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GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2015 www.gourmetnews.com Naturally Healthy NATURALLY HEALTHY 1 6 Quinoa with a Conscience The pasta line includes Organic Fusilli, Organic Macaroni, Organic Shells, Organic Orzo and Organic Spaghetti. Each is made gluten- and corn-free, is vegan friendly, or- ganic- and kosher-certified, is non-GMO and is produced in an allergen-friendly fa- cility. Each 8-ounce box of pasta contains 24 grams of protein. "Our Organic Vegetar- ian Quinoa Noodle Soup was originally seasonal, but we're bringing it back to the marketplace," says Hirstin-Lazcano. Andean Dream started out as an ordinary cookie company in 2006 but quickly blos- somed into a spe- cialty food/social justice project under the leader- ship of Hirstin- Lazcano, who was inspired to prac- tice conscientious capitalism to help bring jobs, med- ical benefits and retirement pen- sions to single mothers and dis- abled individuals throughout the poorest regions of Bolivia. "I wanted to create a value-added product that could aid indigenous farmers and workers in Bolivia," she says. Already involved with the Bolivian community in Los Angeles, she learned of the circum- stances regarding the poverty stricken re- gions in Bolivia from her husband, Fer- nando Lazcano Dunn, a 25-year diplomat who worked as Consul General of Bolivia in Los Angeles at the time, and sought out a solution that aligned with her personal convictions."They are close to my heart and I wanted to see everyone have an equal opportunity," says Hirstin-Lazcano, "I wanted to help raise their standard of living." According to 2015 Central Intel- ligence Agency World Fact Book, 45 percent of Bolivia's population lives under the poverty line (based on the inter- national standard of two dollars a day) with three out of four people in rural areas living in poverty. The Rural Poverty Portal, a forum that discusses the difficulties of rural life in Bolivian regions, notes that women and young people are particularly vulnera- ble to poverty and food insecurity. "I wanted to bring attention to the situa- tion over there and provide single mothers that don't have jobs – or are working me- nial labor – and help give them a regular re- spectable job," says Hirstin-Lazcano. Hirstin-Lazcano spent two weeks travel- ing through Bolivia in 2006 to find the right co-packer that could provide large scale manufacturing at a local level, offer jobs and provide advancement to native farmers. Hirstin-Lazcano says that she was able to find a co-packer that would work with locals as well as provide benefits such as medical care and retirement pensions that they wouldn't have ever gotten before. Currently, the co-packer that works with Andean Dream is employing between 20 to 25 indigenous people for Andean' Dream's manufacturing, many of whom have re- ceived promotions to higher man- agement positions. "There are always new opportunities as we grow, and as we grow our facility for production, many others will be hired for satellite locations," says Hirstin-Lazcano. One particular story that stands out for Hirstin-Lazcano is that of a deaf and mute woman who had been resigned to harsh janitorial work and would have been stuck there had it not been for Andean Dream's project. Edith was hired and was eventually promoted into a supervisor position. "She would've never been able to do that before," says Hirstin- Lazcano, "Because of her employment, both of her sons are able to go to university. One is studying to be a dentist, and the other an architect." In addition to the company's social ac- tivism in Bolivia, Andean Dream was the Official Cookie Sponsor in the Special Olympic World Games, providing 48,000 cookies to athletes as well as regularly giv- ing away products to local charitable foun- dations, food-banks and organizations focused on inner-city kids with economic challenges. When asked about how her work makes her feel, Hirstin-Lazcano isn't shy about an- swering: "We're socially minded ... and helping to provide opportunities to individ- uals who need a better life is our Andean Dream." GN BY RICHARD THOMPSON A southern California quinoa company is bringing about social reform in Bolivia as it works with the indigenous community to provide award-winning products to Amer- ican tables. Andean Dream is a Fair Trade certified quinoa pasta, soup and cookie company that makes non-GMO, allergen- friendly products that range from Organic Fusilli and Organic Orzo to Coconut and Cocoa-Orange Cookies. The entire line is made from Royal Quinoa – the most nutri- ent-dense quinoa – and the products are free from hydrogenated oils and gluten along