When Food Commodities and TBA Collide.

photo credit: Serena Davidson
Stan’s Cafe: When Food Commodities and TBA Collide.
by LIZZY CASTON
Rice. White. Long Grain. In 50 Pound Bags. 10,866 Pounds of Rice.
Can you find it?
When PICA asked me to help find rice for Stan’s Cafe I thought, sure. Sounds like fun.
Where to Start?
It was not as easy as planned. Web searches galore and phone calls, phone calls, phone calls.
“Sorry we only export rice to Japan.” Click.
“You want what?! Rice for Art?!! Ha ha ha ha ha….” Click
“No, I’m sorry the minimum amount of rice we deal with is 40,000 pounds.” Click
I swear, many times I would hear, “hold on please,” and then hear laughing in the background. I could imagine the conversations, “Hey I’ve got someone from Portland Art something and they want rice for some sort of art thingy. How weird is that?” Click.
Things were not looking good.
Then I found Wayne from Riceland.
Located Stuttgart, Arkansas, Riceland is a large commercial rice broker and handles rice commodities and promotion of rice throughout the United States. Wayne is our rice angel.
Once I explain how the rice would be used to help visual demographics and statistics about people, the light bulb went off. It’s a great way to promote rice! Wayne loved it.
Wayne connected us with Don from Sysco Food Services of Portland. Sysco went out of their way to find us a discount price and provide us with delivery and product outside of their normal food service routes. Once a price was determined and the paperwork completed, everything was set.
Rice. White. Long Grain. 10,866 Pounds of Rice.
Stan’s Cafe. Of All the People in the World.
Located at PNCA and on view September 7th through September 17th. (FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

photo credit: Serena Davidson

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