Women in Produce — Charlotte Vick

When Charlotte Vick was a little girl, her parents used to drag her and her brother to the cucumber packing shed late at night. She remembers sleeping in the trucks while irrigating all night long and riding through the orange groves in late winter to recruit migrant labor to come work on their North Carolina farm once the Florida harvests were completed that season — that was her family vacation.

“It instilled deep in my soul my desire to spend the rest of my life here on the farm,” Vick said.

Vick is an owning partner along with parents Jerome and Diane Vick and brother Linwood Vick of Wilson, N.C.-based Vick Family Farms, which grows a variety of crops, including sweet potatoes, on more than 8,000 acres. Her role exemplifies the many hats those at family farms wear: accountant/sales, marketing and packing manager.

In Vick’s early days, her father would rent out an acre of land for her to rotate crops, from cantaloupes and watermelons to onions and peppers. Her grandfather would give Linwood and her rides to the grocery store so they could market their produce. They also sold their products at a roadside stand to neighbors and employees.

One year, Vick didn’t have anything left to market, so she sold her brother’s toy John Deere tractors, “which didn’t go over very well, so my mother made me go to the buyers and purchase them back!” she said.

“I now love to ride to the fields and watch the planting and harvest and think about all that is involved in feeding the world. It really is an amazing process and makes you feel good too.”

One of Vick’s biggest career challenges has been balancing work with raising four children. In order to be fully involved in her children’s lives and activities, Vick took a step back from field work and did more office work, a transition that evoked mixed feelings.

Once her children were older and more independent, she jumped back in full force.

“I want to leave a legacy that my children can be proud of and can carry forward for the next generation,” she said. “I knew I needed make sure my daughters and sons were brought up to know they too could achieve all their goals if they worked hard and believed in themselves.”

In sales, 3 a.m. e-mails from export customers would have her working in the middle of the night, and sometimes the same happens with farm logistics.

Vick is on committees and boards in the organizations in which her farm is a member, including the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission, the U.S. Sweet Potato Council, Southeast Produce Council and the American Sweet Potato Marketing Institute. 

“I enjoy being a part of growing the sweet potato market for the benefit of the entire industry and have been so impressed at how much it has grown over the last several years,” Vick said. “Together we can move mountains!”

For four years, Darren White, sales manager of H.C. Schmieding Produce Co., has developed a loyal customer relationship with Vick. Vick does business the old-fashioned way, with deep knowledge and focus on quality, he said.

“She has a no-nonsense team approach to getting things done,” White said. “Her business reflects her personal integrity and values, which shows on every phone call with her staff. We have worked hard over the last few years to create an excellent growing relationship as we both believe in good communication.”

Vick’s father taught her she could do anything most men can do, while enjoying womanhood.

She is as comfortable driving 2-ton trucks and tractors, calibrating sprayers and measuring land as she is handling logistical challenges in operations and making deals with customers.

“I never want to make a sale because I am a woman or lose a sale for that fact either. It should be about your integrity, honesty and the quality produce you offer for sale,” she said. “I was taught all aspects of the farm so that I have a better appreciation in the role