Tangelo, a mobile phone app and ecommerce platform, is focused on improving nutrition education, affordability, and access to healthy, locally sourced food for nutrition insecure consumers, says founder and CEO Jeremy Cooley.
Food insecurity has risen to its highest level ever in the U.S., with one in eight Americans — 42 million people — reporting some level of food insecurity, according to a news release.
The U.S. currently relies on a broken system of food banks and government-funded programs to meet emergency feeding needs, according to the release, and Tangelo’s platform addresses those needs with a comprehensive approach to health, wellness and longevity through proper nutrition, offering a sustainable solution to nutrition insecurity.
“During the United Fresh Washington Conference last week, we were able to introduce our solution to the fresh produce industry,” Cooley said in the release. “We will continue to collaborate with produce leaders to ensure our platform is delivering quality fruits and vegetables to consumers, meeting their nutritional needs.”
Underserved communities, communities of color and those with diet-related chronic illness need access to affordable nutrition education, and to fresh, locally sourced food, according to the release. Tangelo’s consumer mobile app and proprietary digital wallet allows public and private funders to come together in support of those in need, increasing accessibility and opportunity, according to the release
Jeremy Cooley said he was driven to create a company in honor of his late father Greg Cooley, after his father was diagnosed with terminal cancer and given six months to live. Jeremy Cooley looked to food and nutritional education as a means to extend his father’s life and saw firsthand how food can be used as medicine. Upon his father’s death almost two years after his diagnosis, Jeremy Cooley found his mission in life and Tangelo was born, he said.
Tangelo shipped its first box of produce in October 2019 and now distributes to consumers in 16 states, according to the company.
“The one thing that kept hitting me was, why?” Cooley said at the Washington Conference.
He wondered why those who are sick or are dealing with chronic diseases are not given better access to health-giving fresh produce.
“You started digging into the research and you find there are massive issues of access to education, of access to the food itself, of affordability,” he said.
Tangelo seeks to make healthy food affordable through its platform, which can use government or healthcare funds to deliver fresh produce to those in need.
Cooley said Tangelo has built a “railroad” to expand and connect farmers and their produce with low-income families.
For example, Tangelo participated in a program in California that uses U.S. government funds to give to low-income families, Cooley said. Those families used the Tangelo platform to buy healthy foods, which were delivered to their door.
Tangelo typically works with small and medium-sized growers and now uses about 600 produce suppliers. Tangelo distributes to consumers in California, New York, North Carolina and Florida and other states, Cooley said.
While not disclosing the number of partners Tangelo works with now, the company said its platform has the ability to plug suppliers, funders and users in 48 states, driving the greatest impact on those in need.
“We want to lay as much railroad as possible,” he said.
“There are millions and millions of families that need fresh produce, they need access to affordability, they need access to education and our job is to lay that railroad across America, to ensure that the families that need it most have access,” he said, noting Tangelo has platforms that work with consumers with smartphones and for people who don’t have tech.
Tangelo will affect consumers’ relationship to fresh produce as they better understand the nutritional needs of their own bodies by providing access to the food that will directly meet their health needs, according to the release.
For more information, visit jointangelo.com or e-mail Christopher Woods at chris.woods@jointangelo.com.
