Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/143040
Building A Legacy As FEDA Reflects on 80, We Celebrate the Staying Power of the FEDA Distributor, Starting with One of Our Oldest Operating Companies. By Stacy Ward, fedastacy@verizon.net Managing Editor They came together simply because they had to, according to industry icon Sam Anoff on the start of the Food Service Equipment Inc., which later became FEDA. "Conditions in 1933 were terrible—competition was fierce and the economy as a whole was in serious trouble," he recaps in an article detailing the Association's beginnings. Sounds painfully familiar, and yet the whole persevered and continues to persevere—despite persistent threats and nagging tendencies that just won't go away. Think saturated markets and pricing practices that yield lackluster margins, but FEDA is still here. Did you know that there are 279 member firms and 31 have been in business for 75 years or longer? To help celebrate FEDA's 80th, we pause to salute a few, learn about their early beginnings, their challenges and milestones. The Story of Caldarella's 115 Years of Service or as long as Tessa Caldarella can remember, "the store" has been a fixture in her life. "That's what we've always called the family business," she says."Regardless of what it's been or what we've sold, it's always been the store and it's always been at the center of most things." She is the fourth generation "the store" has taken into its bowels since her great grandfather Jack Caldarella, a butcher by trade, made his way to El Paso (via Ellis Island) and opened Caldarella's Meat Market in 1898. No one knows why he chose the border city to start anew but Tessa's dad, Joe, suspects it reminded him of home. "We've seen pictures of where he was born in Sicily Island and El Paso has the same type of mountains," he says. "The F 10 FEDA News & Views Known throughout the community for his kindness, store owner Jack Caldarella (left) would often give away food to those who could not pay during The Great Depression. Jack is pictured with his son Ciro, who took over the business in the late 1940s.