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Date: 11/24/2021
LONGMEADOW- When Founder/CEO Jeff Greim started Jeff’s Granola in 2012, he thought he would pattern something off actor/philanthropist Paul Newman’s business model for Newman’s Own and see what would happen. He had no idea that his company would blossom into a social enterprise for the community.
Jeff’s Granola is a philanthropic business that donates 100 percent of profits to charity. Greim’s products are sold to public school districts for use in federally funded breakfast and lunch food programs for students. Flavors range from the original granola with oats, honey and mango, organic gluten-free original, crunchy seeds and oats and super premium pecans and cacao granola.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Jeff’s Granola sales increased by over 55 percent in 2020, generating much-needed charitable donations. Sales increased from $118,00 in 2019 to $183,00 in 2020 and now they’re close to $300,000 in 2021.
“We feel grateful,” Greim responded. “As a team, we really benefited from people gravitating to us and appreciating that we donate all of our profits to charity. The people who partner with us know that we provide great quality granola at a fair price, and we donate all the profits back to charities that they care about. I think that’s the trifecta of benefits we provide our customers. They open doors for us and they really help us through good times and bad.”
In addition, the company donated 11,800 individually packaged bags of granola to Mercy Medical Center, Food Bank of Western Mass and other local nonprofits to support immediate food assistance when the pandemic first took hold.
Greim said, “We didn’t have a back-up plan. We were scared when the schools initially closed that we would have a big dip in our sales. I was concerned about our ability to be financially sustainable.” He continued, “Fortunately, we were able to get PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans from the federal government which covered two months of salary. Then the school system received additional money and began providing meals at the schools for families to take home. Part of those meals included granola, which made sales pick up after an initial dip.” The expansion of their Big Y sales moving into new stores also helped the company during the pandemic.
This year, Jeff’s Granola landed a major account with the Boston Public School system, supplying them with granola which they’ve been using in their breakfast, lunch and snack programs. The company’s accounts have been with Springfield Public Schools, Providence Public Schools and Holyoke Public Schools. In those school districts, Jeff’s Granola supplied healthy food to student cafeterias and community food assistance programs and donated back all profits from those sales to the not-for-profit Sodexo Weekend Backpack Food Programs operating in each district to eliminate student hunger at home by providing free non-perishable weekend meals for students in need.
There will be a teaching case study written about the company by Philip Hart and Anthony Furnelli, associate professors of marketing from Westfield State University. Students from the professors’ marketing club met Greim at a meeting of Venture Valley Mentors in Springfield years ago. Their club decided to do research projects to support local businesses and chose Jeff’s Granola. They did a focus group and a national survey to help hone in on branding answers Greim was looking for. This led to Hart meeting Greim in person, and realizing that he had a noble purpose in his business, to try and demonstrate how a non-profit could succeed. Recently, Hart’s work with Furnelli has turned to writing case studies and the idea came up that a case study would help further Greim’s goal.
“The goal of the case study is to show that while non-profit companies lack some of the resources that for-profit companies have, primarily capital investment, there is a tremendous tide of goodwill that helps drive success,” said Hart. “In the case, we recount pivotal moments in his business and how goodwill from the community helped him along. There aren’t many examples of non-profit companies in most industries. By telling Jeff’s story, business students all over will have a memorable example of another way to do business, one that benefits the community rather than shareholders.”
Hart and Furnelli have the article fully drafted and have created two figures for it. Their next steps are to have Greim edit and ensure the accuracy of the case and then they will teach it in class while also submitting it for presentation. At that point, Hart and Furnelli would seek publication hopefully around May of 2022.
Greim’s ultimate goal is to hit the $1 million mark and get more school accounts in particular. If they hit the $1 million mark, the company is going to be giving away $100,000 a year. Just like Paul. Newman influenced him, Greim wants to inspire the next generation of younger entrepreneurs to adopt the same philanthropic model, demonstrating that they don’t have to be a celebrity to successfully implement it.
“We’re very grateful for what we’ve been able to do and what our partners have been able to do with us and for us, but we’re eager to do more so we can donate larger amounts of profits to charity,” Greim concluded. “If I want to be an example to younger entrepreneurs then let’s really make this something they can aspire to. A $300,000 company is great, but a five-to-ten-million-dollar company is something totally different and that’s where I hope the company will be at in five to 10 years.”
Learn more at www.jeffsgranola.com and follow them @jeffsgranola on Instagram and Facebook. Email at info@jeffsgranola.com or call 531-2748.
Jeff’s Granola is available at the following retail locations:
BIG Y, 802 Williams St, Longmeadow
BIG Y, 441 N Main St, East Longmeadow
BIG Y, 136 North King Street Route 5, Northampton
BIG Y, 237 Mohawk Trail, Route 2, Greenfield,
BIG Y, 175 University Drive, Amherst
BIG Y, 433 Center Street, Ludlow
Big Y, 503 Memorial Avenue, West Springfield
Big Y, 1 E Silver St, Westfield
Big Y, 195 College Hwy, Southwick
Big Y, 1313 Hopmeadow St, Simsbury, CT
Big Y, 33 Fieldstone Commons, Tolland, CT
Fresh Acres Market, 1941 Wilbraham Rd, Springfield
River Valley Co-Op, 330 N King St, Northampton
State Street Fruit Store, 51 State Street, Northampton
Cooper’s Corner, 31 Main Street, Florence
Joey’s Deli and Market, 1226 Springfield Street, Agawam
New England County Mart, home delivery food service serving the Boston Area on-line at www.newenglandcountrymart.com