Raised Real was founded by three food industry veterans, including Santiago Merea, former CEO of Orange Chef; Michelle Davenport, Ph.D., a registered dietitian; and Steve Knotz, CFO of Orange Chef. Each recipe is developed by Davenport to incorporate fruits, vegetables and micronutrients with a balance of healthy fats, protein and superfood ingredients, the company said. All ingredients are plant-based and sourced from organically-certified farms.
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| Michelle Davenport, Ph.D., co-founder of Raised Real |
“We want to see a generation of kids raised on real food,” Davenport said. “Partnering with Schwan’s will help reach that goal much faster. Schwan’s shares our vision of producing unprocessed, farm-fresh food and making it easily available to all children … plus, fundamentally change how busy parents feed their kids. Schwan’s trusted expertise and supply chain will be very instrumental as we scale our company.”
Raised Real currently delivers to five states on the West coast — California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Nevada — and has an eye for national expansion. Schwan’s investment will support Raised Real’s company growth and its geographic expansion to national distribution by the end of 2017, the company said.
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| Dimitrios Smyrnios, CEO of Schwan's Co. |
“Raised Real has taken a unique approach to the baby food category,” said Dimitrios Smyrnios, CEO of Schwan’s Co. “We believe in their vision of delivering the best in homemade baby food, as we were the pioneers of direct-to-consumer food delivery when Schwan’s got its start in 1952. We know how important talking directly to the consumer is and Raised Real is leading the conversational e-commerce movement, connecting with parents through their Baby Food Hotline and social media avenues.”
