All across America there are families that struggle to earn enough money to put food on the table.

And scattered across America are their opposites. Those families that never struggle with money, because the money just keeps rolling in—from food.

Here's a look at some of the family fortunes of the food industry. Some of them are families you've heard of, but odds are a few of the names will be new to you.

1. THE GRIMMS
You like carrots? Have you bought one at any time in the past few decades? Then the Grimm family would like to thank you. Two brothers Grimm started Grimmway Farms in the 1960s. At first it was just another tiny business, the proverbial family farm.

But then the Grimms got one of those remarkable ideas that seem so obvious in hindsight: they started selling "baby carrots."

Today Grimmway Farms is the largest grower, shipper and producer of carrots on earth. The two brothers passed away, both of them dying quite young. Today the business is owned and run by their extended family.

2. THE PERDUES
​Back in the 70s, a strange-looking, skinny man appeared in TV commercials across the country to talk about chickens. The ads were somehow bizarre and compelling at the same time ... perhaps because the man himself sort of looked like a chicken.

He was Frank Perdue, who had inherited a chicken and egg selling business his Dad had launched in the 1920s. "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," the ads told us. And we have no doubt that's true. It certainly takes a tough man to build a family business with some $4.8 billion in annual revenue.

Frank passed away in 2005. Today Perdue Farms and its related companies are run by Frank's son, Jim Perdue.

3. THE BUTTS
Back in 1905, a woman named Florence Butt opened a grocery store on the ground floor of her home in a tiny Texas town called Kerrville. That store grew, and grew, and grew ... until it turned into the more than 350-store chain known as HE Butt Grocery.

HE Butt, often called just H-E-B, runs grocery stores throughout Texas and northern Mexico. The Butt family is still in charge. 

H-E-B brings in somewhere around $13 billion in revenue every year. That's impressive, but not quite as impressive as that the Butt family donates 5%of pre-tax profit to local charities.

4. THE GORDONS
Gordon Food Service is the largest privately held foodservice distributor in North America. GFS also operates 140 GFS Marketplace stores inMichigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Florida. The company remains in the hands of the Gordon family. Revenue at GFS is roughly $7 billion annually.

5. THE REYES BROTHERS
​Two brothers, Christopher and Jude Reyes, control Reyes Holdings, the foodservice and beverage distributing powerhouse. Eleven companies make up the beverage operation—​and combined they are the largest beer distributor in America. Foodservice companies include Martin-Brower, which serves half of the world's McDonald's restaurants, and Reinhart Foodservice, which operates distribution centers in 27 cities.

6. THE CARGILLS AND MACMILLANS
Seven members of two families have inherited massive stakes in agribusiness conglomerate Cargill. The combined wealth of the families is roughly $14.3 billion, according to Forbes.

These days the company is run by professional executives, but the families still own it. Members of the two clans control 85 percent of Cargill, making it the largest privately held corporation in America by revenue ($136.7 billion.)

7. THE MARS FAMILY
Mars Inc. is now the world's largest candy company. And it's owned by three grandchildren of the founder.

Forbes puts the combined wealth of the three siblings at $41.4 billion.

The family tends to keep a low profile, but recently found itself in the news when one of the heirs, Jacqueline Badger Mars, was involved in a fatal car crash.

8. THE WALTONS
Really, what more can be said about the heirs to Sam Walton's Walmart fortune? 

Perhaps just this: the six descendants are worth a combined $93 billion, making them the wealthiest family in the country by a long shot. For the average worker at Walmart to amass that much wealth he would have to work at Walmart for 7 million years and never spend a penny.

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