Student group awarded $50,000 for frozen food truck

Student-run startup Seal the Seasons moved one step closer to its dream of purchasing a frozen food truck when it won the $50,000 grand prize at the 2015 Emerging Issues Forum in Raleigh.

The startup, which is run by three UNC students, plans to provide access to frozen produce for lower-income residents in Orange County by flashing freezing produce that falls short of a restaurant’s appearance standards.

“It was ourselves and a team from Duke called Canopy Scientific, and we knew we had gotten the top two position,” said Will Chapman, one of the co-founders of the startup. “We were told some time in late January, but we weren’t told which was which.”

Innovation was the Emerging Issues Forum’s theme this year. Anita Brown-Graham, director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, said she believes that everyone deserves the opportunity to implement his or her idea.

“Unless we all do a better job of engaging our young leaders in our state’s challenges, we: A, will not become the prosperous state we want to be; and B, we will not move in our rankings as an innovative state,” Brown-Graham said.

Chapman and Patrick Mateer, another co-founder, said the organization’s main goals are to improve North Carolina’s economy and make locally grown food accessible year-round.

Mateer said the win was crucial to the organization’s ongoing success.

“This enables us to really follow through with everything we’ve been talking about,” Mateer said.

Although there have been many bumps on their entrepreneurial journey, Chapman said he has no doubt the project is worth it.

“We’ve devoted this much time to it because we’re so passionate about it, but that does mean that we’ve had to make sacrifices,” Chapman said. “It’s exciting to be able to create something that developed out of what we’ve learned in school, but so much more satisfying than an assignment, project or even a master’s thesis.”

Seal the Seasons members already have plans for how they will utilize their newly obtained grant.

“This money will, in part, go to purchasing the produce and paying for the rental of the processing facility and all the packaging costs, so we can start selling in Weaver Street Market next month,” Chapman said.

Before winning this prize, the group had applied to win many other grants like the CUBE fund in the Campus Y.

Brown-Graham said she feels any student group can achieve this level of success.

“We want any student, anywhere in North Carolina, who has a passion and a vision to have an opportunity to win this award,” Brown-Graham said.

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