To make real change in the food industry requires an unshakeable vision. That is what I took away from my recent conversation with Anna Hammond, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Matriark Foods. She was honored with the Specialty Food Association’s Emerging Leader Award earlier this year, and it isn’t hard to see why.
“It’s incredible to get such early recognition as a changemaker. When you're trying to change things quickly, a public honor like this is a great signal to the rest of the industry that these are critical changes that need to be made and Matriark is on a quick path to making those changes,” Anna told me. “To get emerging leader recognition is extremely important and creates a pathway for bigger conversations that can accelerate change, obviously for our company, but also for others.”
Matriark Foods upcycles surplus fruits and vegetables into healthy products for schools, hospitals, food banks, and other foodservice outlets. The company launched in 2019 and brought its first product to market that fall. Matriark immediately sold into Compass Group and got onboarded with Sysco and US Foods, selling its first pallet into foodservice the first week of March 2020. Then, everything shut down globally because of the pandemic.
“We had to pivot quickly. Matriark did some great early projects with Compass Group for food boxes for frontline workers. We continued to build the business over the next couple of years,” Anna recalled. “We were part of the Foodbuy Accelerator for minority and women-owned businesses—Foodbuy is the GPO for Compass Group. We were bringing new products to market, firming up our supply chain, and starting to do business with other foodservice companies like Aramark, Sodexo, and Guckenheimer.”
Matriark expanded into retail at the end of 2022, brought three upcycled tomato products to market, and got picked up immediately by Whole Foods and then Fresh Direct. Now, the company’s products are distributed throughout the Northeast in those markets.
“And then at the end of 2023, we launched the first carbon-neutral, healthy meal in a box for food banks and emergency food in New York state. Because of the success of thus product, we were invited onto the Feeding America national marketplace,” Anna added.
This quick and effective growth trajectory left me even more curious about Anna’s vision. As she said, one of the most important things as a leader is to always keep the big picture in mind.
“We're a food company, and we're an environmental impact food company; we're a food company, and we're a certified women-owned business. We are big on collaboration, but real collaboration. I like to be very specific—if you want to collaborate, how? What does that look like? How can we get pretty granular as quickly as possible and create a real timeline toward making those changes? We don't have much time to change the food system before things get much worse, so we have to move strategically, and quickly—together,” Anna emphasized.
Looking ahead, she is hopeful that the growing interest in climate-friendly food becomes an anchor point for the industry.
“I see a lot of emerging brands that are driving toward this change, but most of them have limited resources. There's a growing interest from large grocers and food companies, and everyone should be working together to manifest the change we need to see for a healthier planet, and most certainly healthier people,” Anna expressed. “I am looking forward to bigger commitments from big industry players. A climate-friendly aisle or section of the grocery store would be an amazing step in the right direction so consumers can go to a single destination instead of having to hunt through shelves for brands that have a better environmental footprint. Commitments to large percentages of climate-friendly food with data-backed impacts for all foodservice companies would make a massive difference.”
On a final note, Anna teased that Matriark is working on some really interesting pilots with big food companies that are the pathway to that acceleration. Her hope is that more big food companies will embrace these kinds of joint ventures that can get us where we need to be sooner.
With leaders like Anna Hammond at the forefront of these changes, I am confident they will soon come to fruition.
