73: Navigating Perishable Logistics and Food Insecurity with Katsiroubas Brothers and Fresh Connect

Fresh Takes On Tech

This episode brings together experts to discuss their innovative solutions to address food insecurity and improve access to fresh, healthy food for those in need. You’ll learn about Katsiroubas Brothers' use of technology to increase efficiency in produce distribution, and how About Fresh's Fresh Connect program provides prepaid debit cards and mobile apps to help health systems cover the cost of food for patient. Learn about the success of Fresh Truck, a mobile market program that converts school buses into grocery stores. The episode highlights the importance of addressing the affordability barrier that prevents many people from accessing healthy food and the potential benefits of addressing food insecurity alongside pharmacological treatments. Tune in to discover how these initiatives are making a difference in communities across the country.

Key Takeaways

• Learn how Katsiroubas Brothers is using new technologies to improve the customer experience and increase efficiency in produce distribution.
• Discover how About Fresh's Fresh Connect program provides prepaid debit cards and web applications to help health systems cover the cost of food for patients and track shopper-level spend data from all cardholders.
• Find out how Fresh Truck is bringing healthy food options to underserved communities, showcasing the potential benefits of addressing food insecurity alongside pharmacological treatments.
• Understand why these programs are important because they address the affordability barrier that prevents many people from accessing healthy food and rely on partnerships with health plan providers and community-based organizations to enroll people into the program.
• Explore how these programs are scalable and agnostic to retailers, ranging from the biggest box retailers to small independents, and actively seeking potential partners to help grow the program.

Key Quotes

“I would say now it's official that the world recognizes the last mile as the most important and most challenging mile to travel. So every aspect of that last mile has become really what I spend every day trying to hone our craft and understand and be as efficient, as effective as I can possibly be for my customers.” (Ted Katsiroubas)

“We have different business intelligence, some different reporting mechanisms to use, but sometimes it's just classic roll up your sleeves and get on truck, see what it's like to make a delivery, interacting with the customers, to try to make that experience as positive as possible. So it's every day you're figuring it out. (Ted Katsiroubas)

“So our mission at About Fresh is to just make sure that everybody has access to the food that they need to be at their best. We're a nonprofit that's based in Boston, deeply integrated into the healthcare ecosystem and focused on serving households that are experiencing food insecurity and diet related health issues.” (Josh Trautwein)

The way that we grow and reach more people with Fresh Connect is by connecting with more plans and providers. They're the ones that are initiating the enrollment into Fresh Connect community based organizations as well. So as we are pursuing all this exciting growth across more retailers, we’re really excited about the potential of expanding partnerships in line with that growth. (Josh Trautwein)

Guest Resources

Ted Katsiroubas

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-katsiroubas-08a00876/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/katsiroubas-produce/

https://katsiroubasproduce.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Katsiroubas-Bros-Fruits-Produce/115444835145598

https://twitter.com/KatsiroubasBros

https://www.instagram.com/katsiroubasbros/

Josh Trautwein

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshtrautwein/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/fresh-truck/

https://www.aboutfresh.org/

Show Links

International Fresh Produce Association - https://www.freshproduce.com/

Fresh Takes on Tech - https://www.freshproduce.com/resources/technology/takes-on-tech-podcast/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/InternationalFreshProduceAssociation/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/IntFreshProduce/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/international-fresh-produce-association/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/intlfreshproduceassn/