#157 Original Idea from the Ground Up - Julie Sullivan and Carolyn Cesario, Ground Up Nut Butters

Meaningful Marketplace Podcast

Following the growth of our past guests and seeing their success has been a truly inspirational experience, and checking in with Julie Sullivan and Carolyn Cesario, co-founders of Ground Up, is another uplifting show. Our last interview was show number 19 which was released January 22nd, 2020 and for your background, Ground Up is a company that delivers peanut-free nut butters in amazing flavors. The company began in 2016 when Julie returned from Uganda where she had been overseeing an employment training program for women overcoming poverty. Back in her hometown of Portland, Oregon, she soon recognized the need for a similar program at home. However, she needed a product and a company as a base for the training programs. Coincidently, Carolyn had been perfecting sugar-free, peanut-free nut butter recipes due to dietary constraints and when the two met, it was destiny. They took a unique angle at their business model, calling themselves a “not-only-for-profit” business. They partner with local nonprofits (currently 30-40) to employ womxn overcoming adversity who have the motivation but need the opportunity to get back into the workforce. The company does NOT do background checks on the applicants as they believe in second chances and anyone coming forward with a good attitude receives that chance. By working in Ground Up, womxn get job training in a 6-9 month program and are part of a team selling healthy and delicious nut butters to the public. Great place to start, but what has happened in the last three-plus years? Julie and Carolyn have expanded the product line and part of the expansion is to produce seasonal flavors, often highlighting their vendor partners. At the time of this show, Funfetti is the highlighted product. They partnered with Mia Swinehart of Gathered Nutrition, a treasure trove of nutritious and delicious recipes. Mia loves funfetti cake and also has an obsession to add almond extract to baked treats. She has always had a “dream” nut butter and now has gotten to live that dream with Ground Up. This almond and cashew butter tastes just like cake batter (but of course, healthier). It's made from a blend of almonds and cashews, then blended with cacao butter and almond extract, and finally, finished with swirls of honey, cacao nibs, and plant-based sprinkles from some of Ground Up’s other vendor friends. And definitely follow the company for their upcoming fall release, which they are coyly keeping under wraps as of this show. The company has always done 100% of its manufacturing. That in-house passion means superb quality control, but also comes with challenges. Especially for the Ground Up concept, where Julie and Carolyn are marrying a job training program with manufacturing a consumer food product and there is a myriad of regulations and health requirements. Specifically, they have faced big problems with their squeeze pack machine. The squeeze packs were originally created so people could sample the product without having to open a whole jar. So they were perfect for events such as trade shows and other marketing opportunities and people have loved them. However, the blankety-blank machine that makes them is most temperamental and it’s taken roughly two years of trouble-shooting to get the hiccups down to a reasonable frequency. A huge change since the last show has been the explosion of distribution. You can now find Ground Up Nut Butters in grocery stores in the pacific northwest. And a recent deal with Target means you can find the Nut Butters in many locations on the west coast. As in the beginning, you can buy online at: https://grounduppdx.com/. Follow them at: Twitter - @grounduppdx, Instagram - @grounduppdx and Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/grounduppdx/. Our hosts: Twitter - @sarahmasoni and @spicymarshall, Instagram - @masoniandmarshall.