Produce seller Ripe Revival pivots during COVID-19 pandemic to help farmers and the hungry
ROCKY MOUNT, NC (WTVD) — Among the businesses making a Carolina Comeback during the pandemic is a Rocky Mount company dedicated to making sure that produce farmers don’t have to waste any of their crops.
During the pandemic the company, Ripe Revival, has pivoted to home delivery of that produce and other North Carolina farm products while also helping feed the hungry.
Most fruits and vegetables in our grocery store’s produce section are unblemished and perfectly shaped.
Fruits and vegetables that aren’t perfect often go uneaten and are wasted.
“The ugly truth is that up to 40% of farmers crops are lost, or left in the field each year because they don’t have a home for it or because of odd shape, size, or other cosmetic defects,” said Ripe Revival’s Will Kornegay who founded the company with his sister.
Originally Kornegay used those fruit and vegetable rejects to make protein gummies.
But he and his sister still saw produce going to waste while people were hungry.
“One out of every eight families in the US faces food insecurity and may or may not know where their next meal may come from,” Kornegay said. “And that statistic has significantly been compounded by the impacts of COVID-19.”
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