Last winter, we wrote about how hunger is especially painful during the holidays and how glad we were to have found a valuable community partner in CROSS Services. Unfortunately, need reaches beyond just the holidays, however, and this year continues to be exceptionally challenging. With more people in need than ever, we are grateful to see so many organizations like CROSS Services help to fight hunger and provide needed services in their communities. 

The mission of CROSS Services is to address food insecurity and children’s needs, provide financial assistance and affordable clothing, and act as family advocates for our local communities. We love CROSS Services because they are doing amazing work assisting local families and individuals in need. As local K-12 students are getting ready to head back to school this fall, one of the main initiatives of CROSS is providing them with backpacks, complete with school supplies. This year’s goal is to distribute 1,000 backpacks to students in need. 

For the past 7 years, we have proudly supported CROSS in these efforts. While we were in line to purchase this year’s school supply donations, we were heartened by a woman who was curious about the large volume of supplies in our cart. We explained our efforts in supporting the CROSS backpack program and she handed us a donation on the spot! It’s gestures like these that inspire us to spread awareness, and to keep up the work that our community volunteers and non-profit organizations so desperately need!

We are hoping you might take a moment to consider giving back as well. Whether that’s through CROSS Services or a community non-profit of your choosing. If you would like to support our partners at CROSS, contact them today for more information on how you can help out. Thank you for taking a moment to consider joining us in giving back!

Curtis Food Recruiters is proud to have been named to Forbes‘ list of America’s Best Executive Recruiting Firms 2021! We are honored to be among the best companies in the US and are so grateful for our team. Click to learn more!

https://www.forbes.com/companies/curtis-food-recruiters/?list=best-executive-recruiting-firms/&sh=30a06ae5ba63

2020 made its mark on virtually every industry, and the food and beverage industry was no exception. We now live in the wake of the pandemic, and it’s important to recognize how it will continue to affect our industry.  

Our team at Curtis Food Recruiters sat down to help you identify some defining themes facing the food industry in 2021. Here are a few of the most prominent insights. 

Transparency Takes Precedence

In 2021, transparency will triumph. 

As the industry experts at Grande put it, more than ever, “Consumers want to know where their food comes from, how it was produced, and how it was sourced, making ingredient transparency and a strict chain of custody more important than ever.” 

As consumers become increasingly invested and concerned with where and how their food is sourced, smart marketing messages become more and more critical to get right.

Brands that find innovative, effective ways to make their transparent practices resonate with consumers will stand out from those who don’t.

Plant-Based Trends Accelerate

Plant-forward foods have been making waves for years; that’s not news. But there’s been a marked uptick in average annual growth that is expected to continue through the year.

As Mike Wystrach, Founder & CEO of Freshly states, “2020 showed us that consumers are interested in trying and buying more plant-based foods, as sales of foods like plant-based proteins and milks topped $3.3 billion over the past year.”

Notable brands are already recognizing this massive opportunity. McDonald’s, for example, currently plans to release a “McPlant” later this year in response to the “Impossible” burger that has already made its mark in this space. Additionally, plant-based grocery options are soaring. Pennsylvania-based startup Good Catch, for example, offers a line of plant-based substitutes for seafood like crab cakes and whitefish sliders. 

Appetite for Immunity-Boosting Foods Grows

One of the many reactions to the global pandemic included a growing awareness of the immune system and a desire to help support it through the foods and beverages we buy and consume. 

According to data from The Business Research Company’s Immunity Boosting Food Products Market Global Report 2020-30: Covid-19 Implications and Growth, the global immunity-boosting food products market, due in part to the pandemic, is expected to grow from the $16.31 billion in 2019 to $24.02 billion in 2023. 

Certain categories of food, like mushrooms (lion’s mane, turkey tail, chaga, etc.), are becoming increasingly popular as consumers continue to seek out more and more immunity-boosting options. 

North America was already the largest region in the immunity-boosting food products market in 2019, and experts expect that to continue in the coming years. 

Sustainability 

As we move through the Covid-19 pandemic, sustainability initiatives have and will remain vastly important across the food industry as consumer concern continues to rise. 

People across the globe have long been invested in products that empower them to live more sustainable lives, and, according to Forbes, “the modern consumer prefers sustainable food brands and adds them to their digital and physical shopping carts daily… 65% of consumers look for products that can help them live a more sustainable and socially responsible life.”

