Click here for Part I

Fighting hunger by reducing millions of pounds of food waste

Evan Lutz is the CEO of Hungry Harvest, a Maryland-based startup dedicated to reducing food waste through delivery and donations of fresh produce. Hungry Harvest sells surplus, “ugly” fruits and vegetables recovered from farmers and suppliers to feed diverse communities throughout the Mid-Atlantic. Because of their outside imperfections, billions of pounds of edible produce get wasted every year—a statistic the company and others like it around the world seek to change. The company recently appeared on an episode of ABC’s “Shark Tank,” where investor Robert Herjavec pledged $100,000 for a 10% stake.

EDWIN WARFIELD: Could you take us through your business model?

EVAN LUTZ: We’re taking this approach of taking a CSA—a community supported agriculture— model and turning it on its head so it can be appealing for the average consumer. Right now, with a CSA, you’ll buy a share of a farm for typically between $400 and $600; you’ll have to drive to that farm; and, typically, you get produce that—you’ll get like kale and chard week after week after week—which a lot of people don’t know what to do with it. We’re taking that model and flipping it on its head, so it’s good for the average consumer. We want: One, you don’t pay upfront, you pay week-by-week, $15–55 for the most expensive box. You pay either one week at a time or every other week. Two, we deliver to somebody’s home. And three, we work with a wide number of suppliers. We have a really good variety that we give to our consumers every single week.

The second model that we take is like the Uber or Lyft model, where we use independent contractors using their own cars who actually make our deliveries for us on weekends—on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays. We pay them between $2 and $3 per stop. They make a really good living on it, you know, when Uber drivers and Lyft drivers aren’t really working on Saturday and Sunday mornings. This is money that they wouldn’t be earning otherwise. That’s model number two.

Model number three is a more popular model that’s inspired really by TOMS, which is a buy-one-give-one. For every box we deliver to a customer, we donate three to five pounds of produce to somebody in need.

Q. What’s the biggest challenge you’ve faced?

A. The biggest challenge that we’ve had so far is not having any experience in produce logistics or, really, entrepreneurship. Everybody you see in this office is 23, 24, or 25 years old. We have a lot of great advisers who have a lot of experience in this industry, but we’ve had to learn by fire, and it’s led to a lot of different mistakes, which we’ve learned from and we’ve grown from. Our biggest challenge, going forward, is how do we ship a time-sensitive product, that goes bad when it reaches a certain temperature or when it’s out in a certain matter of hours outside a refrigerator, to people across the United States? It’s not like we’re shipping T-shirts, which can get there in five days and not be damaged. We’re shipping products that have to be fresh in order to provide consumers really great value. That’s our biggest challenge going forward.

Q. Who is your target market, and how do you reach them?

A. We have two different target markets, mainly females. The first is 27–34, living in urban or suburban areas, middle to upper median income, who like to give back, who often have pets—people that have pets really like our service—and they’re usually in relationships. That’s target market number one. Target market number two is moms aged 40–55 who are involved in the PTA, like to volunteer, like to donate, and really care about the health of themselves, their children, and the future of the planet.

We reach those two target markets mainly through friend referral. Our social mission has this great virality effect where half of our customer base that signs on—50%—signs up because they’ve heard about us through a friend, which is something that most businesses strive for, and we really take for granted: that our customer base talks about us so much. The second way we get it is through social media. We do a lot of Twitter and Facebook, and we spend a lot of money in terms of promotions and strategy in trying to reach those two target markets. Facebook is a really great advertising platform if you know your specific target market.

Connect with Evan on LinkedIn

ABOUT OFFIT KURMAN

Offit Kurman is one of the fastest-growing, full-service law firms in the Mid-Atlantic region. With over 120 attorneys offering a comprehensive range of services in virtually every legal category, the firm is well positioned to meet the needs of dynamic businesses and the people who own and operate them. Our eight offices serve individual and corporate clients in the Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Northern Virginia markets, as well as the Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City metropolitan areas. At Offit Kurman, we are our clients’ most trusted legal advisors, professionals who help maximize and protect business value and personal wealth. In every interaction, we consistently maintain our clients’ confidence by remaining focused on furthering their objectives and achieving their goals in an efficient manner. Trust, knowledge, confidence—in a partner, that’s perfect.

You can connect with Offit Kurman via our Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn pages. You can also sign up to receive Law Matters, Offit Kurman’s monthly newsletter covering a diverse selection of legal and corporate thought leadership content.

MARYLAND | PENNSYLVANIA | VIRGINIA | NEW JERSEY | NEW YORK | DELAWARE | WASHINGTON, DC

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

Connect on LinkedIn