![]() ![]() The pair believed that expanding the business to other areas of operation would be simple to achieve, if the company could find an investor to fund that growth. Evan and John also donated a meal to families in need for every bag sold and began holding free farmers markets on a regular basis, donating fruit and vegetables to the community in bulk. Customers would receive a weekly bag of fruit and vegetables, supplied from local farms, that would otherwise have gone to waste. He founded the Hungry Harvest business, in May 2014, along with fellow University of Maryland graduate John Zamora, and together they began signing people up for their unique subscription service. A business with a mission, ‘Produce with Purpose’ In a city with so much poverty, Evan devised a solution that would benefit everyone involved. A farmer cannot produce an exact amount of cabbages as it’s impossible for them to get production figures exactly right, so there would always be wastage of those over produced items. Unfortunately it all gets tossed into landfill, along with food that is wasted because of logistical problems. Supermarkets and mass-market farming have made trays of identical, unblemished apples a common sight in your neighborhood store, along with similarly identical oranges, vegetables, fruit, you name it, it all looks fantastic, but what happens to all the food that doesn’t pass the cosmetic standard? “I think we would still be a solidly growing company today without it, but it helped to give us that extra push,” Lutz said, adding it’s one for which he is “incredibly grateful.The young entrepreneur was surprised, and shocked, to learn that much of the fresh food wasted on farms was perfectly fine to eat, the only problem was the way it looked. Lutz said Herjavec is still involved in the company, as his team provides resources. And this year, it closed a Series A at $13.7 million. The company raised an equity round shortly after. The company had seven employees then, and now it has 80 following a year that saw a surge in demand for subscription products and food delivery that came alongside the pandemic.Īnd we’ll add another when it comes to investment: Herjavec invested $100,000 then. In an interview with Technical.ly just before the appearance last week, Lutz reviewed a few points of growth that the initial 2016 appearance helped to kickstart: 500 customers then became a few thousand in the initial weeks that followed the investment. This being “Shark Tank,” it also provided a chance to go over some of the metrics. oiAQdh2ClAĭuring the pandemic, Lutz said the company partnered with local healthcare institutions such as Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical System to distribute 65,000 emergency food boxes. ![]() Missed our update on yesterday? Thanks to our Harvest Heroes, we’ve been able to achieve so much in the 5 years since we made a deal with Go to to watch our segment (at the 9:54 min mark) & see the impact we’ve made together. “We’re helping people that need a helping hand and if there’s anything we’ve seen during COVID, there’s a lot of people that need help.” “The reason I invested in Hungry Harvest was the social mission,” said investor Robert Herjavec on the show. Rather, it was a look at the company’s progress, calling attention to its growth, as well as efforts to reduce food waste and fight hunger. This time, Lutz didn’t face a panel of sharks circling for a chance to invest. On Friday’s episode, CEO Evan Lutz was back on ABC’s entrepreneurship-focused pitch series for an update on the Port Covington-based food delivery service, which repurposes produce that would’ve otherwise been discarded. Close to five years ago, Hungry Harvest made a deal on “ Shark Tank.” ![]()
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