Thrilled to be helping support these groups with stock donations over the next couple of weeks. They'll be used for different things - sold to help raise funds, used as part of fundraising raffles, used in street outreach, samples for uni open days etc. The Dominion ExperienceMonash Vegan Society - MVSRMIT Vegan ClubOne Step For AnimalsAnimal Activist CollectiveWildlife VictoriaVictorian Lamb Rescue Inc.Melbourne Goat SaveLamb Care Australia Huge thanks for all the valuable work these groups do! ps - for those in Melbourne come along to The Cruelty Free Shop's volunteer info event where many groups will be sharing how to get...
Our first uni stockist ! Stoked to receive our first order from a campus, The University of Queensland! (level 4 in the union building) Hopefully it's the first of many we can make our way to - definitely want to be amongst the students who are going to fix stuff and make the world better in years to come :) This milestone is also meaningful personally. UQ is where my better half Grace studied teaching, and her eyes lit up when she heard the news 🥰 Now if I can only figure out a way to get into Melb Uni.... 😂 ps - if...
Had a call this morning with someone looking to start their own vegan distribution business. I shared our experience figuring out storage, also different ways to work - broker vs importer/distributor and she seemed keen to explore and take next steps to get it off the ground... It reminded me to share this page on our website about ways we can help your project (all for free of course): https://bitesociety.com/pages/helping-each-other It's a core part of our mission and hope we can reach a bunch of folks this year... Do get in touch if you'd like to chat about your project...
Fascinating new research!Turns out more omnivores support veganism: "...most people already agree with the ethics of veganism and are aware of the benefits of vegan diets to the environment"BUT.... "barriers are practical matters of taste, PRICE, and convenience"Definitely lines up with our mission - to make veganism much more acceptable to the masses one critical aspect is lowering the cost to be competitive with animal-ag.For us, though we are one of the cheapest vegan milky chocs here in Aus, still a ways to go to reach true price parity with big dairy confectionery aisle pricing...#biteforwhatsrighthttps://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200108102257.htm
40 degrees in Melbourne 🥵 This is definitely the hottest day we've ever sent out stock on. Ideally I would have liked to delay til a cooler day, but had a few stockists in other states who really new stock in before the xmas week. Our plan to charge for 1 less quantity in the invoices so the shops can open a pack on arrival and check, before they put the rest on sale. Worst case we'll have to send new stock over, but hopefully our gel pack + insulated wrap can hold up... we'll find out ps - yesterday was...
As part of brainstorming designs for our possible new products for next year, we stumbled across this photo from a supermarket in Chile. What's striking is the lack of any mascots. No Captain Crunch, no Tony the Tiger, not a character to be seen...Turns out its part of new anti-obesity regulations introduced last year:"The Chilean government, facing skyrocketing rates of obesity, is waging war on unhealthy foods with a phalanx of marketing restrictions, mandatory packaging redesigns and labeling rules aimed at transforming the eating habits of 18 million people."Back to BITE, yes we want our chocolates to be loved and...
As an outsider, it's been eye-opening to learn about the tricks and tactics used in the food industry. As one example, ingredient labels, which are regulated to be ordered by weight. Let's look at this bottle of vinegar I saw this morning. Notice the ingredients listed as "Vinegar (Water, Vinegar)", rather than simply: "Water, Vinegar" Why would the company choose a more complicated (and confusingly circular) definition using a "compound" ingredient, rather than the simpler one? If I had to guess, it would be so that someone skimming the label quickly would just register Vinegar as the first word, which...
A few weeks back I got an intriguing email: "I'm a 19 year old studying food science in Melbourne, and I would love the opportunity to work with Bite Society; as an intern, volunteer, or whatever other role you might have. ...I'm vegan and passionate about helping others; people, animals, the environment. I've done some research into your mission and what you guys are doing, and I'd really love to be a part of it" So I met up for coffee with Danika to chat about her background and the project and what might be interesting for her to get...
Earlier this week I dropped off some new prototypes, and while I was waiting in the lobby of her building, I saw this brilliant "worry monster" display... How it works is that you write down your worry on a piece of paper and "feed" it to the monster, rather than letting it eat you up keeping it to yourself. Got me thinking about all the stress of running a small business, and all the worries that come up. There are tons, especially in the early days when you're struggling to find a product-market fit, and make things work with tough time...
Mixed feelings reading this article about a company (Thank You)Â I've admired as a great example as a "doing good" company..On one hand, they've managed to raise millions over the years for charity, which is very impressive and has done a large amount of good in the world (and also influenced many people with their message)But on the other hand, spending less than half their profit on charity last year (meant to be 100%), large expenses on travel & entertainment, high office and salary costs (including not disclosing executive pay) despite being positioned as an open organization was a bit of...
So lately we've started first few outreach to different media, in an attempt to try to get the Bite Society name and mission known. We figure getting covered will not only help with attracting interest from potential partners (especially looking for international distributors) but as importantly, start to get our learnings and story out to the industry and hoepfully to reach other vegan founders / to be. Which is kind of the bigger goal of the project. So was very happy to see this great article published by Food Navigator Asia, one of the learning news and analysis sites in...
Over the last few months we've helped with advice to several founders for their vegan startups, as well as donating stock to various non profits & mission organizations. So thought it would be a good time to add a dedicated webpage to explain the ways we can help:https://bitesociety.com/pages/helping-each-other This is actually the real goal of the BITE project in the long term, so feels great to get it up and running, and build it out as we learn and grow 🌱 ps - if you're thinking of your own vegan project and we can support with advice in any way, do...
Dropped off some donated choc bloks to Emma from the Animal Liberation Victoria team this morning 🌱They'll be including them in their goodie bag for their big Vegala - Exclusively Vegan Cocktail Party, which is shaping up to be an amazing event... If you're in Melbourne on Oct 26th, want to support a great cause and have a brilliant night grab your tickets hereLovely to meet Emma, Noah, Eric from the team, who get a lot done with very little... got to love that spirit!It's interesting about how we think about donations to non profits and mission aligned charities. On...
I'm giving away some unused domain names for vegan projects (got a bunch extra while searching for Bite Society and another project) Grab em while they're hot!
