Written by Clare Yue Lou
Summer 2016
Our mission is to ‘Undo’ the food. We want to reconnect families and especially their kids back to where the food comes from.
–Back To The Roots Family
Summer 2016 is going to be one of the most special and memorable summer in my life. Partially because I had my first full-time internship, but mostly because I got a chance to do things that I have been really passion about.
Right after my last final, I started my product development internship at Back to the Roots (BTTR). As many of you may have heard of, BTTR is a food startup with “undoing” food as their mission. They truly believe that the simplest food is the healthiest one for our body and transparency is one of the main feature that makes BTTR unique and standout.
I heard of BTTR during the Edible Education 101 class I took in Fall 2015. I was impressed by how two co-founders started their company with homegrown mushroom and how brave they were for walking into Alice Water’s restaurant and asking her for the sponsorship. After the class, I started to pay more attention to the company and I realized that the more I know about them, the more I wanted to work for them because their mission aligns well with mine and I could sense them making big efforts to try to improve the broken food system. My dream finally came true when summer 2016 arrived.
From the first day that I joined the BTTR team to the last day I leave the office, I could not find anything I don’t like. All I have been getting from BTTR is love, care, and passion. Everyone in the team is truly in love with what he or she is doing and the office holds such a high energy level. To each other in the team, we are a family. Not only does everyone call BTTR fam, but also they treat BTTR as their second home. Before I received my big independent projects, I already knew that I would work with my full energy to bring some excitement to BTTR fam.
3-Month internship felt really short to me. Although the work could be stressful, I eventually managed through and most importantly, I learned a lot. One of the projects I worked on was getting BTTR into the biodynamic movement. From researching, I learned that biodynamic is the ideal situation of organic. Without introducing any outside resources, biodynamic farm forms a self supply cycle. Everything comes from the farm goes back to the farm. Realizing the movement is still at its beginning in the US, BTTR decided to be the force and push the movement in the US to a new chapter. It soon launched the nation’s first biodynamic cereals and then more excitingly, it got into Costco with the lead of its biodynamic cinnamon cereals. Getting into Costco means BTTR is exposed to millions of families, which means more families are going to get educated on how important simple eating is and what environmental benefits biodynamic farming practice can bring.
I have always been passion about food and want to do something to improve the current food system. What BTTR brings to me is the opportunity to apply my knowledge and passion to the real practice. When I saw my work incorporated into BTTR’s products, besides feeling proud, I got more motivated. What makes this summer unique is that I finally got to see myself making some changes in the food movement. I am really thankful for the BTTR fam for giving me this chance to work with the team, and being patient teaching me on the things I did not know. I am glad to find a group of supportive people who have the same passion and energy as I do. It is sad to leave the company but I am excited for school to start because I want to learn more knowledge and apply them to the real world problems.
Thank you Back To The Roots. Thank you for making my summer special. Thank you for making me realize what I have been learning and where my passion goes.
I have always been passion about food and want to do something to improve the current food system