CARIBBEAN Bakery and its affiliate Royal Caribbean Food Delights were founded in 1978 by Vincent and Jeannette HoSang in the Bronx, New York. Both companies are privately owned and operated by the HoSang family, with the HoSang’s daughter Sabrina serving as chief operating officer.

Now located in Mount Vernon, New York, Royal Caribbean Bakery manufactures products such as hard-dough bread, spiced fruit buns, cakes and pastries; while Caribbean Food Delights, a 103,000-sq-ft, state-of-the-art facility on 10 acres of land located in Tappan, New York, manufactures a frozen line of Jamaican-style patties and a new line of puff pastry called Sabrina’s Delights.

Products from both companies are sold to over 7,000 retailers worldwide, including Costco, BJ’s, Sam’s Club, and Walmart, as well as many other national chains. They also serve 160 military commissaries worldwide. Caribbean Food Delights manufactures 40,000 patties an hour or over 83 million annually.

It is the only Jamaican frozen food manufacturing plant in the world that is SQL Level 3 certified (the highest level attainable). It is also EU certified.

The store’s principals believe in giving back to the community and as such, in 2002, they established the Vincent HoSang Family Foundation (VHFF), a 501c 3 charitable organisation. To name a few major contributions, full scholarships totalling US$150,000 were awarded to six students pursuing the entrepreneurial programme at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica. In 2005, the foundation donated a fully equipped mobile health clinic worth US$180,000 to Dr Roy Streete of the Organisation for International Development, which provides free medical services to the less fortunate.

Additionally, VHFF donated US$250,000 to Father Richard Ho Lung of Missionaries of the Poor to build a chapel. Each April, Caribbean Food Delights serves over 3,600 meals to over 400 student athletes at the Penn Relays, which it has been doing for the past 18 years. The foundation is currently trying to raise US$5 million for two linear accelerator machines — one for Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay and one for Kingston — for treating cancer patients.

Together, the companies have been serving the community for over 34 years and they plan to continue serving the best quality, best tasting and genuine products with excellent customer service.

The HoSang family shares the belief that you get what you pay for, which means they will not compromise the quality or authenticity of their products for greater profits.

For its unwavering service to the Jamaican community in the United States and its continued support of initiatives to the lives of Jamaicans in need, Caribbean Food Delights is this year’s Pioneer Service awardee.