Founder Spotlight: Anna Hammond (Matriark Foods)
Meet Anna Hammond:
We upcycle farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into healthy, delicious, affordable products for foodservice. Advancing the healthy of people and the environment.
Location:
Nyack, New York, USA
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What led you to where you are today?
I designed, built, funded, and implemented a healthy eating program for youth and families living in public housing in NYC and simultaneously worked with farmers in Upstate NY who had surplus they couldn't move. Seeing the dearth of healthy available food firsthand and the need for farmers to have markets for their surplus not only to make a better living but to divert waste from landfills led me to put these two problems together to create a solution. I also traveled to India as a mentor to a group of NYU social impact business students to research the mid-day meal program produced by Akshaya Patra that serves millions of children every day seeing how brilliantly that program works, decided to leave the nonprofit world and start Matriark.
What do you wish you knew before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey?
That there would be some damage to my teeth from grinding them on a few really hard days.
What is the most difficult decision you've had to make regarding your business so far?
to not take money from an investor with a big checkbook but the wrong values.
What can you help the VEGPRENEUR community with?
Learning about upcycling. Mentoring (I'm an elder with 25 years of experience building sustainable programs).
How can the VEGPRENEUR community help you?
Getting the word out there about what we're doing (and following us on SM @matriarkfoods), any partnerships that might be great, and connecting with more of the Vegan community.
Fun fact about you:
I read classical Tamil.
Anything else you would like to share?
Vegan is where it's at. Good for people and good for the planet!
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