Monday April 6th, 2020 To: Our Valued Customers, Re: Updates & Enhancements Good day everyone, I trust that you and your family members remain healthy and no doubt, you are looking forward to getting onto the land in the coming weeks. Here, in Ontario, fields are drying up nicely and there is no rain in the forecast for days. It is a different story in the Prairies. Our customers in the Prairies received quite a bit of snow late last week and, speaking with some over the weekend, fields have remained white since. As livestock producers, I feel that we have always been truly blessed to live and work in the country, on farms with lots of space and opportunity to enjoy the outdoors. How much more so now, when the entire population is being told to stay home and to social distance from friends and extended family members? I tell my children every day now how lucky they are to have fields and forests to hike and play in. March was a very busy month for the GVF group of companies. We wish to thank all our customers for working with us as we launched new policies and procedures and, many of our staff, including our sales teams, started working from home. We have done our utmost to continue to serve you well in this unique and challenging environment. We thank you for your patience and understanding if your orders were delayed or if we “dropped the ball” in any way. With the on-going spread of COVID-19 and changing federal and provincial government regulations, numerous additional protocols were developed and existing ones enhanced over the weekend in order to further protect our customers and our staff from possible infection. With the announcements made by Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Friday, Valley Feeds has now moved to “curb side” service. In our case, maybe the better term is “dock side” service. Thanks to David Ross and the Valley Feeds team that made the necessary preparations to launch this new format this morning. Also being launched today are enhanced protocols for our Production & Warehouse staff, Delivery staff, Sales staff, Valley Feeds staff, Order Desk staff, Office staff and Farmers Farmacy staff. Last week, we witnessed supply chain disruptions as some slaughter plants closed temporarily due to COVID-19 positive cases in their plants, requiring entire shifts to self-isolate. We also witnessed the disposal of millions of litres of milk due to the closure of many restaurants, less cream being utilized by the coffee chains with the reduced number of patrons, and the shift from foodservice destined milk and milk products to retail, a process which doesn’t happen overnight. These situations are creating hardship for meat, milk and egg producers.
For our meat producing customers, our nutritionists have designed “maintenance diets” in case you need to hold back shipment of your animals for several weeks. If you feel that you need to move to these types of diets for a period of time, do not hesitate to call your GVF group of companies representative. We will be sure to help you respond to these unfortunate circumstances. The new protocols now launched at the GVF group of companies seek to segregate our various departmental teams and shifts, reducing the crossover of staff in order to mitigate the risk of spread across our teams. We are doing our utmost to ensure that we will be able to continue to produce and deliver the products week in and week out that our customers need to feed and care for their herds and flocks. For this reason, when receiving a delivery, please be patient and understanding of our delivery team members as they adhere to the company wide protocols that we have launched. Although, all of us desire to interact with one another, especially these days, please keep a safe distance. I know that our delivery team has always appreciated help from our customers unloading. Unfortunately, during the COVID-19 response period, we need to let our delivery team work on their own as much as possible. Thank you again for your patience and understanding and for continuing to work with all of us at the GVF group of companies. We consider it an honour to work closely with the meat, milk and egg producers of this country who are the primary producers of the food that Canadians and our global neighbours rely upon. This coming Friday is Good Friday. As we quickly head toward the Easter weekend, all of us at the GVF group of companies want to wish you a blessed Easter. Easter 2020 will be a very unique one with virtual church services provided on-line and much smaller family gatherings than in past years, but this doesn’t diminish the importance and impact of the Easter story on our spiritual lives. As quoted in an earlier letter, John 16:33 says, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I (Jesus Christ) have overcome the world.” Blessings on each one,
Ian Ross President & CEO GVF group of companies
Bible verse of the week
He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee, Luke 24:6