Royal Lunch crackers sail into Fall River with a new package and food banks benefit

FALL RIVER — Suddenly your favorite cracker appeared at Walmart and Price Rite, the cracker you had with your grandfather while you watched black and white TV, the one your grandmother crushed to make turkey stuffing.

And then, just as suddenly, it disappeared again.

Not to worry, Victor DePina said, Royal Lunch Milk crackers will be sailing into Fall River again soon, in a package that will protect the crackers like the treasure that they are.

Royal Lunch crackers were a staple in Southern New England a generation ago. The brand shrank, but didn’t die. DePina purchased it in September of 2017 and signed on bakeries in Cape Verde to bake and package the crackers.

DePina’s company, Atlantic Trading Co., located in the State Pier at 1 Water St., began importing the treat.

“We launched through Amazon,” said Kevin P. Loflin, vice president of business development for Atlantic Trading. “That is how products like these are launched now.

“We became a top five food seller for Amazon and stayed there for a month.”

Which attracted a lot of interest.

Walmart tested them and then bought enough to place them in 115 stores, almost entirely in New England. A few stores in New York and New Jersey began carrying the cracker as well.

Royal Lunch crackers appeared in 36 Price Rite stores.

But a year of experience convinced the company that a few tweaks were needed.

The company strengthened the box and built a plastic cradle to hold the crackers. That shipment is being prepared now.

That change left the company with 3,000 cases of crackers in the old packaging, and some questions about what to do with them.

So they called the Fall River Food Bank and quickly got an answer.

On Wednesday at tractor trailer from the Greater Boston Food Bank wiggled into a loading dock at the State Pier. Tacuma Russell, the warehouse manager, began loading 20 pallets of crackers, Atlantic Trading’s donation to the bank.

That is 960 cases, or 17,280 boxes of crackers, according to Philip Sousa Jr., shipping manager. Other cases already went to food banks in Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton, Rhode Island, and as far away as New Hampshire.

“With food distribution, especially groceries, you always have damaged packages,” DePina said. “It seemed a shame to throw them away.

“Now that we have made these contacts, from now on we will be donating those to local organizations.”

The pallets of crackers were lined up next to a loading dock at the State Pier. Through the door you could see the underside of the Braga Bridge and the top side of the U.S.S. Massachusetts.

The warehouse is a snapshot of American commerce.

One side is filled with old and battered cars and truck, bound for a second life in Haiti.

The other side of the warehouse is filled with pallets of rice, corn, crackers and cans of food from Portugal, Cape Verde, the Azores, Spain and India. Those goods are heading into the United States, bound for store shelves.

Everything comes and goes on ships that dock along Water Street, including the Royal Lunch Crackers, which fill eight ships a year, DePina said.

The next ship is due in September. Product should be on the shelves in October.

“We’ll make sure they are back in time for the holidays,” DePina said.

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Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.