Campbell Soup selects winners in Real Food Innovation Challenge

Campbell Soup has announced a partnership with Foodworks Brooklyn, a kitchen incubator dedicated to growing early-stage retail and wholesale food businesses, in order to assist up-and-coming food innovators with a passion for real food. The partnership includes a Real Food Innovation Challenge and a mentorship program between Campbell experts and Foodworks members.

Campbell hosted the Real Food Innovation Challenge at Foodworks’ commercial kitchens in Brooklyn on July 25. The Challenge identified three innovative food entrepreneurs and awarded them funding to pursue their concepts at Foodworks. Red Velvet NYC, a gourmet DIY baking kit designed to simplify home baking via delivery of premeasured local and recognizable ingredients and detailed recipe cards to make impressive desserts, was selected as the winning concept and awarded a $10,000 credit toward its Foodworks membership.

Watermelon Road, a natural, clean snacks company with fruit and vegetable jerkies, and Better Almond Butter, an organic sprouted almond spread that uses Marcona almonds from Spain, were selected as runners-up. Each was awarded $5,000 to be used toward their Foodworks memberships. Zesty Z, Keepers, BoonBox, and Hany’s also participated in the pitch session, sharing beverage and snack concepts.

“We believe that supporting the next wave of food entrepreneurs is critical to cultivate the future of real food,” said Emily Waldorf, vice president of corporate strategy at Campbell Soup. “Working with Foodworks is an opportunity for Campbell to empower industry disruptors, have a window into entrepreneurs and their thinking, and apply it to the way we approach innovation.”

The second part of the partnership is a mentorship program that offers Foodworks members the ongoing opportunity to tap into Campbell experts for counsel on topics such as branding, marketing, product development, and packaging.

Press release