History
History of Fare Foods/Porter Foods
Started in 1958 by Raymond and Carolyn Porter, Porter Foods began out of two refrigerated truck bodies in the backyard of Ray and Carolyn’s home. Servicing the Du Quoin, IL area, Porter’s (as it was called) made food deliveries to hospitals, schools, churches, and restaurants. They eventually expanded their service coverage area out over a 70 mile radius to provide local organizations in nearby Mount Vernon, Harrisburg, Sparta, Centralia, and other southern Illinois communities.
Concessionaires at the Du Quoin State Fair, which has been in Du Quoin since 1923, were also one of Raymond’s customers. When the fair came to town Ray and his son Ron would walk the midway and take their orders. Ron was in grade school when he met these concessionaires and took their orders while “Dad” chatted up the operators.
As Ron grew older, he became an integral part of the family business, and when Raymond retired in 1989, his son then became the man in charge. Porter’s continued to serve the southern Illinois area until one day his fair customers asked Ron to follow them to the next fair with their stock.
In 1993, Frank King of King Food Service, and a native of nearby Herrin, IL, called Ron asking him to bring some supplies to his next fair in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Having never shipped foods out of the area before, Ron was hesitant. But once he did the math, traveling south didn’t seem too impossible.
Once he showed up at the fairgrounds to deliver stock, four white pickup trucks with Texas plates came up to him and asked Ron who he was and if he was going to be back tomorrow so they could buy some stock. Those trucks belonged to the McKinney family from Hughes Springs, Texas.
Ron realized he had found a niche business opportunity that no one else had filled. Concessionaires needed a reliable source for their product and someone that had enough warehouse space to store the concession foods and supplies. Fare Foods was going to deliver to concessionaires ON SITE and supply them with any food, equipment, or disposable goods they needed. Not having to load their stock trucks and carry product around from fair to fair was a huge selling point to concessionaires and Ron was willing to be there and service their needs.
Ron continued to deliver to fairs and festivals under a new corporation name: Fare Foods. He started developing customers by attending trade shows, conventions, and traveling to various fairs; just hoping to recruit some people to use his service. And use it, they have!
Its estimated that over half of a fair’s “joints” have used our incredible service and our fleet of nearly 20 semis, vans, box trucks, and cargo vans, have traveled from Miami to Calgary to Albuquerque to Loudon, New Hampshire.
Fare Foods has grown into an eight-figure business with over 25 full and part-time employees that has traveled across North America to serve concessionaires and carnivals wherever they move. With their two main warehouses located in Du Quoin, IL and Tampa, FL, home to their respective state fairs, Fare Foods is located in the prime areas to service the fair season in Florida and in the Midwest.
Although Porter Foods closed up shop in 1999, Ron continued to gain business in the fair industry and has turned Fare Foods into the ultimate name in concession supply and fair foods for concessionaires that want their product delivered to them, no matter where they are.