CBD Drinks Company Working With Local Farms to Provide Farm-Fresh Deliveries

The Lincoln Park-based Kaló recently launched a line of CBD seltzers. But when COVID-19 hit the Garden State, the founders rapidly evolved their business model to feed a new demand.

Harvest to Home
Box of fresh produce. Photo courtesy PXFuel.

Imagine starting an on-trend CBD seltzer company and going into 200-plus stores only to have demand come to a screeching halt with the onslaught of COVID-19? That’s pretty much what happened to Kaló. The Lincoln Park-based company was just started when coronavirus brought nationwide commerce-as-usual to a halt.

“We were crushed with this thing,” says Kaló’s chief marketing officer Jeff Frommer. “We’ve been around for four months. We’re very young.” Rather than give up, or go into some kind of commercial hibernation, the people behind Kaló looked at what they did have access to—packaging infrastructure, seven trucks, rock solid connections in Jersey-area agriculture through co-founder Ken Vande Vrede as his farm-rooted family—and decided to evolve into a new business.

That’s how “Harvest to Home” was born, less than two weeks ago, with a simple (and, they believe, enduring) business model: online access to farm-fresh produce and next-day, no-contact delivery. (Harvest Drop, the New Jersey-based produce supplier that usually caters to restaurants, launched Harvest Drop Home Delivery on March 21.)

The company is still young, but demand is massive, and while their delivery range is currently limited to North Jersey, they’re looking to expand (you can add your county here). Meanwhile, we caught up with Frommer to ask how Harvest to Home works, what growth has been like, and whether we can expect meat or cheese on the website anytime soon. (FYI, dairy farmers, they’d love a curds connection.)

Table Hopping: For people who don’t know about it—since it is so young—can you describe Kaló?
Jeff Frommer: It’s a really amazing drink—five ingredients, 15 calories. If you’re trying to replace coffee, it’s a healthy, refreshing drink to go with salad. Or it’s great on its own. It’s also an incredible mixer because it’s water-soluble, which means the effect of the CBD and the full-spectrum hemp will make you feel good, really fast.

Kaló CBD seltzers. Photo courtesy of Kaló

TH: But how did the brand go from CBD seltzer to farm-fresh produce delivery service?
JF: This whole thing with Kaló was birthed out of a farm here in New Jersey, in partnership with the Vande Vrede family—one of the largest agriculture families in the country. They have 30 million square feet of indoor growth space. When the pause for Kaló happened, Ken [Vande Vrede of Gro-Rite Greenhouse and Garden Center] looked around and realized there were a ton of restaurants being shut down—all the bulk produce was going to waste. So we launched Harvest to Home.

TH: How does it work? When do you have to place an order by?
JF: Right now, we’re doing fresh produce and eggs for the next day, with no contact delivery, direct to North Jersey customers. If you order in the morning, there’s a good chance, depending on how busy we are, you might get it the same day. If you order before 6pm, we’ll deliver it to you the next day. So it’s next-day, no-contact delivery. We take a picture of the box in front of your house so you’ll know to walk outside and get it.

TH: Any eggs broken yet?
JF: No, not yet. Look, we’re doing our best. People have said “Hey, I got this box and some of the raspberries were moldy.” We issue immediate refunds and get you new raspberries.

TH: That’s actually pretty meticulous. Especially for week one. How many orders have you processed so far?
JF: We delivered over 1,200 fresh produce boxes already. And based on what I’m looking at right now, we’re probably going to do 300-plus today and 500 more tomorrow.

TH: The logistics must have been difficult.
JF: We’re a week in. This is a logistical nightmare. But the Vande Vrede family have experience. They can deliver, pack, [and] ship. Out of the first 1,200 orders, we maybe got one wrong box. We’re trying to figure it out. We have seven trucks on the road, already with Ken’s farm, Gro-Rite—they serve fresh basil and fresh greens to many Whole Foods and ShopRites in the New Jersey area. So we had the farm facility for packing. And trucks on the road. So we partnered with Riviera Produce, a great partner of ours on the produce side. And one of Ken’s uncles has Rock Ridge Farms, with 12,000 chickens growing eggs for us.

TH: Do you have enough supply to meet demand? This started with excess produce as restaurants shut down, but do you have to scale up in terms of farm sources?
JF: We’re looking for more farms. We’re ordering so much produce. Also, we want to support local. Though we’re also getting some [produce] from farms in Pennsylvania. We’re looking to bring in more local suppliers.

TH: It sounds like growth itself is a problem—but a good problem.
JF: We’re trying to scale as fast as we can. People at senior care facilities reached out to us. They’re basically on lockdown. We’re trying to do what we can. We’re trying to figure out how to do 1,000 orders a day. There are so many people, especially in neighborhoods like Jersey City and Hoboken and Newark—they’re just packed, with lines around the block for a Trader Joe’s. Everything is out of stock. So we’re doing what we can to build this thing. And what’s great is that even though Kaló was put on pause, every [produce] box has two free cans of Kaló. CBD and hemp can take away stress. Kaló means “good” in Greek. We’re hoping that, in stressful times, a little bot of a great-tasting hemp-infused seltzer can take some anxiety away.

TH: Empty shelves are a major issue at grocery stores. Have you guys had that problem yet with produce? Has anything sold out?
JF: Everyone loves bananas! That’s a top-seller. We haven’t sold out of anything yet, but we’re getting a lot of requests for dairy, cheese and meat. I’d actually love to put out a calling for any local business that’s been affected by COVID-19, if you’re producing fresh product, let us know. We need more eggs. We need cheese. Milk. Ultimately, I’d love to find a local meat supplier. We’d like to alleviate that [grocery store] trip entirely.

TH: It almost sounds like Kaló is taking a permanent pivot. Will Harvest to Home stick around after the initial wave of restrictions and panic are over?
JF: We’re hiring! We’re looking for packers, drivers, hands. We got into this to solve a problem, but I don’t know how long we’re going to be in this. If we’re able to bring you a fresh produce box delivered in the morning, are you really going to want to go to the grocery store in the future, if you can? We think people aren’t. We think this is a long-term solution. We want to be around when this thing goes away. So we’re building a community. And we appreciate the support. We appreciate that people are emailing us back and saying thank you. It feels really good to know we’re making a difference.

TH: Spring is here, so that means lots of produce. Anything fresh recently in?
JF: The great thing is Ken’s family owns Naturally Beautiful Plant Products, which provides most of the supermarkets on the East Coast with flowers for Easter. They have millions of dollars of flowers they’ve grown and none of the stores are buying them. We’re gonna put those flowers on the site. We hope people want to dress up their homes. Cheer things up!

Residents of Bergen, Essex, Warren, Hudson, Morris, and Passaic Counties can order from Harvest to Home for next-day produce delivery. To put your county on the Waitlist as Harvest to Home grows, enter your information here. You can sign up for home deliveries here.

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