Grand Central Bakery, Fifty Licks, and Kachka are among Portland businesses partnering with Neutral Foods.
Backed by Mark Cuban and Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Neutral moves into food service providing carbon-neutral options.
Portland, OR., June 16, 2022 – Neutral Foods, the first carbon-neutral food company in the United States, has announced its expansion into food service, starting with its hometown. As the company rapidly scales nationwide into grocery stores, food service is integral to its growth and mission to radically reduce agriculture’s carbon footprint.
Portland-area partners using Neutral’s milk and half-and-half include Stumptown Coffee Roasters, Fifty Lick’s ice cream stores, Grand Central Bakery, and local favorite, Kachka restaurant, serving authentic eastern European food. Expansion into healthcare and corporate campuses in the Pacific Northwest also is planned.
“We wanted to start with businesses in our backyard,” said Marcus Lovell Smith, CEO, Neutral Foods. “To have the greatest impact, we need to show up everywhere with partners aligning with our work to protect the planet.”
Grand Central Bakery, a Certified B Corp, meets the highest verified social and environmental performance standards and uses Neutral products throughout its 11 locations in Portland and Seattle.
“At Grand Central Bakery, we’re always looking for ways to make a positive impact on the world,” said Jess Tannenbaum, retail director, Grand Central Bakery. “Using Neutral’s carbon-neutral milk across our bakeries is a benefit to our company, our communities, and the planet, and our customers and staff love the product.”
Neutral’s stakeholders include Mark Cuban, Bill Gates-founded Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Questlove, John Legend, LeBron James, and NBA star Kevin Love from Portland. The company works with dairy farms to reduce the carbon footprint of their products by implementing various strategies to drive down carbon emissions. What cannot be reduced is offset by purchasing carbon credits from U.S. dairy farmers who turn cow emissions into renewable energy.
“At Fifty Licks ice cream, we follow our values in every decision. We recognize our responsibility to the planet that sustains us. Switching to carbon-neutral milk is a win for us, our planet, and our customers. We love bringing people joy with our amazing ice cream, and supporting the earth makes it that much sweeter,” said Chad Draizin, owner, Fifty Licks.
Named by Whole Foods Market as part of its top 10 trends for 2022, Neutral’s carbon-neutral milk is now on shelves in nearly 500+ Whole Foods Market stores and recently completed a national launch with Sprouts Farmers Market, with additional availability in 200 regional and independent grocers. They include New Seasons Market (Oregon), Central Market (Texas), Earth Fare (Southeast), online grocer, Imperfect Foods (OR and WA), Erewhon (SoCal), Bristol Farms (SoCal), Giant Eagle (Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) and Haggen, a division of Albertsons in the Northwest. Neutral is distributed nationally by United Natural Foods Inc.(NYSE: UNFI) and KeHE. The company will be in more than 1,200 stores by July and close to double this number by year-end.
“Neutral’s agenda and mission are in line with our values regarding sustainability and quality. It’s an easy match,” said Bonnie Morales, owner, Kachka.
To learn more about Neutral, please visit https://www.eatneutral.com.
About Neutral Foods
Neutral Foods, the first carbon-neutral food company in the United States, offers carbon-neutral dairy products nationwide. It’s on a mission to radically reduce the nearly 37% of global emissions produced by the agriculture industry. Started in 2019 in Portland, Oregon, Neutral is a national brand that works directly with farmers to reduce the carbon footprint of dairy products – for good. Neutral has organic and conventional carbon-neutral solutions for retail, food service, and ingredient needs and intends to broaden its impact with additional agricultural foods.