Oser Communications Group

BY LORRIE BAUMANN KeHE prides itself on offering products to help grocery retailers get out in front of emerging trends, so it was no surprise to see that many of the vendors who came to KeHE's Holiday Show came prepared with options to help home cooks add a punch of flavor to a meal that's easy and quick to prepare. The KeHE Hol- iday Show was held June 12-13 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Meal kit services have been making bank by providing con- sumers with a scratch-cook expe- rience that doesn't require a lot of last-minute thought, much time or advanced cooking skills. Gro- BY LORRIE BAUMANN From his Sunshine Nut Com- pany booth near the entrance of the KeHE Holiday Show, Don Larson, the company's Founder and CEO, had a clear view of the jars where show attendees were dropping wooden tokens, each one representing a $5 donation to one of five charities serving human needs in Honduras and Haiti, Nepal, the U.S. and in Mozambique. He took a special interest in one of those jars, the one dedicated to The Sunshine Approach, the foundation arm of his gourmet roast cashew busi- ness, a business from which Lar- Walking on Sunshine (Wow!), and Don't It Feel Good Continued on PAGE 13 Continued on PAGE 9 Continued on PAGE 8 son reinvests 90 percent of profits back into the Mozambique com- munities where its products are produced. The Sunshine Approach helps fund Sunshine Houses, homes in which abandoned and orphaned children are raised in a family set- ting by widows without other means of support. There are cur- rently three Sunshine Homes, each caring for three or four chil- dren, with another two in devel- opment. Larson and his wife Terri hope that one day there will be hundreds more. The donation represented by the wooden to- kens will help. KeHE has already provided funds for one Sunshine House and is sending a team to Mozambique in January to evalu- ate the project with a view to helping further. "We hope to have employee teams coming regularly to see what we are doing and help out," Larson says. Meanwhile, once Larson has completed his current selling and speaking tour outside Mozam- bique, he and Terri will return to the country where the 50 employ- ees who operate his cashew roaster in Matola, about half an hour outside the capital in the southern tip of the country, process the cashew crops grown by 50,000 smallholding farmers and shelled by another 1,000 peo- ple, all of whom benefit from the American market for the Sun- shine Nut Company products, which are now sold in 3,000 stores around the country and on QVC. "We're homeless. We live a very modest life," he says. "Our vehicles are over 20 years old, and we couldn't be happier." A Single Origin Story Larson's path to Mozambique started with 13 years at The Her- shey Company, a company with SFA Honors Industry Achievers KeHE Vendors Offer Convenient Options for Today's Time-Stressed Home Cooks cers have watched aghast as these services have elbowed their way into this market with offerings of premeasured grocery products and a recipe card delivered to cus- tomers' homes. Grocers have re- sponded by finding ways to offer home delivery themselves, but Blue Apron in particular has turned the tables on grocers by marketing itself as a healthier al- ternative to the food that con- sumers might otherwise buy in their local supermarket. KeHE's Holiday Show vendors brought the goods to help grocers ante their way back into that game, proving that there's more than one way to appeal to a consumer with a sense of adventure and an urge to cook at home along with limited culinary skills and no set recipe repertoire. The Spice Hunter, for instance, has some good ideas that make it easier for a home cook to roast a moist, flavorful holiday turkey with its Original and new Lemon, Garlic & Herb Turkey Brine & Bag. One 11-ounce pouch that re- tails for $7.99 to $9.99 provides the necessities for brining a turkey up to 25 pounds. The home cook stirs the brine mix into a gallon of boiling water to dissolve it, then chills the brine BY LORRIE BAUMANN KeHE is out to prove that it's pos- sible to use business as a way to contribute to bettering the world as well as to feeding it. The natu- ral, organic and specialty food distribution company, a Certified B Corporation since March, 2016, donates 10 percent of its profits to KeHE Cares, a com- pany program administered by company employees from vari- ous departments who serve three-year terms as members of the KeHE Cares Employee Out- reach Committee. Randy Shaw Continued on PAGE 6 KeHE Lives Its Values by Serving Communities runs the program. "This is not a sales and marketing tool," he says. "This has been since our in- ception." KeHE Cares has reached nonprofits serving human needs around the globe. Through its giving program, 70 percent of funds go to hand-up projects, such as education and training. "We believe in the dig- nity of work," Shaw said. The other 30 percent goes to widows, orphans and disaster victims – those who have an immediate need for short-term help, Shaw said. Sixty percent of the pro- gram's gifts go to causes within the U.S. The program was on display at the KeHE Holiday Show, held June 11-12 in Minneapolis, Min- nesota. The event drew about 3,000 retailers and suppliers from around the country to the Min- neapolis Convention Center. At BY ROBIN MATHER The Specialty Food Association honored seven members with Lifetime Achievement awards, and inducted 26 members into its Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York in July. The Lifetime Achievement awards went to: Lorie and the late Harold Alexander of Koppers Chocolate, which has exhibited at every Fancy Food Show since 1955. Harold is credited with being the first to produce chocolate-cov- ered espresso beans. The late Ted Koryn of Liberty Foods, honored posthumously. He took part in the very first Fancy Food Show and earned the loving nickname of "The Cecil B. DeMille of the specialty food in- dustry." Ari Weinzweig and Paul Sagi- naw of the Zingerman's Commu- nity of Businesses. Zingerman's 10 businesses have a combined $60 million in annual sales, and the pair were named among "The World's 10 Top CEOs" by INC magazine. Jerry Santucci of Santucci Asso- ciates, honored posthumously. Founder of one of the first VOLUME 82, NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2017 n $7.00 NEWS & NOTES n Retail Confectioners International Names Four to Board PAGE 6 RETAILER NEWS n Cheese Shop Finds Heartland Foodies in Des Moines PAGE 10 SUPPLIER NEWS n Sultry Spices and Silky Fruits Skyrocket 1st-Time Entrant to Stunning Five sofi Awards PAGE 12 NATURALLY HEALTHY n Meat Snacks Made from Grass-fed Beef Born in Virginia PAGE 14 News ..............................................6 Ad Index .......................................22 Calendar.......................................22 www.gourmetnews.com G OURMET N EWS T H E B U S I N E S S N E W S P A P E R F O R T H E G O U R M E T I N D U S T R Y ® SUPPLEMENT: SFF Wrap-up SEE PAGE 15 SUPPLIER NEWS: H&H Midtown East Bagels SEE PAGE 13 NATURALLY HEALTHY: Enjoy Life Foods SEE PAGE 14

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