Sergio Gamarra’s Engineering Technology-Metal Fabrication senior majors and his colleague Harry Peles’ Engineering Technology-Robotics junior majors participated in tours hosted by Goya Foods’ public relations department. They witnessed automated manufacturing equipment that produces 600 boxes of pre-packaged rice per minute and learned about quality control, logistics, and distribution methods. After the plant tour, the students and instructors in D|Fab Academy traveled to Goya Foods’ corporate distribution center, where executives discussed the goings-on at Goya.
Goya, the largest Hispanic-owned food manufacturer in the U.S., produces four million cases of goods like beans, rice, and flour at the plant. Originally, the plant had housed the company’s headquarters before it moved in June 2014 to nearby Jersey City. Originally founded in 1936 by Don Prudencio Unanue Ortiz, who immigrated to New York City, Goya Foods started out by selling imported Spanish olives and olive oil, but Goya now posts annual sales of almost $1.5 billion.
Junior Achievement (JA) Job Shadow offers students an opportunity to visit a professional work environment, where they gain insights into the requirements needed for earning a position. JA programs always correlate to state educational standards and to Common Core State Standards.
