Shiri and Ash at the Thistle facility in Vacaville
When Ashwin Cheriyan and Shiri Avnery set out to start a business in 2013, their goal was to address the health of people and planet through providing convenient, healthy, fresh food that has a lower environmental footprint. They accomplished that goal through the creation of Thistle, today a Vacaville-based business that provides 500,000 plant-forward meals a month to customers up and down the West Coast and expanded in 2022 to include operations on the East Coast.
“If you choose a product that, by existing, is doing good, as you grow, so does your impact in a positive way,” Shiri said.
But the company’s focus on taking care of people is not only based on the food they eat – it also applies to the culture of Thistle and how it takes care of its roughly 800 employees and wider community.
It is for these reasons that Sustainable Solano is naming Thistle as a recipient of our Doing Good business recognition award. Thistle is an example of a local business that exemplifies the permaculture principles that guide Sustainable Solano’s work and that we want to recognize in others: Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share, or taking care of the planet, taking care of employees and supporting local communities.
The company’s commitment to Earth Care starts with the food. Shiri said that 80-90% of the climate impact of food-based businesses is from the food itself — from the way ingredients are grown, processed, and transported. That’s why Thistle creates meals with a lower carbon footprint by focusing on plants and sourcing meats that have less impact, such as chicken. There is no beef or dairy in their meals.
Beyond meal design, the company sources sustainably and strives toward reducing its impact in its operations through carbon offsets for customer deliveries, reducing food waste, and focusing on reusable delivery packaging.
Thistle started in 2013 as an off-hours endeavor for Ash and Shiri, who started out with a cold-pressed juice business and made the numbers work by renting space at night in an establishment that had the right equipment. By running a 6 pm to 6 am graveyard shift, they could use the otherwise idle equipment to create their products and grow their brand. They started having third parties produce food items for them, but quickly realized that in order to have the control they were looking for over nutrition, affordability and quality, they needed to move that work in-house.
In 2015, they started renting space in Berkeley, grew into space in Oakland, then more space in Berkeley, and then were looking to grow even more. They also changed their business model, shifting from being an on-demand meals business, which generated a lot of food waste, to a subscription model that allowed them to predict demand better.
That’s how they landed in Vacaville in September 2020. Since making that move, Thistle has grown West Coast operations three times in size, with a peak volume of 135,000 meals a week coming out of that facility.
They said they selected Vacaville because it was business-friendly and still close enough for people they employed in Berkeley and Oakland to commute. It also provided great access to regional farms and was strategically located for delivering meals to the north and south.
“When the food is fresh and perishable, that time matters,” Shiri said.
Jordan, Ash and Shiri in the Vacaville warehouse
The business prides itself on sourcing seasonally with a rotating weekly menu refreshed each season, which means that a large warehouse is full of shelf-stable ingredients, such as grains and spices, but there is only a small refrigerated space for holding produce because it is quickly turned into meals and distributed by the end of each week. Thistle goes through about 37,000 pounds of greens each month.
Today, Thistle does everything from procurement to preparation to delivery of the meals it creates. This is an opportunity to find ways to streamline processes, to make sure the quality and customer experience is positive, and to build the culture of the business around the people who do the work.
“The food we make — it doesn’t work well with robots. We’re here locally and depend on people to do the bulk of our work,” said Jordan Lichman, Vacaville director of plant operations. He said the company has programs to ensure that people are trained well, and have opportunities to grow and stay with the company. This focus on employees addresses People Care.
Everyone who works at Thistle is an employee, from the staff who prepare and package the meals to about 500 part-time employees who drive them to delivery hubs as far as Seattle and San Diego on the West Coast and that final mile to the doorstep. Thistle has around 230 employees at the Vacaville facility, another 140 on the East Coast, and about 75 corporate employees.
Ash said this imparts a level of care and pride in the work and the brand that cannot be overstated.
“None of this happens without great people who really care,” he said.
They will host “family dinners” where Jordan and plant leadership cook a meal for everyone, and host monthly listening sessions. There are quarterly staff recognition events. Thistle creates a space where employees can speak their minds and share from their experiences in ways that help to improve the business.
Employees package meals for delivery
Employees also have opportunities for advancement within the company. The day-to-day work can be learned, but the values of curiosity, hard work, reliability and teamwork are what make people essential to the business, Ash said. Thistle’s job is then to give them the skills they need to advance to the next level. An employee who starts with Thistle and is promoted from within knows the culture best and how things are done at Thistle, which carries over into their leadership and then training of new employees.
And some of the benefits for employees also translate into benefits for the environment and community through Fair Share. Thistle tries to minimize food waste, but slightly overproduces meals each week as part of quality assurance or sometimes has products that have gone past their “best by” date. Extra meals are offered up to employees to take home and distributed through community partners such the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. For products that are no longer able to go into the meals, whether withered greens or expired lentils, those are given as high-quality animal feed to The Lucky Ones Ranch, a nonprofit animal sanctuary in Vacaville.
There are challenges. There is a desire to source local, organic, regenerative produce when possible, but sometimes there are barriers – in particular balancing the high cost of ingredients with the desire to keep the finished meals affordable, as well as smaller local farmers having less infrastructure in place to wash and prep produce for large businesses such as Thistle. The business does source most produce within 150 miles of its facility.
There is also the challenge of delivering food in single-use plastic containers. Shiri said they have tried alternatives, but none have held up for freshness. As the company continues to explore options, they have partnered with rePurpose Global to try to offset their plastic footprint by funding the recovery and ethical processing of nature-and ocean-bound plastic. They also package in 100% recyclable PET plastic that is made from 15% post-consumer materials and manufactured with 15% solar energy, and they take back and reuse the cooler bags and ice packs used to deliver the meals.
“It’s progress, not perfection,” Shiri said. Small steps and continuous improvement make a difference, and over time, it adds up to a lot.
Ash recalls in the early days wondering if donating excess made that much of a difference, since it was only a few meals when Thistle was small and growing.
“Taking that step is important,” he said. “Don’t be shy about taking a small action that can do a little bit of good.”