While some food and beverage companies were already seriously committed to their sustainability efforts and have been working to reduce their environmental impact before 2020, the pandemic has caused a shift. The coronavirus illuminated social inequality and health disparities in society, and companies are now beginning to consider social and health issues while they craft their sustainability initiatives.

Expect even more scrutiny and attention to be placed on sustainable, resource-efficient and eco-friendly food and beverage practices in 2021. 

Omnichannel Delivery

While hardly new to the food industry, the events of 2020 drastically accelerated the push towards omnichannel delivery; a study conducted by Accosta last summer revealed that more than 50% of consumers were buying groceries online—and a third of those were purchasing groceries online for their first time. 

Grocery stores are reflecting this shift in consumer demand in a variety of ways already from robots gathering grocery orders, smart carts, and cashier-less checkouts. Newer innovations include putting ratings and reviews on shelf labels, downloadable shopping lists, and in-store kiosks that provide answers about meal preparation or other grocery-related inquiries.

An omnichannel approach will be critical for brands to meet the growing expectation for on-demand, flexible and expedient services among consumers. 

Flavor Trends

As 2020 changed the way we lived, it also changed the flavors we sought. Nostalgic flavors served as a safe source of comfort during the pandemic. As a press release from the beverage development company Flavorman explained in December, “the need for comfort has taken on a whole new meaning within the current social and political climate, but flavors continue to provide a soothing constant.”

A desire to relive the tastes and sensations of our more tranquil childhoods led to creations like “smokey vanilla cold brews” and “bubble gum seltzers.” Other traditional favorites like maple, coffee, and butterscotch all saw a significant rise in launch activity, according to Mintel’s Global New Products Database. 

Paradoxically, while many sought nostalgic, comforting flavors, 2020 also inspired many to seek out new and adventurous flavors, a perhaps symbolic nod towards a longing for a time when the ability to travel and gather was uninhibited. This desire manifested in a surge in demand for globally-inspired flavors like yuzu, tamarind, blood orange, fig, matcha, and curry.

Manufacturers are helping to bridge the gap between the desire to try new, adventurous flavors and the reluctance to take that risk by combining them with more familiar, “safer” flavors. For example, Rebecca Davis, flavor scientist at National Flavors, explains that you can “combine an emerging flavor, like hibiscus, with a more familiar taste such as ginger to attract consumers who want flavor adventures but want a bit of familiarity to make the first purchase less risky.”

As the pandemic continues to affect daily life, we expect flavor trends like these to persist in 2021. 

About Curtis Food Recruiters 

As a full-service executive search firm, Curtis Food Recruiters has successfully matched skilled job seekers with prominent businesses throughout the food manufacturing and grocery retail industry for over a decade. If you’re searching for your next top performer or need help advancing your career, contact us today and we’ll leverage our vast industry experience to move your hiring needs forward. 

At Curtis Food Recruiters, volunteering in our community has always been a fundamental core value for us. After such a long and challenging year, our team felt especially moved this holiday season to raise awareness throughout our networks on the importance of giving back. 

It didn’t take us long to single out a cause that we felt was especially vital after the events of this year: food banks. 

The charitable food system is a critical service for people in need in nearly every community across the United States. As financial hardships have increased dramatically due to the effects of the pandemic, hunger is becoming an even more prevalent concern than during the financial crisis of 2008. 

The term “food insecurity” describes when a person lacks consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life. Today, more than 80% of food banks are serving more people than they were a year ago, and the number of people who are food insecure in the US could rise to more than 50 million by the end of the year, including 17 million children.

Feeding America, one of the nation’s largest anti-hunger organizations, distributed “4.2 billion meals from March through October. The organization has seen a 60 percent average increase in food bank users during the pandemic: about 4 in 10 are first-timers.” 

More than just sharing statistics, though, we wanted to give readers a more involved look at the impact of food banks on their communities, so we reached out to one of our local favorites in our home state of Minnesota: CROSS Services. 

For years, we’ve held CROSS near and dear to our hearts for their incredible service to communities across Minnesota by providing food assistance programs, financial assistance programs, kids programs, and much more. 

We wanted to offer our readers the chance to get to know CROSS a little bit better and, more importantly, the people they work so hard to help.

Thankfully, Elizabeth Brown, CEO of CROSS Services was generous enough to sit down with us and answer a few questions:

Could you educate readers about the current hunger issues in the community? 