with being allergen-friendly, with no chance of cross contamination since they are made in a dedicated facility free of gluten, eggs, soy, corn and nuts. "Free-from was what everyone was talking about, and we were the first to really do it," says Andean Dream Founder and President, Ingrid Hirstin-Lazcano. The cookies, which launched in 2006, are of- fered in Chocolate Chip, Coconut, Cocoa-Orange and Cafe Mocha varieties. Each contains only 2.5 grams of sugar, says Hirstin-Laz- cano. "My personal favorite goes between the Cafe Mocha and Coconut, but the best seller in the line is Chocolate Chip." American Spoon: Local Before Local Was Cool BY LORRIE BAUMANN Thirty three years ago, the goal of Ameri- can Spoon founders Justin Rashid and Larry Forgione was to make the best pre- serves in America using Michigan fruits. The goal is the same today, Rashid says. American Spoon is based in Petoskey, Michigan, a summer resort area with a re- markable microclimate that stretches along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, which buffers the extremes of temperature to make a growing season that allows local farmers to grow most of America's crop of tart cherries as well as Haven peaches and, since the 1920s, a good share of America's cultivated blueberries. Rashid spent the summers of his child- hood in the area and it was then that he learned to appreciate the local fruits. As he grew up, he learned to forage for wild mushrooms and fruits from the 30,000 acres of state forest lands that surrounded his parents' summer cabin. "Any excuse to be out there in the woods," he says. "It was what I loved to do, and I had a pas- sion for it." He met Chef Larry Forgione, a pioneer in the farm to table movement when For- gione was looking for sources for wonder- ful ingredients to use in his restaurant menus and started supplying him with wild mushrooms and fruits. It wasn't long before Forgione paid him a visit to see for himself where the wonderful produce that Rashid was supplying had originated. Once he saw the bounty available in Michigan, Forgione knew he wanted more of it in his restau- rants. "He asked if I could provide fruit pre- serves for the River Cafe," Rashid says. "We were both young, you know. I said, 'I'm sure I could make preserves.'" The two of them together founded Amer- ican Spoon, which was incorporated in 1982. The name refers to the spoonability of the preserves, which are more suited to scooping onto bread or a cheese with a spoon rather than spreading them with a knife. Forgione developed the recipes, Rashid sourced the fruit, and together they set up a kitchen equipped with traditional copper kettles and wooden paddles. Today, American Spoon still makes its preserves in small batches the old-fash- ioned, labor-intensive way and sells about 85 percent of what the company makes di- rectly to consumers in six retail stores, all located in destination resort towns along Lake Michigan. "We have developed a very significant direct mail and Internet busi- ness, so some of the same customers who discover us when they're on vacation here in the summer become year-round cus- tomers at Spoon.com," Rashid says. American Spoon draws summer tourists from the small-town sidewalks of the resort towns into its shops with a sampling table where visitors can try everything the com- pany makes. "The wonderful thing about our small towns here is that they've been around a long time, so they have small- scale, human-scale, walkable downtowns," Rashid says. "People taste and they buy, and very often they buy a case. It's like going to a vineyard and tasting the wine and going away with a case." "A company of ours is not supposed to be able to survive based on quality, quantity and price. You have to justify your exis- tence by producing products that spoil peo- ple," he says. "We have one chance, when they open that jar and taste it, to create a relationship. We're not selling food as fuel. We're selling it to people who use it to en- tertain, for gifts, to celebrate." After 33 years in business, Rashid says that running American Spoon is still a lot of fun. These days, his son Noah Mar- shall-Rashid does all the marketing and runs many of the business details while Rashid himself is more involved in the production side of things. "I don't sup- pose it would be as much fun if it were not that I have Noah here, who does most of the heavy lifting, so to speak," he says. "We have a great time meeting our cus- tomers in our stores, talking with them about food, sharing recipes with them.... The food business can be very rewarding because everybody eats, and it makes peo- ple happy." GN

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