Anna Hammond
We are very ambitious to change things
An innovator disrupting inefficient food systems, Matriark's founder Anna Hammond has created a new model for eliminating waste and tackling food insecurity
Anna Hammond wants us to think about celery – as well as about all its production inputs: the land, fertiliser, fuel for transport and labour that go into producing that celery. “If you go to a grocery store and you see cut celery sticks, imagine all the celery that isn’t there,” she says. “Two thirds of the bunch is on the floor.”
Products from Hammond’s New York-based brand – plant-based sauces, broths, soups and concentrates – are manufactured using fresh, nutritious produce that would otherwise go to waste. Almost every vegetable that is commercially prepared for consumption has a by-product stream that a better-devised food system would utilise fully. “As a manufacturer, you’re throwing out two thirds of what you paid for,” says Hammond. “Changing food systems is about getting everyone to redesign how we produce food.”
We're designing waste out of the system – so that we can nourish people without degrading the environment
“We built a food system that was based on what efficiency meant in the past, which was to make as much food as cheaply as possible, to get it to as many people as possible, as fast as possible,” she says, describing the broad ethos of many US and global producers. “But of course, we now know how the efficiencies of the past have impacted the environment and human health. I like to say that [at Matriark] we're designing waste out of the system – so that we can nourish the 9 or 10 billion people who will be on this planet by 2050, without degrading the environment.”
She says she would never have gone into the food business had she not wanted to change it. Convinced it would be possible to radically improve efficiency, she founded Matriark Foods in 2018. “We are now a leading upcycled food company,” she says. “And we are very ambitious to change things at a large scale.”
Hammond’s background includes public arts programming (she exhibited as an artist herself) and working with families facing food insecurity at the New York City non-profit The Sylvia Center – an experience that shaped her ambition to develop high-quality, sustainable food products for consumers who lack easy access to healthy meals. “I've had different careers,” she says. “And they've all been about coming in where something needs to be fixed, and figuring out who to bring together to collaborate on change. It’s like looking at the sky and redrawing new constellations from the stars that are already there.”
Wrong spec, right produce
Today, this includes collaborating with other businesses and rethinking supply chains to purchase by-products and off-spec produce. Farm surplus can mean food that is harvested but isn’t the right spec for the market, says Hammond. “We work directly with farmers, and with aggregators of farm produce. For example, one of our suppliers is a roaster of a high-end tomato product, who brings in beautiful Roma [plum] tomatoes. By the time he gets them to his facility, he has to throw out hundreds of tonnes a year because they don’t fit the specification of the roasting machines.”
Retail consumers can buy Matriark Foods products, such as traditional, additive-free pasta sauces, at US grocery stores such as Whole Foods. Matriark also sells a line of products for use by the catering industry (restaurants, colleges, hospitals, banks) as well as supplying ingredients to large-scale food production companies.
Lots of big food companies donate their extra products to food banks, but it’s often additive-heavy food
All Matriark products have life cycle analyses conducted by Planet FWD, so that companies working to decarbonise their supply chains can apply data-backed greenhouse gas impacts to their Scope 3 emissions targets.
Another vital market for the brand is selling to organisations that tackle food insecurity, whether governmental or not-for-profits. This is distinct from simply donating stock directly to food banks. “A lot of food is purchased for pantries, disaster relief and programmes that deliver meals to the elderly and housebound, in addition to the millions of pounds of food that are donated because they are past their best-buy date or didn’t sell well in other markets.”
In the years since the Covid-19 pandemic, Feeding America and the USDA have spent billions of dollars in the US on meals for food banks and emergency food providers, says Hammond. “Lots of big food companies donate their extra products to food banks, but it’s often additive-heavy food.” One of Matriark Foods’ key innovations has been to design nutritious products for this market, such as its Vegetable Harvest Stew which, with 18g of protein and 12g of fibre per serving, can make a nutritious meal for people experiencing food insecurity.
Investing in ingredients
Matriark is a certified women-owned business (WBE) – “we bring a different sensibility to the world” – and the brand’s website cites a claim that “despite receiving less than 5 per cent of venture capital, WBEs outperform other structures by 63 per cent”. Hammond herself has a remarkable track record in attracting investment, and has won the support of six different accelerator programmes, including those run by Kroger in the USA, Huhtamaki in Finland and Compass Group in the UK. “Because of those opportunities, we've been able to get distribution and set up things that normally would take 15 years,” says Hammond. “We're hunting dogs: we do not give up until that duck is in our mouth.”
It’s an incredible opportunity to impact food production at a very large scale
Her ambition for the company is to become a global brand: the next step is to collaborate with a global food company that will use Matriark ingredients. “It’s an incredible opportunity to impact food production at a very large scale,” says Hammond. As for the spelling of Matriark, she explains: “It’s ark, as in Noah's Ark. Such a great metaphor during an environmental crisis: putting everyone on the boat so that they can travel together, get to the next place – and create a new world.”
