Entrepreneur Builds Vegetable Stand Into Abundant Business

Ten years ago, Evan Lutz’s entrepreneurship class assignment to start a sustainable business resulted in a single folding table in front of the University of Maryland student union and selling a couple of ugly cucumbers.

On November 1, back on the College Park campus, the former Terp received the Outstanding Young Alumnus Award for building that vegetable stand into Hungry Harvest, a company that recovers and sells imperfect fresh fruits, vegetables and pantry items from Maryland farmers and suppliers and distributes them to customers throughout the Mid-Atlantic region.

Lutz, a Severna Park resident, said the class project idea came from talking to a farmer about straight cucumbers and symmetrical peppers at the College Park Farmers Market.

“I became fascinated with reducing food waste for a singular farm,” said Lutz, noting that only “perfect” food is accepted by grocery stores and farmers markets, and the rest would go to waste. “The farmer agreed to sell his imperfect produce to me for 30 cents on the dollar. I then sold that food at less than retail prices to students and faculty. The food was delicious because it was only a day or two away from the farm, so it didn’t matter what it looked like!”

Lutz’s stand started with 10 to 20 customers, but by the end of the semester, he had grown his business to 500 customers a week, requiring two paid employees and 10 volunteers.

“There is so much waste behind the farm curtain that consumers never see or even think about,” said Lutz, adding that approximately 40% of all grown food in the United States goes to waste. “Consumers just see perfect food in the grocery store, but anyone who’s ever gone apple picking knows that apples grow in all shapes, sizes and colors and do not come off the tree shiny. We only see the ‘perfect’ stuff and assume it all looks like that. One of our goals is to re-educate consumers about what food really looks like.”

In 2016, Lutz took his growing business to “Shark Tank,” a television show for budding entrepreneurs who get the chance to pitch their business plan or product to five business “sharks” in the hopes of receiving investment capital and using the show as a platform to advertise to 8 million potential customers.

Venture capitalist and “shark” Robert Herjavec offered Lutz a deal, significantly increasing Hungry Harvest’s business valuation; and it went from 500 customers to 3,000 active customers virtually overnight.

Today, Hungry Harvest employs 70 people, serves six states from a 60,000-square-foot building in Landover, Maryland, and delivers tens of thousands of boxes of food directly to consumers’ homes up and down the East Coast.

In addition to reducing waste, upcycling imperfect food has many benefits. First, food tastes better because the time it takes to get a product from farm to table is much faster. Lutz estimates up to 10 touch points and several days or even weeks pass before a perishable product gets to the grocery store, but through companies like Hungry Harvest, consumers are buying almost directly from the farmer.

Secondly, farmers are being compensated for their products, which would have been a total loss or write-off. From farm to consumer, farmers are making money and consumers are getting great, fresh food by paying less than retail prices.

But the biggest winner is the environment.

“If food waste was a country, it would be the world’s third largest producer of greenhouse gases behind the U.S. and China,” Lutz said. “It’s absolutely horrible that perfectly good food is wasted and goes into a landfill, or even composted, when it should have been eaten. Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and food insecurity are completely preventable issues.”

During the growing season, 70% of the food sourced comes from a 200-mile radius around Hungry Harvest’s base in Landover. During the offseason, food is sourced from warmer climates like the southeast and California. The company also procures goods like granola, yogurt, honey and milk from Maryland producers when these items are less than perfect, have a misprinted label, have been discontinued or have expiration dates shorter than those accepted by grocery stores. All perfectly good food that would have otherwise been discarded.

HarvestRx, a newer business of Hungry Harvest, is focusing on partnering with hospitals and medical professionals to deliver fresh food to patients.

“One of the most cost-effective ways to treat chronic disease is a healthy diet, but not everyone has access to fresh food,” Lutz said. “We are helping the health care system look at food as medicine. Fresh food can be less expensive than drugs or other treatments that hospitals can provide.”

As a young entrepreneur, Lutz initially wanted Hungry Harvest to have a global impact, but he is now focused on making a deeper impact in a smaller area. He said that several similar companies across the country, and even the world, are popping up and he couldn’t be happier.

“I don’t see other companies as competitors in the traditional sense. We all want to reduce waste, reduce food insecurity, and help the environment,” he said. “Other companies are not taking away business. They are helping to educate consumers with the same mission.”

A Chartridge resident and 19th Terp graduate in his family, Lutz joins an illustrious list of University of Maryland Young Entrepreneur Award winners including Kevin Plank, founder of Under Armour (2004); Sergey Brin, founder of Google (2003); and E.J. Henderson, NFL linebacker, National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame member, and founder of the E.J. Henderson Youth Foundation in Minnesota (2006), just to name a few.

To learn more about Hungry Harvest, visit www.hungryharvest.net.

To learn more about University of Maryland alumni awards or to nominate a Terp, visit www.alumni.umd.edu and search for “Alumni Awards.”