Their Story

The Fruit of Friendship

"Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit."  3 John 1:2

Based on CDC estimates, 1 in 8 women in the United States will develop breast cancer in her lifetime. Our friend Angel, is one of the 1's. As we walked alongside her from the seemingly helpless sidelines, God opened our eyes to possible problem-solving in one aspect of her struggles. Tears rolled down her cheeks the day I described what we may be able to do and so the journey of an inspired brand of hope, called “Angel & Angela®” began with urgency and a purpose-driven focus to bring blessings to others through locally grown ingredients.

Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”  John 21:15

In the days that followed, we began to realize many of the same challenges cancer patients were experiencing in affordability and convenience in consuming sufficient nutrition were also shared barriers to consumption across the nation. A new report from the CDC found that only one in 10 adults are eating the recommended amount of fruits or vegetables. For Angel, cancer therapy’s side effects like extreme fatigue, nausea and difficulty swallowing, made the process of purchasing, preparing and consuming fresh fruit difficult. Something had to make it easier to reach these recommended daily targets.

Most commercial processing and sterilization methods have traditionally fallen short of fresh. However, thanks to recent work by a team just one state away, an innovative new way of processing has now become commercially available. Validated with third party testing to retain the delicate structures of fresh fruits and vegetables in flavor, color and nutrient content, this novel technology is as close to eating fresh as you can get, with the benefits of shelf-stable convenience.

To use this technology, however, would be extremely costly, especially with smaller startup volumes. So how could the very population who critically needed an easy way to increase their fruit and vegetable consumption, afford our product? To God be the glory. We discovered the road to make all of this possible, was already under construction through the purpose-driven consumer. Through conscious-consumerism, neighbors were already helping their neighbors in need—the tools were already there, thanks to the purpose-driven consumer, to construct a social impact business model where all things could work together for good.

Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.” John 21:16

Given a clear willingness by shoppers to want to do good things, we’ve placed multiple pay-it-forward options for social impact and sustainability into our checkout menu. They include everything from sharing a single squeeze pack, to gifted subscriptions and gift cards. With multiple options to pay-it-forward, equitable access to advanced nutrition is able to flow, even into rural food deserts.

Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.”  John 21:17

To make all of this physically possible, there is a highly diverse and dynamic team at the helm. As a faith-driven company, we pray through every step and the Lord has brought contacts and resources we never imagined possible.

Join us in this amazing journey and sign up for our newsletter to hear more! The good news is this story is just getting started!