PEACEFUL FRUITS LLC

Our roots are in Suriname, a small country in the Amazon rainforest where founder Evan Delahanty worked as a Peace Corps volunteer. Helping indigenous people with economic development, he was struck by their love of the land and their natural embrace of the fruit growing around them. pf-evan-in-suriname.jpg Returning home, Delahanty couldn’t help but notice how far removed we had grown from the land. Things we called fruit snacks were, in most cases, not even fruit. They were processed sugars, syrups, flavorings, and dyes. Any fruit was usually concentrate, meaning the fruit had been stripped of its fiber and most of its nutrients, leaving only more sugar. Delahanty began experimenting in his home kitchen. Using açaí berries, the superfood that grows profusely in Suriname, he created snacks made entirely of fruit. They were delicious. Encouraged, he began blending combinations of all sorts of rainforest fruits. HIs treats were not just healthier but sweeter and tastier than any he’d found here. Delahanty turned his experiment into a business — a social enterprise dedicated to doing good in as many ways as possible. First and foremost, Peaceful Fruits creates healthy snacks containing nothing but whole organic fruit. It carries its message of healthy, natural snacking to communities of kids and adults. The company also works to sustain the rainforest that Delahanty grew to love. It buys nearly all its fruit from the Amazon, enabling indigenous communities to harvest profitably — an essential element to saving the forests themselves. Finally, here at home, Peaceful Fruits helps people with developmental disabilities earn a fair wage. It hires them to fill nearly every position involved in the production of its snacks. Peaceful Fruits’ devotion to social and environmental responsibility was recognized In late 2018 when it was accepted into the elite roster of Certified B Corporations. It continues to win wide praise from snackers, parents, grandparents, organizations, and the media. A contestant on Shark Tank, its social enterprise mission was lauded as a model for the future.