Salsa as a social good with Kawartha Lakes Food Source
Kawartha Lakes Food Source (KLFS) is a community not-for-profit organization focused on reducing hunger in the City of Kawartha Lakes, acting as a donation hub and distributing products to local food banks.
Learn about the project below.
Project Essentials
- Principal Investigators: Kassandra Wagner
- Years Active: 2020
- Research Area: Food & Beverage
The Challenge
Kawartha Lakes Food Source (KLFS) wanted to add a new revenue stream to their operations to supplement their private donations. As a not-for-profit organization, diversification of revenue is essential. The organization set out to create a line of Mexican-style salsa for retail sales. KLFS approached FIRSt for assistance in the development of the Mexican-style salsa, as the world of retail product development was un-charted territory. The FIRSt team developed this salsa formulation for KLFS in fall/winter 2020.
The GBC Solution
The first step was to find the right ingredients: the company wanted to incorporate at least one ingredient from the Kawartha Lakes area, but the rest were sourced by the FIRSt team. Next, KLFS was invited to an in-person feedback session at the FIRSt labs to taste initial prototypes. Taking on the feedback from that session, the salsa formulation was finalized. The FIRSt team provided the scalable formula to KLFS along with a Nutrition Facts Table.
The Result
The FIRSt team delivered a complete (and delicious!) salsa formulation, scaled to the volumes used at KLFS’s manufacturing space. With this in hand, the KLFS team went back to their manufacturer in March 2021 and complete their first test batch run. With a successful branding package developed, the product launched successfully, and KLFS will be able to produce this product to generate revenue for their community-based programming.
