HOWARDVILLE, Mo. -- The pickup trucks start pulling into the small loading dock about mid-morning on a muggy summer day.

Inside the trucks -- cases of plump watermelons. Boxes of perfect tomatoes, okra, zucchini, eggplant and purple hull peas.

Forklifts do the work of several men to load the cases of produce into a tractor-trailer parked nearby.

What's happening is a "field to shelf" arrangement between grocer giant Schnuck Market Inc. and the Missouri Bootheel Small Farmers Produce Cooperative, a group of 10 minority families in New Madrid, Mississippi, Butler and Dunklin counties.

It means $500,000 to the co-op's farmers this year. That figure is expected to double next year.

Produce from the Bootheel co-op is picked up twice a week -- Tuesday and Friday -- by Schnucks and trucked to St. Louis, where the vegetables are parceled out to various Schnucks markets in the metro area.

Last year, Schnucks partnered with the Bootheel Missouri/Southern Illinois Farmers Co-op, purchasing more than $500,000 of fresh produce from the group, or about 168 tons.

This year, the Bootheel group decided to form its own cooperative.

"We're excited about the program," said Darvin Green, president of the co-op. "It provides extra cash to growers and provides a number of summer jobs to students."

Early start, early finish

At least 75 students are working on farms this summer, in addition to several adults who are working with the program.

At the L and L Land Co.'s 10 acres of produce fields near New Madrid, workers get an early start six days a week.

"We're in the field by 6 a.m., but we're usually through by noon," said Clarissa Redman of Lilbourn, who will be a senior at New Madrid County High School this fall.

"We're used to it now," Redman said.

"It's a good way to earn money," said Sherman Newsome, another student from Lilbourn.

"It's good to have an every-day job," said another student picker, Delanio Taylor of Lilbourn.

Produce is picked in the early morning when it's at its freshest and taken to a packing/cooling shed near the produce fields, said Pearl Glass Allen, vice president of the cooperative, and a family owner of the L and L Land Co. There the produce is graded and carefully packed.

Shirley Johnson is one of the half-dozen packers. "This is a real nice setup," Johnson said as she picked up each tomato individually. "We turn out quality vegetables here."

Remaining vegetables are placed in separate flats for other uses. Some are given to friends and neighbors.

"We hope to find market for these vegetables, too," said Allen. "They're good, but may not fill the size and quality required of Schnucks."

All the way from Ohio

Adrienne Hunter-Wells, another L and L family member, works in the marketing department for the co-op. Hunter-Wells' daughters, twins Ashley and Angelica, 12, and Alexis, 10, also help with the family enterprise.

Also participating is Philana Crite, a schoolteacher at Springfield, Ohio.

"The co-op is a good idea," said Crite, daughter of Pearl Glass Allen, "so I decided to come home for a summer job."

Richard "Buck" Anderson, another grower in the cooperative, brought in watermelons, okra and purple hull peas for shipment on Friday.

"I have about 30 acres in watermelon, peas and okra," Anderson said. "And I think we'll all do OK once we get over our initial investments."

Schnucks will emphasize products from the Bootheel Missouri Small Farmers Produce Cooperative later this month at the Schnucks' Festival of Food Exhibit at the Missouri Black Expo, to be held Aug. 25-26, at the America's Center in St. Louis.

The Missouri Black Expo is the state's largest African-American consumer exhibition, and is expected to attract more than 70,000 visitors.

WANT TO HELP?

Want to be involved in the Missouri Bootheel Small Farmers Produce Cooperative? The group would like to expand membership and find new growers and markets for the produce. Call Darvin Green, president of the co-op, at (573) 688-2927 or (573) 718-8331.