Anna Hammond is the Founder and CEO of Matriark Foods whose mission is to divert surplus food headed to the landfill and create healthy products for food service, retail and emergency food supplies. What many home cooks have done at home for centuries, Matriark is doing at scale. The company upcycles farm surplus and fresh-cut remnants into flavor-packed pantry staples like slow-cooked pasta sauces and low-sodium broth concentrates. On this episode of Food Lab Talk, you’ll hear about how Anna and the team at Matriark developed a new supply chain to support upcycling, why she decided to start a packaged food company after an already impressive career in public service, and her advice for growing a team at a purpose-driven organization.
Anna Hammond: “The whole consumer package goods industry is very slow, and I'm very impatient. I was quite naive when I went into that thinking that, okay, well food service is big. Items are bought in pallets, not in units… and it just seemed like if our main goal was to divert, wasted food from landfill, feed large numbers of people, healthy food, and create more revenue streams for farmers, we should go for the big sales and the big impact.”
03:14 Matriark Foods’s mission and impact
04:28 The “why” that catalyzed Anna to found Matriark Foods
07:20 Anna’s first major roadblock: finding a copacker for her products
09:14 How ingenuity led to the launch of Matriark
11:48 Focusing on foodservice channels to maximize impact
15:30 Pivoting the business while staying true to the value proposition
17:31 Lessons learned while developing an upcycled product
19:14 The traits Anna seeks when building purpose-driven teams
20:19 What changemakers can learn from free climbers
21:48 Balancing the business to accelerate systems change
25:36 Anna’s advice for the next generation of changemakers
26:27 ATX Free Fridge Project and Matriark
29:38 Matriark’s newest product
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*The views expressed by the guests in this podcast don't necessarily represent the host’s views, nor those of his employer.
What is Food Lab Talk?
A better food system starts with one thing: vision. Food Lab Talk gives global food system changemakers a platform to articulate their vision for the future of food.
The series features interviews with inspiring individuals who are working on the frontlines of many of our most pressing food issues: reducing food loss and waste, enhancing food system transparency, facilitating shifts toward more balanced plant-forward diets, enabling informed individual choices for sustainable lifestyles, and accelerating the transition to a circular food economy.
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