[T]he Flexible Capital Fund in Montpelier has invested $150,000 in MamaSezz, a Brattleboro-based company that prepares organic, vegan, gluten-free meals to be shipped cold around the country.
The investment is structured as a minority purchase of common stock – a first for the Flex Fund, said Janice St. Onge, the fund’s president. That means Flex Fund doesn’t have a controlling position in the company.
“The investment was structured as common very consciously by the founders to ensure all stakeholders were on the same footing versus the typical power structure of investor having preferential rights over an entrepreneur,” said St. Onge.
MamaSezz was founded in 2017 by Lisa Lorimer and Meg Donahue after the two helped Donahue’s mother as she struggled with congestive heart failure. The two researched the role of diet for several years and came up with a meal plan that they feel will help consumers prevent and reverse illnesses like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
“It’s a different way of living and it’s harder,” said Donahue of preparing plant-based meals. “You are chopping and sourcing. We couldn’t find any companies that are doing it. We found companies that would send you recipes and groceries, and we wanted food that was already made. We said, ‘Let’s start a company.’”
Accordingly, MamaSezz mails out cold boxes with fully prepared meals that are ready to be heated and served, not meal kits. It’s an important distinction. The research company Packaged Facts estimates that the meal kit market in the U.S. had sales of $3 billion by the end of last year. But growth in that market is expected to decline as customers find other ways to get fresh ingredients delivered.
St. Onge said she has known Lorimer for years and that MamaSezz is aligned with the mission of the fund because it supports healthy food, paying a living wage, and using recycled packaging.
Lorimer started Vermont Bread Company in Brattleboro in 1978 and sold it in 2005 to a private equity firm in New York City. At the time, Vermont Bread was the largest organic bread company in the Northeast. Vermont-based Koffee Kup Bakery purchased the Vermont Bread Company in 2013 and continues to run it in Brattleboro.
“Lisa is a seasoned and successful entrepreneur who has championed livable wage jobs and socially responsible business practices,” said St. Onge. “This in combination with her partner Meg Donahue’s strengths on the plant-based nutrition side of the business, made this opportunity compelling.”
Founded in 2011, Flexible Capital is a for-profit impact fund with a dedicated board of managers. Its capital comes from 38 investors in Vermont and elsewhere who support the fund’s work in renewable energy, healthy food systems and communities. The fund is managed by the nonprofit Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund in Montpelier.
Lorimer and Donahue started MamaSezz with money from Lorimer, family and friends. The company has its offices in Brattleboro and a production facility 20 miles east in Keene, N.H. It has 15 employees. It ships its meals by two-day FedEx with a prepaid return label so the customer can return the container, inserts, ice packs, and packaging to be reused or recycled, Lorimer said.
Its largest customer bases are New York City and Florida. Customers tend to be between the ages of 40 and 65, Lorimer said.
“The story of Meg’s mother Millie really resonates with people who are seeing the challenge of health, or their parents are facing the challenge of health,” said Lorimer. “And in New York City, people are used to getting food over the internet and delivered.”
The average per serving price is between $5.50 and $6, Lorimer said; they sell three servings for $16.99.
“Our goal is to make it really reasonable and accessible for people to eat this way,” she said.
Recycling is a priority for the pair. Lorimer said that she and Donahue have bought meals from popular meal kit providers and “you end up with a garage full of trash.”
“One of the things we have said is, ‘We are not going to do that. If we can’t solve that problem we’re not going to do it.’” Right now, MamaSezz ships its meals in corrugated cardboard, but it’s working on creating coolers from pelletized waste plastic.
“That’s one of the projects for next year,” said Lorimer. “We can just re-pelletize it and use it again.”
“People are suffering, and in many cases dying, and there’s a way to prevent a lot of misery through a simple solution,” said Donahue.
