Costco; Design: Better Homes & Gardens
12.07.2024 - 20:51 / modernfarmer.com
At first glance, the offerings from the Washington, DC-based soup company Soupergirl seem pretty straightforward. The company specializes in vegan and kosher soup and gazpacho, as well as soup toppers that customers can mix and match. There’s the classic tomato soup, a beet gazpacho available in a portable container and even vegan “cheesy” croutons.
Sara Polon founded the company with her mother in 2008, with the goal of making good food and sourcing local ingredients from farms surrounding the DC metro area. From there, the company grew, getting on the shelves at Whole Foods in 2016, followed by Costco, Kroger and other stores across the country. As the company grew, it began looking further afield to source its expanding ingredient needs.
Then, everything changed. In 2020, Polon was faced with new supply issues as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As she looked into solving them, she learned more about the food chain from which she sourced her own ingredients and the farmworkers who were suffering under extreme labor conditions. She vowed to change.
Modern Farmer caught up with Polon to talk about her own commitments to sourcing ingredients equitably and why she wants to bring other companies on board as well.
This conversation has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Modern Farmer: There are a lot of steps to get a vegetable from the field to your bowl of soup. As the purchaser and decision-maker, what do you prioritize?
Sara Polon: You know, we always used to talk about the story of our food. That was one of the phrases we turned to a lot when it came to staying focused as a company. But we were really looking at growing practices, like ensuring things were sustainable, and we hadn’t paid enough attention
Costco; Design: Better Homes & Gardens
Movies and TV shows have inspired interior design choices for a long time. Who doesn’t want their home to look like a Nancy Meyers film come to life? Wes Anderson’s playful and colorful film sets have inspired people to bring that iconic, quirky look home. And I’m sure purple living rooms have become more commonplace thanks to Friends.
There's perhaps no flower that's inspired more poetry, art, and prose than a rose. From formal rose gardens surrounded by boxwood hedges to cottage gardens overflowing with roses, foxglove, and native flowers, these layered blooms are held up as the star of the garden. They're carefully pruned into formal arrangements and allowed to climb and cascade over charming trellises.
Last week, a federal judge struck down a Trump Administration decision to take wolves off the endangered species list, restoring federal protection of some gray wolves in the country—meaning they can no longer be hunted.
Collaborative post
Collaborative post
Collaborative post
Collaborative post
Collaborative post
Collaborative post
While it’s been predicted for quite a while now that the once-favored gray is on its way out, that certainly doesn’t mean neutrals are going away entirely. In fact, some might argue they’re heating up… and the tones are getting warmer, too.
You may recognize those unsightly raised ridges and bumps all over your lawn as the handiwork ofmoles digging around for their dinners. But some types of tunneling are caused by a different small mammal called a vole. While moles typically make a mess of lawns, voles can be destructive throughout your garden.