By Kristen Thompson
This year we were thrilled to onboard Plymouth, MA-based Wellness Croft as a mission-aligned food producer, making tasty and nutritious snacks. Like Food Connects, Wellness Croft works to create new sources of income for farmers in the Northeast and to ensure their products are source-identified. They are a veteran-owned freeze-dried producer that works with sustainable, local, and Fair-Trade growers.
We reached out to the owner, Tim O’Neil, to learn more about how Wellness Croft is lifting up regional producers by creating delicious value-added products.
How was Wellness Croft started? What was its inspiration?
After a successful 20-year career in high-tech innovation—focused on social causes like democratized access to premium healthcare and education—the company we had dedicated our career to helping build sold for $2 billion into private equity. Our journey into building our own corporation then began.
We are plant-based, and this change in lifestyle has brought us immense health benefits. We also love innovation and how it can disrupt markets, so we put a disruption idea together that we call "The Northeast Freeze-Dried Marketplace."
What makes your products unique?
We pay farmers twice, and we are uniquely Northeast source-identified. We have created a net new market that pays farmers twice: firstly for their seconds or overcrops and secondarily as they sell out our co-branded products. We place their name on package fronts as "Grown by" for sales through their farmstand or channels.
Can you tell us more about your approach to making freeze-dried snacks?
We source exclusively from Northeast family farmers, uniquely Northeast source-identified, and are single-ingredient-only products—no preservatives or added sugars, JUST FRUIT!
What is your favorite part of freeze-drying?
The amount of flavor and nutrition one receives from such a crunchy and entertaining texture. Watching others’ first try is so fun.
What is one of your favorite ways to eat your freeze-dried fruit snacks? Any favorite recipes or pairings?
I love to eat them like candy or energy boosters. They’re also great to add to oatmeal or salads. We love our freeze-dried grapes mixed into a vegan tuna salad.
Why is buying and selling locally and the local food movement important to you?
We are native New Englanders, combat veterans, and defenders of our local economy. Buying, sourcing, and producing locally allows us to affect sustainability strategy right here at home in the Northeast.
How does working with Food Connects help your business/what are you excited about in this partnership?
Ours is a cause brand. We are focused on regional agriculture sustainability, and Food Connects is both aligned philosophically but also regionally and economically.
Any events coming up or fun facts about your business/products?
We have, in September, after three years of planning, been able to expand four times our processing capability with a recent pair of loans from Franklin County Community Development Corporation and the Massachusetts Growth Development Fund. These funds have provided us with state-of-the-art and highly scalable freeze-drying and product packaging platforms.
Anything else you would like me to feature?
We provide a service to all local orchards in the Northeast. We call this The Wellness Croft 2022 Orchards Program. This program affords local orchards with Wellness Croft products co-branded with their orchards' name featured as "Grown by" on the package front. Many orchards add these to winter CSA farms baskets or use them to boost winter market sales/margins. From 1000 pounds of apple over crop or seconds, orchards get back $9,588.00 in revenue, a profit of $3,588.00 or 38% profit margin. Contact Tim O'Neil at timo@wellnesscroft.com for details.