CASE STUDY: MARKETING
Ripe Revival Market | Rocky Mount
STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE
Rocky Mount’s Will Kornegay created a means to feed people in need, reducing food waste and supporting local farmers in the process. It’s helping many people live better. griculture is North Carolina’s No. 1 industry, contributing more than 16% of the state gross product in 2019, according to a N.C. State University report. N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services says the state’s more than 52,000 farms work 8.5 million acres. They grow a variety of field crops, including the most sweet potatoes in the nation, watermelons, tomatoes, corn, grapes, squash and blueberries. But farming doesn’t guarantee selling. Some North Carolina produce never leaves the field. It’s left there to rot, because it’s deemed too mishappen or blemished to be sold in stores or used by processors. The fact that it’s edible, nutritious and delicious is moot. It’s part of the 108 billion pounds of food that’s wasted in the U.S. annually, according to Feeding America, a nationwide network of foodbanks. The food-waste problem has grown worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also has tightened markets for farmers and cost processors customers, including restaurants that closed to meet restrictions intended to stop the virus’s spread. Some will never reopen. Rocky Mount’s Will Kornegay sees these issues and others at the local level. Kornegay knew that pandemic-induced supply problems would raise the retail cost of food. That along with unemployment forced many low- and middle-income households, which spend a disproportionate share of their income on food, to cut back on groceries. U.S. Department of Agriculture says more than 10% of U.S. households were food insecure at some point during 2020. The pandemic led Kornegay, who earned a business degree
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with a concentration in marketing from N.C. State University in 2009, to put his food knowledge, farming connections and business sense to work in a new way — Ripe Revival Market. “It is committed to making access to healthy foods easy, while also making an impact for those in need,” he says. Kornegay has experience in the food industry. He and his sister Laura Hearn co-created Glean, a company that markets farmers’ unused crops to consumers, in 2017. They formed Ripe Revival to make “functional foods with the nutrient-density of agricultural products” two years later. Its gummies — blueberry, peach, grape and cinnamon swirl — contain vegetables such as sweet potatoes, beets, lemons and pumpkin. “It caught the eye of The Kroger Co. Foundation, and we still sell them on the website,” he says. With support from the N.C. Small Business and Technology Development Center and his other businesses, Kornegay launched Ripe Revival Market. He says it welcomed hundreds of members in its first week. Each receives a weekly delivery of farm-fresh food. “[They] have access to fruits and vegetables but also meats and dairy on a recurring basis, where they trust us to curate a box that is local products and deliver it to their door,” he says. “We have probably 20 local farms for our box supply specifically. People can sign up [at riperevivalmarket.com], get a tracking number and go into their account every week to change the products or skip a week. It’s a convenient way to support local business.” And for each member order, Ripe Revival Market delivers a box to someone in need. For every $24-to-$27 box of “ugly produce,” for example, a similar box is donated to a group such as
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