Archive for vegan speciality food

Morgan Lerner and Annie Slabotsky- GoNanas

Have you ever recalled the last time you had a good slice of banana bread? Was the banana bread really good and was it healthy for you too? Well, if your banana bread wasn’t super good or healthy for you, GoNanas has you covered! GoNanas is banana bread that’s actually good for you and it’s also gluten free, vegan, and allergen friendly. How many banana bread companies can you think of that can hit all these points? Not many brands target all these points, and most banana bread aren’t always gluten free either. GoNanas was founded by Morgan Lerner and Annie Slabotsky, when they were freshmen in college at the University of Michigan. They both noticed the lack of how there weren’t a lot of healthy food options on campus and they both also loved banana bread. They began their journey by creating a banana bread recipe that was healthy, and it took them three years to get it just right. After they perfected the recipe, they started selling single-serve loaves around their campus and Michigan. They both moved to Chicago after graduating but the pandemic forced them to close indefinitely. They had a lot of ingredients left over in their inventory and a bunch of customers that missed the banana bread. So, Morgan and Annie came out with a new product line of banana bread mixes just as banana bread became the “official comfort food of the Coronavirus.” They soon launched their product with Nordstrom Rack and went viral on social media. GoNanas was featured in Forbes, Buzzfeed, and even USA Today!

Standard Size Baking MixesBut what else makes GoNanas unique? They are a women-owned startup, and they help to empower other small business owners! They also swapped out artificial and refined ingredients for healthier and simpler alternatives that make their banana bread taste even better! They also now sell different banana bread flavor mixes like birthday cake, cinnamon roll, strawberry caramel, and more! They even launched some cookie mixes like lemon shortbread and chocolate chip! You can find more about their delicious products here!

Sources:

Morgan Lerner and Annie Slabotsky of GoNanas: Five Things I Learned As a TwentySomething Founder | by Jerome Knyszewski | Authority Magazine | Medium

About | GoNanas – GoNanas (eatgonanas.com)

Our Story – GoNanas (eatgonanas.com)

$6 Million…at 13 years old

Alina Morse is an inspiration. Just like the rest of us, she hated it when her parents told her she couldn’t have candy. “It will hurt you teeth!” they would say. Well, 9-year-old Alina had had enough of this and decided to make an alternative. After months of YouTube research, product testing, and sampling, Ms. Morse created the “Zollipop”. These lollipop-style candies are vegan, dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free, and actually beneficial to the consumer’s teeth. Fast forward four years and one can find Zollipops in Whole Foods, Kroger, Target, and many other stores. Here in the craziest part: Her business is worth $6 million dollars and she only has seven employees. Alina has gotten an audience with ex-first lady Michelle Obama and been on the Today show. Finally 10% of her company’s earnings go to “One Million Smiles” which is a company geared to fighting the rapidly growing tooth-decay epidemic.

Alina Morse And The Healthy Lollipop

Alina Morse is just an ordinary high schooler with an extraordinary passion for clean teeth. The 17-year-old is the CEO of a company called Zolli Candy. Zolli Candy creates lollipops, hard candy, and taffy all vegan, natural, KETO, gluten-free, and sugar-free. As a child, after having been offered a lollipop from a bank teller, she pondered over a major problem. Candy is terrible for your health and especially, your teeth. At the age of seven, she decided to act and spent two years over her home stove, endlessly researching, and questioning dentists and food scientists. The result was a lollipop sweetened by xylitol and erythritol, natural sweeteners that, due to their ability to neutralize the mouth’s pH, actually prevent cavities and tooth decay by lowering plaque and bacteria. 

By the age of nine, Morse’s lollipop was finally ready and launched when Whole Foods Market picked it up. The new Zollipops became a bestseller on Amazon and were quickly adopted by Kroger in 2016 while Morse became an inspiring new face to the rest of the entrepreneurship and oral health world. 

With her passion for healthy teeth and gums, Morse has waged a war against the tooth decay epidemic, specifically in children. In an act to save kids’ teeth, she began a “100,000 Smiles” campaign and in doing so, has donated thousands of Zollipops to schools and dentists and has donated her profits to oral health education. It is inspiring to see someone so young be so passionate about one area of pain, a passion she has nurtured since the age of seven and successfully weaved into her million-dollar idea. Morse is a surprising entrepreneur due to how she flipped the problem. She not only made candy harmless. She made it healthy

Everything is Legendary about this trio of entrepreneurs

Early 2021, a trio of entrepreneurs went onto Shark Tank to present their idea: plant based meat. Plant based meat is a recently new market but Everything Legendary wanted  to make the best tasting plant based meat. The CEO, Cheers, started this business after her mother had lupus and managed the chronic condition by maintaining healthy habits. Cheers’ Mom has tried about every plant-based meat on the market and none of them seemed to be just right. Cheers reached out to a friend, Danita Claytor and they hired Jumoke Jackson to launch Everything Legendary. They started in 2019 selling their products here and there, then they appeared on Shark Tank in 2021. After their appearance, Mark Cuban decided to invest in their company. What makes their product so unique is their combination of hemp protein, coconut oil, potato starch, and beef extract. Their product is both gluten and soy free with no artificial preservatives. They added a lot of spices and seasoning to maximize the flavor and really give a great tasting alternative to meat. After appearing on Shark Tank they sold $250,000 worth in burgers within 24 hours of the broadcast. As stated earlier, the plant based foods industry is growing at an alarming rate, being valued at 5 billion in 2019 and is projected to be worth 15.6 billion by 2026. Mark Cuban has been a great aid to them, Cuban seems to be a very involved and hands on investor which is definitely helping them grow, “Our thing is to just continue to make him proud and keep going harder…” said Cheers in an interview. The company is moving towards an e-commerce route in selling, but they plan to move into grocery stores like Acme and Giant. Also the company is growing in their options food wise, they are making recipes for spaghetti, nachos, stuffed green peppers and so much more.

Sprout and Lentil: The business which expanded during the pandemic  

        Sprout and Lentil is the only mom-and-pop vegan cafe on Aquidneck Island. Founded in 2019 by the husband and wife team of Carmen Foy and Matt Sole, Sprout and Lentil has grown from being a booth at a farmers’ market to having its own independent retail business located in the center of Middletown, RI. Before becoming an entrepreneur, Foy – who was born in Spain – trained at the Cordon Bleu in France and then worked for twelve years as a chef aboard yachts. 

     Foy and Sole have stayed true to their business mantra of “Food with a Mission” by serving only plant-based foods. For instance, Foy ordered granola and then returned it to the producer it contained honey. She and her husband are dedicated to a purely vegan business. Additionally, the owners have created a special niche serving their community for people who are vegan, vegetarians, and kosher. Foy and Sole know their target customers very well and have seen that there is a high demand for quality vegan products. Some may ask, “Who would ever want to pay for a $16 burger?” or “Why isn’t the 50 cent spicy ketchup included with my fries?” Without doubt, the prices are high and sauces are not included with fries, burgers, nor cauliflower nuggets. A gourmet truffle oil dressing retails for eleven dollars. Perhaps it is hard to believe here in western Pennsylvania, but their local customers – hard core vegan regulars, and tourists – do buy and enjoy the expensive truffle oil dressing as well as the $16 burgers. The customers believe that the high prices are worth the money for what they receive. Foy and Sole have created a demand for specialty vegan food.

Please take a look at Sprout and Lentil’s website:

http://sproutandlentil.com/