The North Carolina startup began with an $80,000 prize purse and its own freezing line. Its bigger idea arrived when it stopped trying to own the factory and turned spare capacity on family farms into a regional frozen-food network.
GDN AR inherited Walmart’s Argentine footprint, replaced the signs and began rewiring the machine behind them. Its bet is that a supermarket can become more useful - and more local - by shrinking the trip from warehouse to shelf.
Little Sesame is a Washington, D.C.-born food company that makes freshly spun, organic hummus from regeneratively farmed American chickpeas. What began in a 500-square-foot basement beneath a deli has grown into a two-part business: a fast-casual hummus restaurant and a national consumer-packaged-goods brand sold in more than 1,000 retail doors, including Whole Foods, Sprouts and Wegmans. The company pairs chef-driven flavor with a direct, traceable supply chain that supports regenerative organic farmers and treats good agriculture as a climate tool.