There are several food sites popping up here and there for “short-term” gap-filling, but this is not the work that CROSS does with families. Not having enough food or not being able to pay your rent/mortgage, not being able to put gas in your car to get to work…These are just the result of so many other areas of need.  

Many people have lost jobs they have held for years; their entire industry is damaged in some cases and they might not have a job to go back to. As an example, one family came in with this situation:  

Not only had they lost their job and needed food and housing help, they feared there was no option to go back into that industry. Our Family Resource Manager provided the food, the housing support, and then connected them to a free job counseling service. The father stopped in last week to thank the CROSS staff person and let him know that he was starting a new job in a new industry this week. It’s never just about hunger – hunger is the sign that much more help is needed. This is where CROSS steps in to be that connector.

Could you clear up any confusion about the types of people who receive help through your organization? 

Many people needing services during this time are new to asking for help. CROSS is seeing many families never before needing these services.  

60% of those coming to CROSS are working at least one job (many working more than one job); even during a “normal” time in our world, it is very difficult to stay ahead of rent/mortgage, transportation costs, health insurance, and raising children.  

Many people making even $17 per hour, which is a good wage, have no funds left each month after just paying for housing, transportation, and child care so they can work. This is where CROSS comes in to help families through with more than just food and housing. We provide the connection to the community and to other resources, here at CROSS and across our region.

 What’s the best way for people to donate?

There are a lot of great options to give. It could be through a cash donation, or volunteering your time; no amount is too small. Look at your charity’s website for preferred options for donating. In addition to traditional methods, many are using technology such as Venmo, Square or Paypal to make giving as easy as possible. In Minnesota, you could also go to GiveMN.org which allows you to find and support various charities all from one website; look for similar organizations in your state for online giving.

Is there anything else you think is important to know for people looking to give back this holiday season?

The holiday season is traditionally stressful…I heard one mom say that it is just MORE of everything.  You have to do everything you have always done to survive, and during the holidays, it’s just MORE…Leaving people tired, frustrated, poorer, and more anxious…In this time of “just MORE” we need to also have MORE patience, MORE faith, and MORE care for others.

CROSS will continue to do our work as faithfully and compassionately as we always have. We are grateful and dependent on the community for allowing us to do this work for families in our community.

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For more information on how a donation to CROSS can help Minnesota families in need, take a look at their website here. To find other food shelves in your area in Minnesota, use this helpful tool. 

The impact of organizations like CROSS depends largely on donations and volunteers from their communities. To find a local food bank near you, follow this link. 

During these chaotic times, it is more important than ever to make sure we are walking through the world with a grateful heart. That’s not to say that we shouldn’t feel disappointed or grieve the loss of our old routines or cancelled events, quite the contrary is true. By developing an appreciation for even the most difficult days, we appreciate the joyous ones that much more.   

We have found great insight in Annie Meehan’s webinar “The Joy of Missing Out” which focuses on three core principles: Gratitude, Giving & Growth.   

1. Gratitude – what are you grateful for today? Did you have the privilege of waking up to a loved one or job that you’re passionate about? Did you admire a beautiful sunset or enjoy dinner with your family? This helps you shift your mindset to notice even the little things that are worth celebrating every day.  

2. Giving – what did you give away today? A compliment? Advice? A kind note? This takes gratitude a step further into true generosity – from self-focused to selfless. Make it a point to do even just small acts of kindness every day. This will not only deepen your relationships, but it will create a more meaningful life. 

3. Growth – what did you learn or how did you grow today? Did you attend a seminar? Did you watch a TED talk? Did you invite a new neighbor for a virtual coffee date? This takes generosity to the next step – Having a full life is not just about who you are today, it’s also about developing who you want to become. Expanding your universe intellectually, socially, or professionally brings gratitude full circle, allowing you to recognize appreciation for your circumstances that you may not have otherwise.   

We hope you all are surviving this chaos with as much gratitude, generosity & growth as possible!  

If you want to learn more visit https://www.anniemeehan.com. 

Who wouldn’t want to walk into this lobby everyday?! Last week some of our team had a fun day visiting the new facility of a favorite client!

If you get a chance check out Cindra Kamphoff, she is an excellent Coach, Speaker and much more. She also works with the MN Vikings! We are all listening/reading her book right now!

http://www.cindrakamphoff.com