Goya Foods, producer of a variety of Hispanic grocery products, including rice, beans and condiments, has opened a canning facility in Brookshire. The new facility will produce more than 40 varieties of Goya beans. So far, the factory has created 100 new jobs in the area, said Evelio Fernandez, general manager and vice president of Goya Foods of Texas.

Throughout the last four years, Goya, the largest Hispanic-owned company in the country, has been working with the USDA's MyPlate campaign to promote healthy products, said Mayte Weitzman, a Goya spokeswoman with The W Group Public Relations.

"The main reason it was built was to meet the demand for healthy product lines," Weitzman said.

Goya's new 350,000-square-foot facility is capable of producing 1,000 cans of beans per minute. Goya's Brookshire plant is the first Goya plant to be built completely from scratch, Weitzman said.

The plant consists of manufacturing and distribution facilities, administrative offices and a quality assurance lab. Goya's staff inspects their products several times a day to ensure the beans made shipped from the facility have the right taste and appearance.

Goya selected Brookshire as the location for this cannery because it offers convenient rail and highway access for moving this massive inventory throughout the west and southwest United States.

"The land was a perfect fit for Goya," Weitzman said. "It's a hub for Goya's distribution to the west. We call it Goya's gateway to the west."

In addition to its market in the west, Goya is focusing on distributing its products to those in need in the surrounding area. In honor of its grand opening, Goya donated 5,000 pounds of food to local food banks. In 2011, in honor of their 75th anniversary, Goya donated a million pounds of food in a single day to nonprofits in the United States, including Puerto Rico. The company also works with area churches, nonprofits and food banks on a continuous basis.

"We donate hundreds of thousands of pounds every year," Fernandez said.