The Sunshine Nut Company, a cashew roasting company in Mozambique, founded by former Hershey executive Don Larson, is making a difference in the lives of African orphans. Inspired by Milton Hershey, the founder of the Hershey Company, who created a school for orphans and endowed it with his entire fortune, Don Larson has focused on making a difference in communities by providing fairness, opportunity and empowerment from within. Sunshine Nut Co. plans on reinvesting 90% of its profits back into the African community, giving 30% of profits to orphanages, 30% to quality of life projects, such as wells, sanitation, etc., and 30% to food companies adhering to Sunshine’s principles.
The company began shipping to Giant and Stop & Shop stores in October, and will be distributed to Whole Foods in early 2015. Sunshine Nut has already positively impacted the lives of many, sharing their stories on their website: http://sunshinenuts.com/.
Get your fill of cashews from The Sunshine Nut Co. and help give back to a wonderful cause!
By PAULA HOLZMAN | Correspondent
Three years ago, Lancaster native Don Larson moved to Mozambique to pursue his dream of what a socially responsible company could be.
Midstate consumers now can taste the results.
Cashews from Larson’s Sunshine Nut Co. are available in roughly 800 mid-Atlantic grocery stores owned by Ahold USA.
And another major retailer is slated to start carrying the nuts in the new year.
“This was a vision I did in a coffee shop,” Larson said. “I envisioned all this happening, but I never dreamed it would happen so wonderfully.”
Larson saw both opportunity and great poverty while visiting Africa on cocoa-buying trips as an executive with The Hershey Co. in the early 2000s.
In 2011, he moved his family to Mozambique, where he sunk his life savings into buying and refurbishing a factory in the town of Matola to roast and export cashews.
Things were rough for a while – including the Larson house being burglarized and being robbed at gunpoint – but have begun to bear fruit in a big way, Larson said.
Sunshine, which began shipping cashews in September 2013, has steadily expanded its distribution in Africa and in the U.S.
As of October, Sunshine’s nuts are available in Ahold USA’s grocery stores, which include the Giant, Giant Eagle, Martin’s and Stop & Shop brands.
The cashews come in four flavors and retail for $4.99 for a seven-ounce bag.
In January, Sunshine will be available in 150 to 200 Whole Foods Markets, mainly along the East Coast.
That’s about half of the premium grocer’s stores; the remainder have the option to participate as well, Larson said.
Additionally, the cashews are sold by Pick ‘N’ Pay supermarket chain in South Africa and Spar, another African supermarket chain.
Larson said he has deals in the works to bring the nuts both to Lancaster County-based grocers and to chains with national reach.
The firm also has seen a lot of interest in private-label products too, he said.
Key to the brand’s U.S. rollout is the fact that Sunshine has inked deals with distributors C&S Wholesale Grocers, based in New Hampshire, and United Natural Foods, based in Rhode Island.
Both are leaders in their class, Larson said.
He pays for space at the technologically advanced ES3 warehouse in York County, which gives him access to broad distribution networks at a competitive rate.
“(That) allows me to be a little less competitive – to do the right things in Africa,” he said.
Larson, a McCaskey High School and Penn State University graduate, is guided by a philosophy he terms the “Sunshine Approach.”
As emblazoned on every bag of cashews it sells, the company reinvests in African communities.
A full 90 percent of net proceeds are slated for this route once the company turns a profit.
Here’s the breakdown:
One third would help farmers through quality-of-life projects such as clean wells, as well as leveraging bulk buying power to reduce the price of inputs such as seedlings, fertilizer and supplies.
One third would go to orphan care, including training adult orphans.
And a final third would support other types of food companies in Africa.
Sunshine already has put the approach into action, supporting local children’s centers and paying to house and care for three siblings whose parents died tragically.
The company and its employees have embarked on a plan to supply Mozambique’s rural farmers with 50,000 free cashew trees; 2,000 have been planted in four villages thus far.
The government of this nation on Africa’s east coast was so pleased with the idea that it gave Sunshine the initial 1,000 trees at no cost, Larson said.
Sunshine employs 29 people, with plans to increase to about 50. Many are adult orphans and seven already have been promoted to leadership roles, Larson said.
He anticipated that the current facility, as well as the availability of land to expand in the free trade zone around it, would be able to accommodate the company’s growth up to $10 million in sales.
He’s also looking to build factories in other cashew-producing countries, including Ghana, Ivory Coast and Tanzania, as well as “mini-factories” in villages.
