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UGLY FOOD NEEDS LOVE
ELYSE NOTARIANNI
Entrepreneur magazine defines social entrepreneurship as being “driven not so much by profit as by societal needs that the entrepreneur has identified and is passionate about.” A wonderful example of a passion-driven social entrepreneur is Evan Lutz, the CEO of Hungry Harvest, a business he started in his dorm room at the University of Maryland in 2014 after having a radical idea. Evan had been grappling with how he could do something to solve the problem of food waste.
Around 40 percent of all food in the United States goes to waste, and much of that happens before we even buy it. Grocery stores can be incredibly picky when accepting produce from farmers. If a food item does not look like it conventionally should—if it’s too big or too small, for example—then it could get thrown away.
At the same time that Evan wanted to fight food waste, he also wanted to address another societal need, which was to provide more fresh produce to individuals living in communities without easy access to healthy foods. Such places are known as food deserts.
His radical idea arose from a simple premise:
What if, instead of throwing that unqualified food away, he sold it?
In no time, Evan had set up a small farmers’ market–type table on campus and sold his first batch of imperfect produce. He soon used that momentum to create a full-fledged business with five hundred customers, which he increased to almost five thousand after making a deal with Robert Herjavec on the entrepreneur-focused television show Shark Tank in January 2016.
Hungry Harvest sells rescued vegetables to subscribers in Washington, D.C.; Virginia; Maryland; Philadelphia; Southern New Jersey; and (soon) Miami. But don’t let the word rescued scare you. Rescued produce includes fresh fruits and vegetables that are perfectly fine to eat but would otherwise have been thrown away due to aesthetic imperfections or logistical inefficiencies. This could be for something as silly as not fitting into the right-size containers or being an incorrect quantity than what’s desired for wholesale purchases. All these exclusions fall under the heading of “ugly food.”
Hungry Harvest customers have the option to receive weekly or biweekly mini, full, or super harvests of rescued product. Users can receive all-veggie, all-fruit, or all-organic orders, delivered right to their door. The most popular option is the Mini Standard Harvest (5 to 7.5 pounds of produce for between $15 and $17).
Every week, the Hungry Harvest team sends an e-mail outlining the contents of each box and why the items were rejected—
Eggplant too small to sell in stores? The HH Team thinks they’re cute.
Don’t like eggplant anyway? No problem!
Customers create “Love It” and “Never” lists to identify what they do and do not want to buy. And if the box isn’t enough, they can choose add-ons ranging from rescued avocados to baked goods and jams.
This process not only reduces food waste; as a social entrepreneurship, Hungry Harvest finds ways to give back to the community—providing regular produce for food-insecure families and hosting subsidized farmers’ markets in neighborhoods without access to fresh food. They’ve joined with the Baltimore City Public Schools to create Produce in a SNAP—a partnership aimed at promoting healthy eating and fighting hunger in food-insecure neighborhoods.
Evan and his team at Hungry Harvest believe in the model of doing well by doing good. Their business grows and prospers while they also address issues of concern in communities they are helping improve. As they grow as a company, they help others along the way.
The practice of giving love to ugly food and buying rescued produce is being built on an idea whose time is ripe. It supports farmers who now have a chance to make up revenue that otherwise would have been lost. It decreases food waste and helps eliminate the problem of throwing away perfectly good food because of cosmetic issues. It lets families in need buy food at a lower cost. And, if nothing else, it saves you a trip to the grocery store.
We can all do our own part to avoid food waste. As consumers, we have a responsibility to shop more consciously. It’s true, as they say, that every dollar you spend is a vote for the world you want to live in.
What’s more, the choice to use your power as a consumer to create a kinder, healthier, less wasteful world is not a radical idea at all.
Yet another wonderful reminder to not judge anything or anyone based on how they look—fruits and vegetables included. I love Evan’s innovative approach to reducing waste, supporting food-insecure families and community programs, and infusing kindness into your grocery list. Hopefully soon, we’ll remove the word ugly from the way we talk about people, food, and our communities—I think you’re all cute, too! Check out Hungry Harvest, and if you’re experiencing food insecurity, please visit Feeding America.
