A Seattle-based sustainable food startup called The 2050 Co., has created a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter to support the expansion of its products.
The company has created various plant-based pasta dinners formulated with soy protein plus imperfect or surplus vegetables, and their primary focus is achieving zero waste, zero hunger, and zero plastic by 2050.
They also offer smoothie mixes made with misfit fruit.
The new product line consists of marinara with tomato, beetroot, basil, spinach and zucchini; macaroni with sweet potato, butternut squash, turmeric, carrots, and peas; as well as a pesto with spinach, peas, broccoli, zucchini and basil.
The company has also partnered with The Outreach Program, an Iowa-based non-profit, to donate meals to families in Tanzania and Ukraine for each pasta box or smoothie sold.
"From the beginning, we've wanted 2050 Co. to be more than a smoothie company. Since The 2050 Smoothie uses rescued fruits, it was a natural next step to create a product that could incorporate high-quality vegetables," says Austin Hirsh, founder, and chief executive officer.
On top of that, the startup is introducing single-serve recyclable aluminum packaging.
"It's always seemed kind of backward to package sustainable food in single-use plastic. After a full year of iterations, we've finally arrived at a packaging design that's 100% plastic-free and infinitely recyclable." - Austin Hirsh.
Co-founder Austin Hirsh and chief operating officer Greg Gibson set a goal to raise $10,000 through the new Kickstarter campaign. Within a week, more than 100 backers had pledged over $20,000 to the project.
"Our long-term goal is to address both waste and hunger by preserving rescued produce and transporting it from areas of surplus to areas of scarcity." - Austin Hirsh.
