Family-Owned Plant-based Meat Brand Supplies Alternatives During Meat Shortage

Photo courtesy of No Evil Foods

The United States is currently facing a meat shortage that has many Americans looking to alternatives. Many meat industry executives would argue that this is an absolute nightmare, while vegan companies view this meat-shortage as an opportunity. With the plant-based meat industry at an all-time high, growing over 200% since March, it’s a great time to be a vegan meat supplier.

Right now, everyone is talking about large brands like Impossible or Beyond Meat – not the small family-owned plant-based meat brands that have been feeding the vegan community for years.

From their start in 2014, the Plant Butchers at No Evil Foods have made it their mission to produce Plant Meat that mimics the look, taste, and texture of conventional meat. For meat eaters concerned about the meat shortage, companies like this one are game-changers.

Sadrah Schadel, co-founder of No Evil Foods, shares her insights on being a vegan meat manufacturing business during this time and how it’s impacting the world.

The First Pivots from the beginning of COVID-19

“After the Natural Products Expo West event was canceled in Anaheim, our team pivoted so fast and so fiercely to reflect our mission to serve food and create accessibility. We had so much food to give and in good conscious couldn’t throw out. So we all hit the ground running with hundreds of pounds of food, and got connected to the Animal Alliance Network to attend one of their weekly Pig Vigils, that sees anywhere from 20 to 200 activists.

We visited truckloads of pigs entering the Smithfield Plant to show them a moment of compassion: giving them water, a little bit of care, and peace that might have been the only care and peace they received in their lifetime before they go to be slaughtered. That was actually the first time that Mike [her husband and Co-Founder/CEO of No Evil Foods] or I had done that and it only reaffirmed and recommitted ourselves to our mission and why we do what we do. It was hard and I cried, as I believe it would take a very ‘hard’ person not to, but it made me feel the weight of what we do and the importance of our work, deeply in my soul.

We fed the activists after the vigil with the food we repurposed from Expo West as our way of applauding them for the work that they do every week. We also connected with a few charitable organizations that work with food insecurity and homelessness outreach in LA, specifically in the Skid Row neighborhood, we also did a pop-up with Doomie’s Vegan Cafe.

Once we came back, we thought, “how do we protect our team”? Among the companies going out of business, we were considered an essential company being a food manufacturer. We had a very clear understanding how we got to this pandemic, through the mistreatment of animals, so our work became even more prevalent. We made sure to create our own masks using No Evil branded bandanas, even before PPE advised to wear masks or shelter in place took effect in North Carolina”.

Pivoting as a Small Business

“It’s been about readjusting, since there’s really no road map for this! We are still trying to do our best every day as quickly as we can. Being a start-up, it comes naturally to have that grit and resilience to figure it out and apply it quickly and appropriately as we can. That said, we’re still navigating regulations and recommendations since they are ever-changing.

We now have an internal COVID response team that meets every single day to go over all of the updates to think about all of the different ways that we can maintain safety. We already had a super sanitary facility, abiding by the GMP manufacturing practices in place. We have kicked it up a notch even further”.

Finding the Silver-linings

“This whole pandemic has put a spotlight on the mistreatment of animals and has brought a whole new perspective on the plant-based world. So we are using this to start a conversation with a new audience that may have never considered eating plant-based before. Many are now experiencing meat shortages and finding a new understanding of the real impact of the agricultural system, the effects of the industry on the workers, the effect it has on the environment, and our public health at large. So we have been using that to further our mission and overall message.

We’re aiming to shape a better world through our products, which only furthers our mission to taking down the meat industry. The system needs to change: the way that we were living, the way that we were eating made our food system too far removed from any understanding that those animals are living beings that feel. That needs to change. So we are really fired up about the possibilities that this has opened up as a result of all of this”.

Keeping Up With the Demand

“Buyers in March were overwhelmed and not able to keep their shelves stocked with essentials, so they couldn’t take on anything else. So for awhile there, things were slow. But we were able to build up our inventory nicely in that time. Then we saw that first really crazy hit in the last two weeks of March and saw numbers rise at least 100% over our normal sales.

We did face logistical challenges with worker shortages, as more and more things were being ordered online, and distribution streams altered with our orders coming in larger bulk sums, but less frequently. But now we have a steady system of stocking up our inventory and then getting it all out the door and so on.

I think the vegan movement was ready for the higher demand and interest from the masses. It has been brewing and positioning itself for years, with the resources such as the documentaries, books, podcast, etc. Now that people are starting to really consider this lifestyle, they have them at the ready. There is no better time to dip your toe in that water. All of the new innovations of the plant-based food technology is ready to take this battle head on and I couldn’t be more proud to be apart of all of that”.

New Products On the Horizon

“One of the ways we have pivoted is by taking this time to readjust our launch schedules for new products. Some of the things we had in our pipeline for later this year aren’t going to happen any more due to previous agreements that can no longer be fulfilled in stores. So we shifted to putting a much greater effort to online sales. We are now working on pushing our line of jerky, which will be shelf stable and allow us to have even more accessibility for online e-commerce channels. We are expecting to have that on the market later this summer”.

The impact that COVID-19 has had on the plant-based meat industry is vast, but seen as a silver lining for our collective future. It is now that we all can do our part in supporting vegan businesses more that ever to help move the needle forward for a more compassionate, healthy world.