Truebeck’s Commitment to Local Minority-Owned Businesses

In 2020, Truebeck’s Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Task Force implemented a charter with many objectives, one being to support local diverse businesses. As a general contractor, the first way to do that is on the job site working with our trade partners. But at Truebeck where “raise the bar” is the company motto, the obvious answers aren’t always the best answers.

Beyond the job site, Truebeck works with many vendors, outsourcing partners, and other businesses, and the firm realized they could have a much greater impact in helping their partners. One such vendor are wine suppliers. The Truebeck leadership team annually gifts wine to clients and industry friends during the holiday season, and it’s become a long-standing tradition within the company.

This year, Pete Caputo, Vice President of Operations, proposed sourcing our wine from local minority-owned wineries. Joining Caputo was the company’s wine-connoisseur, Mike Anderson, Senior Vice President of Operations, who set out to find the best selection available.

After researching over a dozen minority-owned wineries, and holding tastings with the leadership team for each, Truebeck settled on two wineries near the San Francisco Bay Area and one in the Portland region.

The chosen vendors were Ceja Vineyards, Indigene Cellars, and Abbey Creek Vineyard.

In an industry of legacy and privilege, these wineries had neither. Ceja Vineyards is a Mexican-American family owned winery located in the heart of wine country, Napa Valley, California. The founders began their journey as immigrant vineyard workers. Indigene Cellars is an award-winning, Black-owned winery in Paso Robles, California. The founder began as a Ship Joiner and Grocery Clerk. Abbey Creek Vineyard is the first recorded Black-owned winery in the state of Oregon. The founder was born from Haitian-immigrant parents, and found his way from Brooklyn, NY, to become a self-taught winemaker.

It wasn’t just their history and high-quality wine that convinced the Truebeck leadership team to select these wineries. What resonated with Truebeck was how each of these wineries were active members of their community and industry, by providing resources and support to worthy causes. As a general contractor heavily invested in the well-being of our neighbors, Truebeck valued the social responsibility and philanthropy of these wineries. Ceja Vineyards commits to promoting the value and fair treatment of farmworkers in agriculture and the food industry. Indigene’s founder creates wine devoted exclusively to his community-focused efforts, with one blend even named “Philanthropist” – for which a percentage of every bottle goes to First Responders in his city. The Abby Creek founder now helps other winemakers tell their similar stories of facing challenges in the industry, specifically the diversity challenge.

Truebeck, like these wineries, believes we can all work together to make this world a better place.