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Peaceful Fruits: from the jungle to the lunchbox
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: March 23, 2017
When Evan Delahanty tells the story of his company, Peaceful Fruits (http://peacefulfruits.com), he talks about the mundane details of his growing startup. But he also talks about the social benefits of his company in equal measure.
“I try to straddle idealistic and realistic points of view authentically and honestly. Mark Cuban said that social enterprise is the future of business,” said Delahanty, whose company was recently featured on Cuban’s television show Shark Tank.
“We are a company dedicated to social good, that also makes good food.”
Peaceful Fruit’s primary product is a fruit leather snack made from wild, South American acai berries.
The company’s products are made in the kitchens of Hattie Larlham and packed at The Blick Center, two nonprofits which work with people with disabilities, “as part of a full wage employment program for people with disabilities in our community,” he said.
The Blick Center’s executive director, Karin Lopper-Orr, couldn’t be happier to be involved with Peaceful Fruits. “Evan is dedicated to working with people in the rainforest, and in preserving it,” she said. “He has a big heart, and focusing on disabled people is just a normal expansion for him.”
The Blick Center is also gearing up for the company’s rapid expansion after their Shark Tank exposure. “We are working round the clock, at this point,” she said.
Since that television exposure, Delahanty said that business has more than doubled, as more than 75,000 orders came in after the show was aired. So, even though Peaceful Fruits did not receive any money from the “sharks,” the attendant publicity still made for a major business explosion. The company is now planning to purchase new equipment and hire ten more people.
Acai, the primary ingredient in Peaceful Fruit’s products, is the fruit of a palm tree that grows in the Amazon basin. It is considered to be one of the most powerful antioxidants on earth, said Delahanty.
“I am not making any claims about it,” he said. “But in the jungle, it is a source of healthy fat. People pour acai juice over rice, mix it with coconut, and pour it on cassava bread. It allows them to sustain themselves in a day in the jungle.”
There is no jungle in Summit County, but Delahanty connects the two in his product. “What makes it a good snack product is that it is a small snack that contains a lot of healthy fat. It is more sustaining and lower in sugar than (regular commercial) fruit snacks.”
Delahanty comes to his understanding of jungle life from the inside. A graduate of Walsh Jesuit High School with a business degree from Cornell University, the Peninsula native spent two years in that jungle with the Peace Corps.
“After I graduated, I had one year in on my MBA,” he said. “I went to work for a manufacturer in Streetsboro. I applied for an MBA program and the Peace Corps at the same time, because I looked at both of them as opportunity for career development.”
When the Peace Corps acceptance came, in 2011, he did not hesitate, and wound up in the jungles of the Amazon with the Saramaccan tribe, one of the dozen or so “untouched” tribes of South America, living in Suriname and French Guiana. The tribe itself are descendants of escaped African slaves.
Returning to the Akron area after his time with the Peace Corps was over, Delahanty was ready to start a business. “Peaceful Fruits is based on the ideas of economic empowerment that I learned in the Peace Corps, and also on the idea that food brings people together,” he said.
“The acai berry is a great source of economic empowerment when harvested the right way which is what we do,” said Delahanty. “It is both a renewable resource and source of income, and it keeps the forest intact. The tribes know that it is better for them to sell berries by the bushel and keep their land than it is to sell the land off.”
Peaceful Fruits’ fruit leathers are currently available in several local stores, including Acme, Mustard Seed, Krieger’s and the store at Hattie Larlham in Akron, as well as several Cleveland specialty food shops.
The Mustard Seed’s Abraham Nabors said he is particularly impressed by both the product and by Delahanty himself.
“Sales of the product were good,” said Nabors, when Shark Tank hit. “Then there was a sudden spike. But we happen to be in the health food market, so our customers were already attracted to a morally-based company and with advanced health ingredients.”
Delahanty, Nabors said, “is just an incredible person––empathetic, with infectious charisma. People like him are why we do what we do.”
With success comes expansion. Delahanty said thatPpeaceful Fruits is getting ready to launch six new flavors—mango, acai crunch, peach, strawberry, blueberry and pineapple.
“Healthy snacks taste good, connect with the community and cost about the same as other fruit leathers,” said Delahanty. “It makes it easy to do the right thing.”