02 Apr Giving the Gift of Health Through Fruit
Focusing on boosting your wellness with a healthy, balanced diet is more important than ever during this national health crisis. That’s where Fruit Movement comes in.
Serving those throughout the DMV, this Virginia-based organization promotes health and wellness by delivering fresh, local fruit to your workplace. RMHCDC was introduced to this great organization through our Caring Partner, WeWork, and we currently receive weekly Friday deliveries. Our families are more thankful than ever in this time when social distancing has impacted the availability of food in the House.
Keeping a healthy and well-balanced diet is extremely important for our families who often do not have time to cook their meals or go to the store in between hospital visits. Fruit Movement provides our families with all kinds of fruit for a healthy snack option, including bananas, oranges, apples, berries, grapes, and even some exotic fruits!
Below, learn more about Fruit Movement from founder, Abdul-Rasheed Ogunbiyi! You can find more information about their services here.
Why did you feel the need to create Fruit Movement? Tell us more about the story behind the development of Fruit Movement.
I felt the need to create Fruit Movement to help people live happier and longer lives by encouraging and promoting healthier lifestyles in the workplace. Too often, organizations have all kinds of snacks in the office but not too many healthy options, we wanted to change that by the simple act of delivering fruit. Doing all the work so that you don’t have to and using this as a base to pick the best options for your mind, body, and soul during a busy work week.
We started almost three years ago! It was just two of us, we did EVERYTHING; the picking of fruits, the quality control, delivering to offices, the accounting, the admin work… It was tiring but fulfilling helping everyone out!
My co-founder (Indy) and I used to work in offices where we saw that organizations didn’t care too much about the health of their employees. We wanted to change that, we put our heads together, quit the 9-5, and embarked on a crazy journey we weren’t sure would work. It took us three months to get our first client and even longer to get our second, but then when we weren’t sure it would really work… We went on a ROLL! Now we have a very awesome team that believes in what we can do to change the office environment.
What areas do you serve?
The DMV, DC, Maryland and of course Virginia where we are based.
What is your ultimate goal with Fruit Movement?
To become a National Company, we really believe that being healthy where you work is good for the world and we want this narrative to take center stage. A happy, healthy workplace is a very productive one.
Tell us more about your “Farm to Office” process.
We work with local farms all the way from Waldorf, Maryland through Leesburg, Virginia and everywhere in-between! For exotic and non-local fruits like bananas, we work with a local distributor who sources the best and the freshest fruit. We do all the sorting and quality control at our warehouse in Vienna and deliver it straight to our client’s offices!
How many people on average do you help to feed with healthy options per month?
A lot! We work with RMHCDC, 50+ Corporations, several gyms, a homeless shelter and a food bank.
Tell us more about your partnership with RMHCDC. How often do you deliver to their House and what can the families find in the baskets?
We love RMHCDC!!! We got connected through one of our clients, WeWork, and it’s been cool ever since! Right now, we deliver weekly on Fridays all kinds of fruits, we try to keep it fun and different. Families can find bananas, oranges, apples, berries, grapes and some exotic fruits in their crates. We would love for them to have something delicious to go along with their daily meals!
What is the one thing that you want volunteers/children, or others reading this to know once you make deliveries?
We want them to know we do this from a place of love and support. We may not know each other but we believe in their abilities to bounce back and this is our way of showing it!
Tell us about the different basket packages you offer (Red, Blue and Gold)?
They are different sized packages for all kinds of organizations! If you have a small office of 5 to 10 people then get the Red package, you can also request this size as a sample if you’re not sure of what size you want! The Blue is for mid-size office of 20 – 50 people and the Gold package is customizable based on what suits a much larger office’s budget!
Talk more about why it’s essential to incorporate more fruits into your diet.
In our current crisis, boosting your immune system is very essential. Now more than ever is the best time to get ahead by having a balanced diet that gives you much better protection. Remember, you ARE what you EAT.
During this global crisis, how are you maintaining current guidelines and still delivering fresh fruits in the hands of those who need it?
Since we are in the food and beverage industry, we are considered an essential organization. We maintain social distancing protocols in addition to our guidelines which ensure that your food is safe and healthy. Gloves are on from point A to B to limit any physical interaction with our customer’s foods. We still maintain that you wash all foods before eating. We want to keep everyone safe while making sure they eat healthy.