Carter Bray: Food That’s Fresh and Good For You
April 21, 2025 | 1 min to read
The Vice President and General Manager of Potandon Produce reflects on a lifelong journey in the food industry, influenced by their family background in foodservice and work on a poultry farm. Inspired by growers like mentor Mel Davenport, a third-generation farmer, the focus at Potandon is to provide consumers with fresh, high-quality food that is convenient and easy to prepare, meeting the demand for fast and healthy options.
Vice President/General Manager
Potandon Produce
My entire family has been involved in food and foodservice in some way — and as a kid, I worked on my grandparents’ poultry farm. As an adult, I worked for a couple of large organizations, both in consumer-packaged goods and foodservice, and then ultimately found a home at Potandon Produce.
I really love the passion of the growers and the distribution systems, and the people. It’s just been another iteration in my journey around food and good food for consumers.
One person who was instrumental in bringing me to Potandon is Mel Davenport. Mel has been in farming and fresh produce his entire life. He’s a third-generation potato and produce farmer, and his son, who’s on my team, Sean Davenport, is a fourth generation, fresh produce person. Mel has really been my mentor and helped me make the transition from consumer-packaged goods to the fresh produce business.
When you listen to what consumers tell you, they want really fresh, really good food, and they want it super fast, super convenient. So, our focus at Potandon, and certainly my personal passion, is around really fresh food, food that’s good for you, better for you than some of the other alternatives. Food that is convenient and is fast and as easy to prepare as possible, but still delivers high-quality food.
2 of 33 article in Produce Business March 2025
Have a story to share?
Take a place at Produce Business