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On this episode of Ditch The Box we welcome the CEO of Peaceful Fruits, Evan Delahanty. Peaceful Fruits is a growing social good snack startup dedicated to making premium dried fruit snacks that are good for you and good for the world.
Evan has a rich background in working for social change. Prior to launching Peaceful Fruits, he worked as a project manager and community economic development specialist for the U.S. Peace Corps in the Amazon interior of Suriname, South America. Peaceful Fruits was inspired by Evan’s unwillingness to give up on this community/economic development side of life that he had grown so accustomed to.
Peaceful Fruits works with people in South America to harvest wild acai. It’s a way for the local people to monetize the Amazon Rainforest in a totally sustainable, renewable way. Evan has created a product and company that ultimately provides customers with something we crave so deeply today…. peace of mind. The fruit is made from real fruit, it’s sourced in a way that is GOOD for our world, and the production is part of a full wage job program for people with disabilities in Northeast Ohio.
Promoting sustainability is not only Evan’s life work, but his passion. Most of his business endeavors center around his central idea: “All the best intentions in the world don’t matter if you’re not sustainable.” Evan does make a point to say that sustainability, however, might also mean paying bills. Peaceful Fruits embraces this idea and is a 100% full profit company. Evan’s ideology revolves around the vision that sustainability can be created by presenting the opportunity for communities in developing countries to earn a living through FAIR wages and sustainable, rewarding work. This social enterprise idea provides these people with something more than just monetary help. It provides them with emotional satisfaction of feeling like they are a contributing member of society and do honest, good work to earn a living and provide for their families.
Peaceful Fruits is currently coming out of pilot and working to scale towards regional and national distribution.