Client Spotlight
ZEGO Foods Awarded $3 Million USDA Grant for Organic Market Development
This week, we are celebrating a huge win for one of our clients and for anyone invested in safe, nutritious, organic foods that are better for people and the planet.
If you don’t yet know our client, ZEGO Foods, they are a woman-owned B Corp-certified breakfast food brand focusing on supply-chain transparency and creating safe, delicious foods that fit most special diets. They sell specialty oatmeal blends and muesli in over 1500 retail locations nationwide.
ZEGO Founder and nutrition advocate, Colleen Kavanagh
ZEGO is an industry leader in food transparency and safety, going beyond current standards to follow organic purity protocol growing methods and testing using Montana Gluten Free’s hulless, high-protein, organic oats. They produce their products in a facility free from the top allergens, test for 500 + pesticides, and make all of those test results easily accessible for their consumers by way of a QR code on the back of every package. ZEGO is also a fierce advocate for consumers’ rights to know what is in their food, for stricter safety standards, and for demanding greater food transparency from all companies.
In 2023, ZEGO applied for a USDA Organic Marketing Development Grant. This grant program is part of the USDA Organic Transition Initiative, launched in Fall 2022. This initiative provides programs and resources to help existing organic farmers and those wishing to transition to organic farming practices.
ZEGO’s proposal aims to increase the processing and demand for organic, certified gluten-free, high-protein oats and millet, a rotational crop with increasing market demand, in Montana and the surrounding region by establishing a Collaborative Integrated Value Chain (CIVC). CIVC will align U.S. farmers, a processing facility, values-aligned brands, and consumers to support better pricing for producers and their customers.
Greta + Joni of Snacktivist and Roy of ZEGO
For this project, ZEGO is teaming up with Joni Kindwall-Moore, the founder of Snacktivist Foods, a regenerative agriculture packaged food company, and Food Viiision, a tech platform enabling three-dimensional food transparency and traceability.
On March 14, at the Natural Foods Expo in Anaheim, California, USDA Deputy Secretary Xochitl Torres Small and Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs Jenny Lester Moffitt announced the grant recipients. ZEGO, among other deserving applicants, was awarded a $3 million grant for its proposed project. Congratulations, ZEGO!
This grant will provide ZEGO with the resources to work with farmers to encourage them to grow specialty oats and millet, while also benefitting the environment by reducing transportation miles and promoting sustainable farming practices. The project will involve upgrading equipment, enhancing food safety certifications, establishing procurement contracts with regional farmers, and developing 3-5 new organic specialty grain products in collaboration with Snacktivist Food. ZEGO and Snacktivist will target markets such as food service accounts and big box stores, expanding their reach and increasing affordability, and accessibility.
Applying for a grant is a lengthy, time-consuming process, often requiring jumping through hoops at a moment’s notice. ZEGO’s CEO and Founder, Colleen Kavanagh, and the rest of the team at ZEGO worked so hard and spent countless hours preparing for this project proposal. We here at HigherRing were so happy to support ZEGO’s daily operations needs, including managing wholesale/distributor purchase orders and online marketplace orders, invoicing, customer and inventory support and social media management, allowing Colleen and the rest of the team to focus on this grant.
Congratulations, Colleen and team ZEGO! We are grateful for the opportunity to support you on this amazing mission to empower consumers and change our food system for the better. We look forward to the future of CIVC and seeing your incredible dream come to fruition.
Cheers!