Transparency – Nude Foods Market

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Produce

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Transparency

At Nude Foods Market we believe in TOTAL transparency.

We don’t want to ‘greenwash’ what we do. We are honest and upfront, even when things are not perfect.

We are ALWAYS trying to do better so if you have any suggestions for us, we’d love to hear them. Please send to hello@dev1.aquilatechs.com.

Are we truly Zero-Waste?

We try our darndest to eliminate waste as far back in the supply chain as humanly possible however, some of our suppliers are only set up to get us goods in single-use packaging meaning we cannot always be 100% zero-waste.

For example, oats come in a 50lb paper bag. We recycle this bag but sadly, it’s still single use. The way we see it is that a 50lb bag of oats uses WAY less packaging than 50 x 1lb packages of oats so we’re still significantly reducing packaging.

Our intention is to tread as lightly as humanly possible on this earth. We think through the impact of every product from the seed to when it reaches your doorstep. As we grow, we will be able to push for more change from more of our suppliers.

We aim to help create a food system that improves the health of our lands, our communities and ourselves.

PRODUCE

Nude Foods Market has a hierarchy for sourcing produce.First and foremost we try to get local rescued produce. Rescued means that food was destined for the compost pile, had we not caught it in time.
It can also be seconds, which means produce that was not going to be sold at the local farmers market. This is the cucumber or potato that looks a little odd (tastes just as good!) and is not up to the normal grocery store/farmers market visual standards.

Rescued produce can also come from oversupply. Sometimes farmers have too much of a certain crop that they can’t sell through their normal channels. Not only does this help the food not go to waste, it helps the farmers out by paying for produce that normally wouldn’t have a home.

If we cannot acquire rescued produce we will buy the standard produce from farms. Not all of our local produce is certified organic, but all of the farms we source from follow organic practices. It is incredibly expensive for small farms to get certified, and we don’t want to exclude farms that are doing everything right just because they couldn’t afford the certification.

Remember buying local means you are not contributing to one of our biggest enemies, factory farming.

Next on the hierarchy is rescued, not local produce. We only have to go to this step in the winter, when there isn’t much produce being grown in Colorado. This produce will always be certified organic.To acquire this, soon to be wasted food, we use a company which specializes in rescued food, Food Maven.

They alone in 2019 have helped save 327 tons of food from landfills, donated 354,361 meals to hunger relief, averted 226 tons of CO2 and generated $281,925 for local producers.

The very last step in the hierarchy is non-rescued, non-local produce. We almost never get to this point, but if there isn’t enough rescued produce or local produce to be found, we will supplement with a few certified organic products.

DRY GOODS

Our dry goods are all certified organic, or locally grown. We source dry goods locally whenever possible, this includes some of our beans, flour and soon, oats. Unfortunately, Colorado doesn’t provide the perfect climate for things like almonds and dates so most of our dry goods are shipped in from around the country, and some do come from other countries.. We receive our dry goods in enormous quantities, in recyclable bags, and are greatly reducing the amount of single use containers you normally get at the store.

RESCUED PRODUCTS

A different kind of rescued product comes from our local producers/suppliers. Sometimes companies goof up their products a little bit, mispackage something, produce too much of it, or discontinue a line. Whenever we find these, we bring them to you as rescued products. Still perfectly good, just not the right fit for other stores. Our role in this is to provide a market for this food. Doing this we (including you!) have been able to divert so many local products from the trash. These will usually be packaged but our belief is better that at least the food is used rather than wasted

PACKAGING

Please note most of the stuff we receive in packaging are from food suppliers, for example almonds and dried mangos, which we cannot source from Colorado. Food needs to come in some type of container.

With the small buying power we have, we don’t have the ability to strong arm all food suppliers into using our reusable containers, but one day we will. Below is a list of some of the ways in which we receive our food. Luckily we have the ability to buy in bulk and the packaging we receive is always better than small serving packaging from the store. If you have questions about the packaging for any item we are selling please email us at hello@dev1.aquilatechs.com and we can provide that info.

Large paper bags with string ties (we recycle the bags and collect the string to use for things like our Holiday Cookie Jars)
Cardboard boxes (we reuse or recycle these)
Bulk plastic bags (we collect these and take to Eco-Cycle where they can be recycled)
Large plastic jugs or barrels (we reuse / recycle these)
Plastic buckets (we reuse / recycle these)

LOCAL PRODUCTS

This is where Nude Foods Market is doing some groundbreaking stuff!

We have had the absolute pleasure to work with so many local brands, who are nice enough to deal with our extra particular standards when it comes to using their products. There are so many local food producers here in Boulder and we want to showcase them while getting their products without the packaging.

This is how it works; we form the connection with the company and we give them reusable containers they can fill with their product. When we’ve used all the products, we clean the containers and return it to the company.

Founder Rachel Irons, holding two 5 gallon buckets of Boulder Chip, tortilla chips.

This is how we get zero-waste tortilla chips, tofu, pasta, chocolate desserts, keto donuts, bread, olives, veggie broth, granola, soap, lotion, potato chips, bagels, crackers, popcorn, micro greens and so many more. This is where Nude Foods Market is really paving new paths. We are getting products from the source without any packaging, no plastic, nothing recyclable or compostable, nothing. We really hope to be the force to make this the new accepted standard.

Just like everything else we do, our delivery has a hierarchy.

Delivery by bike is always our preferred way to deliver to our customers. We are really passionate about biking. Not only does biking reduce the amount of carbon being used for the last leg of the food journey, it promotes a healthy lifestyle and shows how quickly you can get around without the help of a vehicle.

That being said, things can stop us from being able to bike: snow, rain, temperature, lack of people, time constraints, bike malfunction etc. The next best thing we can offer is one of our founders’, used Nissan Leaf. We believe using a previously owned electric vehicle (charged mostly by solar panels) is the next best option we have.

In the worst case scenario, we will drive a gas vehicle to fix a messed up order or pick up a stranded biker since the trailer will not fit into the Leaf.

Founder Rachel, next to her brand new (used) Nissan Leaf