Quality vegetables and watermelons are finding their way from the fertile soil of Missouri's Bootheel to the produce sections of grocery stores in the St. Louis metropolitan area through a field-to-shelf arrangement between Schnuck Market Inc. and the Missouri Bootheel Small Farmers Produce Cooperative.

The company this summer will spend half a million dollars for an incredible 168 tons of fresh produce provided by the cooperative, made up of a group of 10 minority families in New Madrid, Mississippi, Butler and Dunklin counties. Schnucks officials expect to double that expenditure next year.

Last year, Schnucks teamed up with what was the Bootheel Missouri-Southern Illinois Farmers Co-op to buy $500,000 worth of produce. But the Bootheel co-op, seizing an opportunity to sell more produce, decided to go it alone with Schnucks this year, and the decision appears to be a good one. As long as Schnucks keeps buying produce, the Bootheel growers are guaranteed a market for their crops for years to come.

About 75 students and a number of adults have landed summer jobs harvesting and packing the produce, which is picked up twice weekly by Schnucks and hauled the short distance to St. Louis for distribution to its stores. The co-op always is looking for new markets.

Workers say while Schnucks demands the very best, vegetables not purchased by Schnucks are plentiful and of excellent quality as well.

Unlike the large vegetable-growing operations in the West, it wouldn't be economically feasible for the Bootheel's smaller growers to get into packaging and shipping operations. That's why the Schnucks market is such a great outlet for their crops.

It is one of those everybody-wins situations:

The growers are happy, Schnucks is happy, and consumers are happy with delicious home-grown delectables like tomatoes, okra, zucchini, eggplant, peas and Bootheel watermelons, which are among the best that can be found anywhere.