Tom and Steve Church Receive 2026 E.E. “Gene” Harden Lifetime Achievement Award
Church Brothers founders honored by peers at The Club at Pasadera; live auction benefits the Salinas Regional Sports Authority and its Salinas Regional Soccer Complex
On Friday, October 9, the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California (GSA) presented the 2026 E.E. “Gene” Harden Lifetime Achievement Award to Tom and Steve Church of Church Brothers. Hundreds of growers, shippers, handlers, and community leaders gathered at The Club at Pasadera for the luncheon to honor two men who have spent their lives working in the Salinas Valley as well as enhancing the lives of others in the region.
David Gill, who received the award with his wife, Susan, in 2025, spoke about the brothers at the presentation. He traced their 40-year friendship back to the 1980s when he was growing broccoli in the south end of the Salinas Valley and Tom had just started a new sales company. “I had broccoli and no place to sell it. Tom had a place to sell it and no broccoli,” Gill said. “That’s about as close to a match made in heaven as this business gets.”
Gill described Tom as the big picture thinker and Steve as the one who gets it done. Together, the brothers founded Church Brothers in 1999. Their contributions reach well beyond one company.
Tom brought the first form, fill, and seal packaging machine to Salinas, which helped make packaged salads possible. He helped develop injection ice, a method of pumping an ice and water slurry into packed cartons to quickly cool produce, such as broccoli, and keep it cold through shipping. He was also a charter owner of PrimusLabs, one of the produce industry’s early food safety testing and auditing firms.
Steve chaired the GSA and the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement and has also served on the boards of Western Growers, United Ag, and many others.
Established in 2004, the Harden Award is the Association’s highest honor. It is given by peers, colleagues, and competitors to recognize the people whose work has advanced Central Coast agriculture and strengthened the communities around it. The award is named for Gene Harden, a founding member of GSA. Harden came to Salinas in the 1920s and built the E.E. Harden Packing Company and Harden Farms. In 1963 Gene and his wife, Ercia, established the Harden Foundation so that what the fields produced would keep returning to Salinas Valley charities.
GSA thanks this year’s sponsors: Ag Land Trust, Alliant Insurance Services, American AgCredit, Bengard Ranch, Blazer Wilkinson Gee, Church Brothers Farms, CLA, D’Arrigo California, Huntington Farms, Merrill Farms, Nikssarian Insurance Services, Rio Farms, Sturdy Oil Company, Taylor Farms, Tanimura & Antle, Top Flavor Farms, United Ag and West Coast Community Bank, and The Club at Pasadera for hosting.
About the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California:
Founded in 1930, the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California is a pioneering, independent regional organization that unites farmers, shippers, processors and harvesters with a mission to advance families, food and farming in the Salinas Valley and Central Coast. Through advocacy, education and collaboration, GSA protects the land, its people and the future of the “Salad Bowl of the World.” For more information, visit growershipper.com.