06 Aug Bring the Farmer’s Market to Your Office
Interview with Erik Muller, President of The FruitGuys: Part 2
Elevate Your Employee’s Experience
It’s hard to beat the deliciousness of fresh fruit from your local farmers market. If you shop at a nearby farmers market, you know how special it truly is! Locally grown produce picked at the peak of ripeness has a unique appeal. Plus, supporting local farmers in your community makes you feel good.
What if your employees could enjoy this same experience in the breakroom? In Part 2 of our interview with Erik Muller, President of The FruitGuys, we explore how his company makes that possible (if you missed Part 1 of our interview, you can read it here).
A Unique Way to Engage Employees
The FruitGuys delivers farm-fresh fruit and clean-ingredient snacks to offices and teams. The company aims to keep employees happy and engaged – but how can fresh fruit do that?
“It’s all about the experience,” Erik says. The FruitGuys turns every fruit delivery into an opportunity for excitement and connection. It promotes engagement with employees by:
- Sharing stories about its fruit, snacks, and farm partners so that employees get to know them.
- Hosting in-office and virtual fruit tastings where employees can connect and try something new.
- Sourcing local fruit whenever possible so employees feel good about supporting their neighbors and keeping their environmental impact low.
- Bringing local farmers to the office for in-office tastings.
- Giving back to local communities and encouraging employees to get involved, too.
Employees love the in-office farmers markets and tastings where they can try new and even exotic fruits in their breakroom. And, they appreciate that a partnership with The FruitGuys not only supports their health and well-being, it supports the local farming community, too.
Supporting Local Farmers Benefits Everyone
The FruitGuys’ partnerships with small, sustainable farms across the U.S. are vital to its business. It partners with local farmers near its clients’ offices whenever possible. According to Erik, delivering fresh fruit from your local farmer to your breakroom table is an art and a science.
To ensure every box has the freshest, most delicious fruit, The FruitGuys’ team has developed a meticulous quality assurance system to put the best tasting fruit into each box. Its farm partners stick to the framework, helping maintain a level of excellence that’s only possible because of the relationship The FruitGuys has built and sustained with them for 26 years.
In other words, quality control starts before The FruitGuys even sees a piece of fruit. “Our hand-selected farmers know our expectations, and appreciate our business values and that we treat them with respect,” Erik says. “Flavor is our top priority, but we also have farmers picking literally by color for us,” he added. “For example, a yellow nectarine – I love it when it has an auburn hue – is rich with antioxidants and super tasty. That’s a nice piece of fruit.”
Together, local farmers near your breakroom and The FruitGuys work on every detail to get the quality right (like measuring Brix, testing the soil, and watching the weather). “We really appreciate our direct relationships,” says Erik.
You can read more about The FruitGuys’ quality control here. If a customer is ever unhappy with the quality of the fruit in their delivery – despite the many steps taken to ensure it’s top-notch – The FruitGuys has a 100% satisfaction guarantee and will replace the order or issue a credit immediately.
Giving Back
The FruitGuys is committed to donating excess fruit and snacks to hunger relief organizations in the communities it serves and giving back to local farmers through The FruitGuys Community Fund. The fund provides grants to small farms for sustainability projects that positively impact the environment, local food systems, and farm diversity. Since 2012, The FruitGuys Community Fund has awarded 143 grants totaling more than $575,000 to small-scale farmers.
The FruitGuys – B Corp Certified
Certified B Corporations™ (also known as B Corps) are businesses that meet high standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. To be a certified B Corp, The FruitGuys must meet these high social and environmental standards. The FruitGuys became a B Corp Certified company in 2019 and recertified in 2023.
Sheila Cassani is the Head of Impact at The FruitGuys and leads the company’s core programs related social and environmental initiatives. Sheila says that because the B Corp Certification aligns so well with The FruitGuys’ values, “It was a natural decision to apply.”
Only a little over 6,000 companies globally meet the tough requirements for B Corp certification and the bar to get certified is continually raised. The certification process gets “super granular” and “harder and more rigorous,” says Sheila, so even small changes – like working with a farmer to transport fruit from the farm in collapsible, reusable totes – are actually a big deal. By working with a B Corp Certified company like The FruitGuys, you instantly get a more sustainable breakroom.
What’s Next for The FruitGuys?
Since its founding in 1998, The FruitGuys has been on a mission to create a healthier workplace, support small farms, relieve hunger, and be a great place to work. Erik and The FruitGuys team are committed to expanding what they call their GoodWorks programs. He says, “We want to leave a legacy that is evergreen and sustainable.” Here are some of The FruitGuys’ goals for the future:
- Explore new ways to improve employees’ lives.
- Benchmark its carbon emissions and investigate ways to reduce them.
- Continue to donate at least 20% of the value of its annual profits to relieve hunger and support small farms.
With The FruitGuys in your breakroom, you can bring the local farmers market to your employees. Fresh, healthy fruit is a fantastic addition to the workday. Supporting your local farmers and hunger relief organizations makes it even better. And contributing towards making the world a better place? Well, that is the cherry on top.
Coolbreakrooms is a proud partner of The FruitGuys and we’d love to share more with you about its services. Please schedule a call with us to get FruitGuys fruit into your breakroom.
