Mission:
PB&Jams, Philadelphia’s nut butter company, is committed
to providing a delicious, healthful and fun food experience to our customers. PB&Jams
works to give back to our community through education, advocacy, and increased
access to both nutrition and opportunity.
**
Our motto is feed
people, help people, and have fun!: in addition to selling our small-batch, all-natural nut butters, sandwiches and snacks, PB&Jams has from day one done everything we can to help our community. From taking our food cart out and providing free meals to the homeless, to donating hundreds of jars of our nut butters to food banks and providing health education to urban families, we at PB&Jams love our community and are committed to its health and vitality.
PB&Jams was honored to be featured in the March 2016
issue of Money Magazine – one of the top 50 magazines in the U.S. – for turning
our passion for unique food into successful small business.
Core Values:
·
Food and relationships are necessary for a
healthy and vibrant community, and all people deserve to live in healthy and
vibrant communities.
·
All people deserve equal and easy access to
healthful and sustainable foods.
·
When people have access to healthy foods as the
building blocks of their diet, they are free to also make food fun! While
PB&Jams is committed to promoting a healthy lifestyle, we recognize,
celebrate and create delicious indulgences too, all of which incorporate our
healthy nut butters.
·
We recognize that communities of color, working
class communities and other marginalized groups continue to have limited access
to healthy foods. PB&Jams is committed to fighting this trend through our
programming and philanthropic goals.
·
PB&Jams is committed to meaningful
diversity, equity, and universal human rights – and these principles guide our
internal operations, business practices and community engagement.
WHO WE ARE:
Megan Gibson founded PB&Jams in 2013, after a taste of
savory Haitian peanut butter inspired her to start crafting some delicious
combinations using nut butter and innovative additions – from sweet maple syrup
to spicy cayenne pepper. Soon, her handcrafted, small-batch nut butters could
be found in some of Philadelphia’s premier independent markets and at community
events.
As the nut butters increased in popularity, Megan’s
long-term dream of making fun, delicious food for the community grew, and she
developed a plan to establish a food truck using her nut butters in unexpected (and
unforgettable!) ways. A custom food truck, unlike any other on the road, was
built by hand and hit local events in 2014.
PB&Jams currently operates out of our headquarters –
Megan’s home – and a community commercial kitchen in West Philadelphia. The nut
butters are still handcrafted in small batches by Megan and her dedicated,
creative and wonderful part-time staffer, Mal.
PB&Jams is grateful for our success – defined first and
foremost by the remarkable and lasting relationships it has with so many
members of the community.
OUR ASK:
In 2016, PB&Jams is ready to take it to the next level!
We have always wanted to increase our reach in the community through our food
and community initiatives, including nutrition education and programming to support youth and families.
Through this campaign, PB&Jams seeks to raise the funds
needed to take our vision to the next level!
Our goals include:
·
Streamlining the production process for our
small-batch, unique nut butters by repairing old equipment and securing some
new equipment to make the process of making and jarring product more efficient
without compromising attention to detail! By upgrading our equipment, we can make your food experience even better and meet increased demand.
·
Covering the costs of a massive repair to our
cart, whose frame was found to be defective this past winter. The cart is how
we bring our innovative, exciting food into the community.
·
Improving and maximizing our online presence to
better engage our community, customers and potential customers. We need a new
website!
· Exploring shifts to our business model which would allow us to help more people in the community. For example, this may include engaging consultants and other professionals who can help us formalize the charitable arm of our work in a new and more effective way.
We need to
raise $35,000. Our priority goals include:
$5,000 to repair the machine we use to make our nut butters
$4,000-$5,000 a pneumatic filler: a semi-automated filler to
jar our products. This would be a game-changer! Currently, each jar of
PB&Jams is filled by spatula, by hand. With the filler, each jar will still
receive personal attention – but will be filled more quickly and with great
precision.
$4,500
to go toward upgrading our website
$4,000 to buy our OWN generator. We use a generator to power
our cart, and we currently rent it every time we have an event. Having our own
generator will save us money and loads of staff time transporting a heavy
generator back and forth.
$3,500 for repairs to our cart
$2,000 to redesign and produce a new label including the
nutrition facts for our nut butters. Including the nutrition facts on our
labels will allow us to sell our product in a wider range of stores.
$1,000 for a higher capacity fryer: the secret to our most
decadent sandwich is how we fry it – and now, we can only make a sandwich at a
time. A new fryer means both faster service and greater capacity. We could
pursue bigger events and produce faster at smaller ones.
$1,000 a new iPad and square register system to improve the
sales process, bookkeeping system and the ability to accept gift cards.
(Note: IndieGoGo does charge us a percentage of the money we raise; so we will also put funds toward covering those fees. Other costs - like those associated with hiring professionals to help us evaluate our business model and perhaps make changes - are to be determined.)