. Vincent de Paul in Lutcher as well as charity events from golf tournaments to cook-offs get assistance from Blue Runner. Locally, Blue Runner is known for its food and for its helping hand. “It’s just something that we believe. We have a responsibility to pay back the people who supported us. It feels good,” said Poche. Today is the start of Poche’s retirement. “I’m going to do a little bit of everything,” said Poche. Fishing, spending time with his grandkids, a little traveling and following LSU sports are the first activities that come to his mind. Ricky Thomas, president of Blue Runner, will take over managing the plant. Poche won’t wander too far, as he is still part owner and sits on the board of directors. It seems right to wish Poche the best of luck in his retirement, as his work with Blue Runner has helped sustained a company that has brought so much good to so many people.