Faith Leads Entrepreneur to Launch All-Natural Food Company Gerald Hawkins, the founder of G&H Foods, Inc., is passionate about all-natural foods made without preservatives, phosphates or fruitose. "You look at the health of the people of this country - men, women and children. You see obesity, diabetes, heart disease and a nation in real trouble. It is costing us billions of dollars as a nation, it is costing us our health, our quality of life, our very lives. We need pure food - food made the way our ancestors cooked with all-natural ingredients made with patience, love and care," Hawkins says. After a successful career as a Federal employee, Hawkins retired several years ago and slowly began to devote himself to his other passion - food. "It was never planned, I just started cooking in my own kitchen, experimenting, just having fun." What began with a bumper crop of tomatoes and peppers from Hawkin’s garden soon evolved into a cottage industry. Several summers ago the native East Tennessean didn’t know what to do with the bounty of his garden. One day his Hispanic son-in-law suggested having a "salsa-making party" much like Hispanic families have done for generations in Mexico and South America. "I invited my family over, and we had a huge party, making salsa for the whole clan based on a 100-year-old recipe that had been passed down in my son-in-law’s family," Hawkins recalls. Yet, the resulting salsa was too hot for the average American’s palate. Hawkins began experimenting with the recipe until he came upon the perfect blend of fresh tomatoes, onions, peppers and spices. The result was wonderful. Hawkin’s son-in-law declared it "tasted like summertime," and a new brand was born. Within two years Hawkins had given away 800 to 1,000 jars of his Salsa. Family and friends urged him to begin producing and selling his Summertime® Gourmet Salsa for profit. Hawkins began to seriously consider marketing his Salsa, but as a second career he was more concerned with helping others than making money. "I prayed a lot about what to do. God was leading me to make Summertime® Gourmet Salsa so I could help the people of upper East Tennessee and provide a healthy alternative to all the artery clogging, high-fruitose, unhealthy snacks on the market. I always knew it would be successful because it tastes better than anything else available and because God was the force that led me to this leap of faith," Hawkins recalls. Soon Hawkins found the Jubilee Kitchen in Hancock County, Tennessee, near the Grainger County border. Created in part by grants from the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Methodist Church, the FDA-approved kitchen was designed to stimulate economic growth in a region hemorrhaging jobs. In February 2004 the County’s largest employer left the region for Mexico and took 150 good-paying jobs with it. It was the largest employer to join a growing trend. Hawkins wants to help create more jobs and economic opportunity by processing his Summertime® Gourmet Salsa in the community. His mother had grown up in the region, and he felt a quiet pride and responsibility for the area.  His long-term goal is to build a tomato-processing plant in the area to process the world-famous Grainger County tomato. He buys Grainger County tomatoes when they are available, but must also supplement the regional vegetables with tomatoes from other areas when necessary. "We’ve got some of the best tomatoes grown in the world, right here in East Tennessee," Hawkins brags, "but there is no processing plant to make products from these wonderful tomatoes. The region has proven they can grow great tomatoes, now let’s take it a step further and show we can create wonderful products made from these tomatoes." And that is just what Hawkins is doing. While his company is only two years young, Hawkin’s products are now sold in the Fresh Market across the Southeast and in East Tennessee Ingles stores. Hawkins wants to make his all-natural products available to the rest of the nation too. "All I’ve gotta do is get people to taste it. Once I get it in their mouth, they love it. It’s that good," he says. Copyright 2004 Summertime Products, All Rights Reserved.