🔒Eco-conscious healthy snacks maker GoodSAM Foods finds growth by targeting ‘climavores’

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A growing Darien-based healthy snacks company, GoodSAM Foods, is a profit-driven business with an environmental-oriented mission.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Heather K. Terry in 2019, GoodSAM produces nuts, fruit chips, chocolate and organic coffee. Its all-natural, organic products, which are sold at Whole Foods and other retailers, include chocolate-covered fruit, pineapple chili lime chips and peanut butter cups.

Recently, the company raised $6.5 million in capital to support its growth, as it creates new jobs and expands its supplier network.

The funding will go toward brand expansion and hiring three to four new employees, including positions in finance and operations, Terry said in a recent interview with the Hartford Business Journal.

The company — which currently has seven full-time employees and is privately owned by a group of shareholders — generates about $10 million annually and will begin earning a profit in 2025, Terry said.

Promoting sustainability

GoodSAM targets a niche of environmentally conscious consumers — “climavores,” or people who choose foods based on their environmental impact.

GoodSAM is both a certified B Corp and a public benefit corporation. As a B Corp, GoodSAM must meet rigorous standards required by the nonprofit B Lab, such as environmental stewardship and paying fair wages.

GoodSAM’s structure as a public benefit corporation goes a step further, requiring it to pursue a specific public benefit stated in its charter: a commitment to regenerative agriculture.

Regenerative farming emphasizes the restoration and enhancement of soil health and biodiversity, which not only yields better crops but helps promote sustainability.

Conversely, conventional farming often uses chemicals, such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to maximize crop yield, which can have negative short- and long-term consequences on the ecosystem.

“Biodynamic systems protect the environment,” Terry said. “They increase soil viability. They capture carbon and nitrogen into the soil. When you are purchasing a GoodSAM product, you’re helping to mitigate climate change.”

GoodSAM has formed partnerships with about 2,500 farmers in Latin America and Africa, in remote areas with large swaths of land and fertile soil.

The company invests in the farms and buys their products.

“It’s started to create a year-round stream of income for the farmers,” said Terry, who spoke to the HBJ while she was in Colombia attending a United Nations biodiversity conference. “And that’s really the premise of the whole company.”

Many of the farmers lack access to technology. GoodSAM invests in the farms by equipping them with modern tools, such as internet access and solar power.

GoodSAM reinvests 1% of all top-line sales in its partner farmers and their communities. The company also provides technical support to help farmers prioritize soil health.

GoodSAM uses the farmers’ crops as the main ingredients in its products, which are produced in manufacturing facilities in Colombia, Ghana, Chile, Mexico and the United States.

Through this direct trade model, GoodSAM has eliminated middlemen from its supply chain, Terry said.

GoodSAM sources its cacao and coffee from Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia and the Perijá Serrany at the Colombia-Venezuela border. Its macadamia nuts come from Kenya; Brazil nuts from the Amazon Rainforest; and pecan nuts from the La Nogalera region in Mexico.

All of GoodSAM’s products are gluten-free and contain no genetically modified ingredients. 

In addition to Whole Foods, GoodSAM products are sold at GoodSAMFoods.com, Amazon, Thrive Market, Sprouts, Erewhon and Fresh Thyme.

Terry, a Greenwich resident, said another goal in the coming year is to move the company’s headquarters to her hometown.

‘Unlikely Entrepreneur’

Terry is a veteran of the consumer packaged-goods industry.

In 2009, she founded NibMor Chocolate, a premium organic chocolate business. After selling the company, Terry went on to consult for several retailers and helped grow the natural skincare products company S.W. Basics.

Terry also served as chief strategy officer of BeyondBrands, a food and beverage marketing firm in New York City. She is currently an investor and board member at Paramo Snacks.

Terry is a graduate of the International Culinary Center in New York City, and has a master’s degree in fine arts from Rutgers University.

She began her career as a Broadway actress and is the author of “From Broadway to Wall Street: Cautionary Tales of an Unlikely Entrepreneur.”