Down to Earth Farmers Market | Katonah NY Real Estate

The reason why more and more people want to buy local food may be as simple as this: It is made by local people. And they have stories to share. Last week, we attended the 2014 Food + Enterprise Pitch Competition, hosted by Slow Money NYC and the Food Book Fair. Playfully dubbed “The Shark Tank for Foodies” by Derek Denckla, the Chair of Slow Money NYC, it was really a casting call for ten inspiring entrepreneurs who deserve tremendous support.

One by one, small business owners described his or her company to the panel of judges who included Taylor Erkkinen, Co-Owner, The Brooklyn Kitchen; Michael Hurwitz, Director, NYC Greenmarkets (GrowNYC); Liz Neumark, CEO, Great Performances Catering, Katchkie Farm; Elly Truesdell, NE Regional Local Forager, Whole Foods; and our very own Jon Zeltsman, President, Down to Earth Markets. Emilie Baltz expertly moderated the panel.

The first entrepreneur, Arshad Bahl, presented Amrita Health Foods, his plant-based energy bar company. The bars are raw, vegan, grain-free and free of the 8 major allergens. Yet, while those words can seem like familiar chorus, his story made them ring clearly. When his son was two-years old, he was diagnosed with autism. In response, he and his wife drastically changed their son’s diet, and now at age 9, their son is off of autism spectrum. Their son’s transformation is the catalyst behind their company.

Along with way, we also heard from entrepreneurs as varied as a farm on Staten Island, purely dedicated to Mexican heritage foods, to Lindsay Jakubowski of Kriemhild Dairy Farms who told the audience that last year butter sales exceeded margarine sales for the first time in 40 years.

After each presentation, the judges offered their feedback as well as a score on the scale of 1 to 5. A score of 1 meant “not ready to fund today” to a score of 5 meaning, “ready to fund here and now.” The first 5 of the night went to Mark Jaffe of Fresh Connection, a service that aggregates food from local farms in upstate New York for delivery to wholesale accounts and restaurants in the city. His work focuses on a weak link in the local food chain: “last mile delivery.” Jaffe’s execution of a simple, yet sorely needed idea won the competition with the highest score from the judges. As he collected his $500 honorarium in the form of a giant check, he said he was thrilled to receive the award on behalf of truck drivers who are his “unsung heroes.”

After last week’s event, we’ve all got a lot of heroes to sing about.