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Students Take A Tasty Tour

CANDACE C. MUNDY/TAMPA TRIBUNE

5th grade students from Carrollwood Day School tour the Vigo Importing Company, 4701 Comanche Avenue, on Friday

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By ANGELA DELGADO, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 7, 2007

Updated: 11/05/2007 07:44 pm

Additional photos

TOWN 'N COUNTRY - Tucked away in an industrial park north of Tampa International Airport, Vigo Importing Co. staff members produce the company's famous yellow rice for homes worldwide.

Not many people know that Vigo, known for its rice, also distributes 1,200 products including spices, soups, sauces and olive oil. On Oct. 19, three fifth-grade classes from Carrollwood Day School learned that and more during their tour of the company's manufacturing and distribution centers, 4701 W. Comanche Ave.

The 41 students, accompanied by chaperons and teachers, started their tour by riding in a 1960 Dodge firetruck bearing the words "Vigo and Alessi, The Hottest Names Around."

The company uses the truck for tours and parades in Tampa Bay, said Laura Alessi DeLucia, Vigo marketing director and granddaughter of founder Tony Alessi Sr.

Alessi Sr., started the tours 14 years ago for fifth-grade classes. The tours, offered on Friday mornings, end with a lunch; both are free. Students write essays about their experiences for a chance to win cash and prizes.

DeLucia said her grandfather wanted children to know how to shoot high and dream big.

"That's why he wanted this to be free," she said. "He wanted to do a service for children; let them see it's a big world of opportunity."

Before entering the front door, DeLucia, who serves as one of the tour guides, introduces the enthusiastic children to photos of her grandparents Tony and Rosalie Alessi. Tony died in 1999 at age 93, and Rosalie died a year later at 85.

Tony Alessi Sr. moved to Tampa from Sicily when he was 7, and 40 years later he started Vigo in his backyard garage. Vigo is a port city in Spain, but Tony Alessi Sr. decided on that name by accident, DeLucia said.

When they started the business, the Alessis had only a handful of products and each other for employees. They later moved to a grocery store and then another site before buying the five buildings with 280,000 square feet that house the business today.

The company manufactures mostly Italian foods under the Alessi name and other international foods under the Vigo name.

The company exports products to Canada, Mexico and Central and South America. Almost every major market in the United States carries the brands.

"As you can tell, Vigo has done a lot of growing and changing over the years," DeLucia told the students. "But we are still a family-owned business."

DeLucia's father, Tony Alessi Jr., and uncle Alfred Alessi run the company, she said.

After the students heard the company's history, the group headed inside to meet with tour guide Christie Coyle. She led the crowd through the Grinder Room, the Cheese Drying Room, the Rice Room, the Cool Room and the Spice Room.

The room that evoked the strongest reaction from the children was the Spice Room.

"When you leave, you'll smell like the Spice Room all day long," Coyle told them. "I wouldn't go around any hungry people or any dogs."

Coyle shared many Vigo facts with the students, including:

•The company imports olives, cheese, garlic and anchovies from Spain, Greece, Italy, China and Morocco.

•Saffron is the most expensive spice in the world. One pound costs $2,000.

•There are 800 million olive trees in the world. It takes an olive tree a year to produce a gallon of olive oil.

•Although Vigo imports several of its products, its famous rice is domestic.

•Vigo packages 18 million pounds of rice a year.

DeLucia took over when the tour headed to the Bread Room. There, bread crumbs are toasted by a machine dubbed Discovery. The ovens are made from the same tiles used to protect space shuttles; the tiles can withstand temperatures up to 1,200 degrees.

After the two-hour tour, it was chow time. The staff provided the hungry group with yellow rice cooked with all-beef hot dogs. Green beans, bread with pasta sauce, feta cheese, olives, water, juice and ladyfingers also were on the menu.

"It's been really amazing," said Stephen Whitman, 10. "But the best so far is the bread crumbs and lunch."

Schoolmate Joshua Kernohan, 10, agreed.

"I think it was pretty fun until I started to starve," he said. The tour "was kind of making me hungrier."

Teachers Barbie Monty, Blythe Marulanda and Sarah Barr, who accompanied the fifth-graders on the tour, said the field trip is one of the most coveted by children and parents.

Monty said her class had just learned about "immigration and the contributions that we have the pleasures of enjoying from other countries. This is a tie-in."

The tour also will tie in to her upcoming business curriculum, she said.

"They just enjoy it," she said. "It's a good learning experience."

VIGO IMPORTING CO.

LOCATION: 4701 W. Comanche Ave., Town 'N Country

ESTABLISHED: 1947

WEB SITE: www.vigo-alessi.com

TOURS: Schools interested in touring Vigo should call Laura Alessi DeLucia at (813) 884-3491.

Reporter Angela Delgado can be reached at (813) 865-1501 or adelgado@tampatrib.com.

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