Photography courtesy Farmer's Fridge
The typical vending machine meal is not exactly healthy. Perhaps in a rush, you’ve settled for a cryopreserved ham and cheese sandwich. Or worse: a candy bar has been your dinner. You probably would have done anything for a chickpea wrap, or an Italian salad with peppers, cabbage, and carrots while on the go. These seemingly mythical travel meals actually do exist—and Luke Saunders is on a quest to make them available everywhere.
Saunders is the founder and CEO of Farmer’s Fridge, a company that offers vending machines stocked with healthy food. He’s a Washington University graduate who’s making real progress toward helping busy folks find nutritious and delicious meals on the go. St. Louis is among the markets where Farmer’s Fridge is planning to expand its presence. The company has 17 vending machines located throughout the region today, including at area hospitals, St. Louis Lambert International Airport, and other spots where hungry people might be looking for a quick yet nourishing meal that they can feel good about fueling their day.
By the end of this year, Saunders hopes to have vending machines at as many as 50 places in the St. Louis region, while continuing to expand the Farmer’s Fridge footprint nationwide.
“There’s an unmet need for fresh, healthy meals across the country,” Saunders says. “The idea is to make our food accessible to everyone.”
In other words, Saunders wants to make wraps, salads, bowls, and yogurt as ubiquitous as candy bars. Step up to a Farmer’s Fridge smart kiosk and you’ll be greeted with several hearty options, ranging from snacks to meals. The Farmer’s Fridge menu features 10 salads, three breakfast servings, five bowls, and three wraps. Snacks include nuts, pudding, and chips and guacamole.
The idea for Farmer’s Fridge came to Saunders more than a decade ago while he was working as a traveling salesman in the manufacturing industry. “I drove about 1,000 miles a week to meet with people from everything from food to aerospace and defense,” Saunders says. “But the food clients really stuck out to me. They were able to make food that was very inexpensive and get it to a lot of people by manufacturing in one place, but they couldn’t get it to people quickly. The insight was that you could do this for fresh food if you had your own supply chain.”
Farmer’s Fridge produces more than 20,000 meals a day to meet its goal of restocking its fridges within hours. Unlike your typical vending machine, where the food is meant to last for long periods, Farmer’s Fridge restocks regularly to ensure selections are fresh. Those frequent restocks mean that some meals go unsold, but remain perfectly good to eat. Anything that needs to get swapped out is donated. Earlier this year, the company partnered with Feeding America—and the St. Louis Area Foodbank—to embark on a mission to donate 1.5 million meals to people in need.
“Every meal that gets sold in St. Louis will generate a meal for someone else in the local market,” Saunders said. “Doing good is something we built into the DNA of the business.”
