Randall Patterson, president of Patterson Farm Inc. of China Grove, has earned a 2018 Double Gold Star Award from the North Carolina Department of Labor in recognition and appreciation of efforts to provide safe and healthy housing for farm workers.

The Double Gold Star Award recognizes businesses that have met two consecutive years of Gold Star farming. Gold Star farming requirements include local health department inspections to approve water and septic systems before occupancy, housing that is 100 percent in compliance before occupancy, and farms that go beyond the requirements to ensure that housing is a Gold Star site.

Once a farm earns Gold Star status, the owner has the option to conduct his own housing inspections, with a state inspection scheduled every other year.

During peak season, Patterson Farm and its other two divisions — Patterson Farm Repack and Patterson Farm Market & Tours — employs more than 300 people.

Patterson Farm is a sixth-generation family farm in southwestern Rowan County. The Pattersons have been growing and selling produce since 1946 on land the family has farmed since the early 1900s.

Patterson Farm is one of the largest vegetable farms in North Carolina, harvesting 210 acres of tomatoes, 55 acres of strawberries, 150 acres of bell peppers, 10 acres of Cubanelle peppers, 70 acres of cucumbers, 20 acres of squash, 10 acres of pumpkins, and 2 acres of greenhouses for poinsettias and vegetable plant sales.

The farm consistently is recognized for providing safe housing for employees.

For more information on Patterson Farm, go to www.pattersonfarminc.com.