Terri Lewis McRae, Executive Director of Advocacy & Resources Corporation (The ARC), attended the Committee's December meeting to brief members and staff about ARC-Diversified, a wholly-owned, nonprofit subsidiary of The ARC. Located in Cookeville, TN, ARC-Diversified is the first nonprofit agency in the country to operate a USDA-approved facility for the production of manufactured goods sold to the feeding programs of the US Government and private industry.

With 135 full-time employees—90% of whom are people with disabilities—ARC-Diversified manufactures over 125 different varieties of dry mixes, dairy blends and oil products for Federal customers such as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Defense. ARC-Diversified also produces for the private sector, participating in the reinvented Federal procurement Prime Vendor program by delivering to full-line food distributors who are contracted to deliver to Federal installations. Their customers give them rave reviews on the quality of their products and their ability to deliver—which comes as no surprise as ARC-Diversified was accredited as having established a Quality Assurance System which meets the requirements for international accreditations issued under ISO 9002/Q9002. This system includes policies, procedures and instructions designed to insure continuous process improvements.

While ARC-Diversified vegetable oil has been found as far as Somalia, their signature product remains Granny Bunt's Complete Bakery Mix. Named after the Assistant Executive Director's mother, Granny Bunt is a recognizable face to thousands of customers—and they appear to love her as much as they love her bakery mix! Granny Bunt's Complete Bakery Mix has its own website (www.grannybunt.com) where customers can order bakery mix, swap recipes and even send fan mail to Granny Bunt herself.

ARC-diversified utilizes the manufacture of food items to create opportunities for the development of work skills which transfer to local industry. Every year, as many as 40 employees will leave The ARC program for work in private industry.