A closer look at companies executing leadership excellence
What do the Disney movie Bambi and the BBC reality show Last Man Standing have in common? Corey Rennell, Founder of CORE Foods. The same week that Corey first watched Bambi at age 7, his father brought home a deer he’d shot on a hunting trip. By the time he was old enough to decide what food he would and would not eat, Rennell declared himself a vegan. While attending Harvard, Rennell was recruited as a contestant on Last Man Standing.
The show sent Rennell with five other competitors to some of the most remote locations in the world to learn a local tribe’s sport and then compete against them. During the experience, Rennell studied how people around the world ate. He observed that the diet of tribespeople consisted of no more than 10% meat, compared to the 20% typically eaten by Americans. Instead, they ate mostly fresh fruit and vegetables.
That experience inspired Rennell to start CORE Foods on Earth Day in 2010 from Oakland, California. Its mission – to empower people with fresh foods and honest resources. Rennell and his team launched a line of meal replacement bars made from organic ingredients.
By 2015, Core Foods was declared the Bay Area’s 29th fastest-growing company. A successful $90,000 Kickstarter campaign helped Rennell and his team open Core Kitchen, the world’s first produce-only restaurant. Today, not only does Core Kitchen deliver fresh, healthy food to its customers, but much of its workforce is made up of formerly incarcerated men and women who needed someone to give them a second chance. Those men and women have the opportunity to make a positive impact on their community through Core Food’s program of providing meals to homeless men, women, and children in the Bay Area.
Kudos to Core Foods for living your mission out loud!