The Weingarts have been selling fresh fruits and vegetables to Northeast Ohio for over a century.
Ashley Weingart joined her family’s fourth generation wholesale produce business in 2015 as Director of Communications & Community Outreach. Her goal, in part, was to get healthy food into the hands of people in need living in the food deserts that surrounded Forest City Weingart Produce (FCWP) and the Cleveland Produce Terminal. In her travels, she quickly took notice of the amount of perfectly fresh produce being wasted at every step of our food’s journey from seed to spoon; much of it due to growers’ and supermarkets' expectation of consumers’ desire for perfection.
In May of 2016 Ashley developed Perfectly Imperfect Produce, boxing up imperfect produce to reduce waste and help people eat healthier, all while donating more food to the hungry. Back then, Ashley and her husband, Andy, would pack up the weekly orders on their own. Soon, local and national media like Cooking Light magazine and Huffington Post started calling,wanting to know more about the country’s first program of its kind to be run by a wholesaler.
Perfectly Imperfect Produce soon outgrew the walls of Forest City Weingart.
In the spring of 2017 Ashley separated the program into its own business entity, From Seed to Spoon, LLC and moved the operation to Produce Packaging, Inc, a fresh cut and produce repacking company in Willoughby Hills, Ohio who graciously took her under their wing and enabled PIP to grow.
Perfectly Imperfect Produce has grown exponentially since its early days.
With the support of thousands of people who agree we should never judge a book by its cover, Perfectly Imperfect has fulfilled Ashley’s original vision to reduce food waste and improve healthy food access for all. Together we have rescued millions of pounds of food and, through our weekly donations to local food pantries, we have fed hundreds of thousands of people in need.
In 2022, Ashley developed a new brand called Real Food Remedy focused on providing food as medicine, produce prescription boxes for home delivery across the United States. We offer customizable solutions for health insurers interested in covering fresh fruits and vegetables for their members in an effort to manage or treat chronic illness with real foods. Boxes are also available for sale to the general public interested in wellness and prevention.
In partnership with registered dietians and physicians from world-renowned hospitals in Cleveland, we have developed a variety of pre-set box options, or customers can now build their own custom box, selecting the produce items they like best!
We are still sourcing “imperfect” fruits and vegetables to continue to serve our mission to reduce food waste while making it as simple as possible for Americans to eat foods that will help them thrive. Ultimately we strive to improve the health of the planet and all people living on it.
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