Evan Delahanty, the Akron area founder of Peaceful Fruits fruit strips, will pitch his venture on the hit ABC show Shark Tank on Feb. 10 in an effort to score investment bucks from the panel of well-heeled, often snarky, entrepreneurs.
Delahanty, a former Peace Corps worker in South America, uses acai berries harvested in the Amazon region in Brazil, in the snacks.
Workers at the new Hattie’s Food Hub in West Akron make strips and workers at Blick Center in Fairlawn package them. Hattie’s Food Hub is among the businesses that serve as work-training programs for the nonprofit Hattie Larlham, which provides services to people with disabilities. The nonprofit Blick Center (formerly Blick Clinic) aso serves people with disabilities.
The blueberry-like acai berry, native to the Amazon region and not well known outside Central and South America until a decade or so ago, is high in antioxidants, which work to prevent some of the cell damage caused by “free radicals” in the body.
The Shark Tank episode — recorded last year — will air at 9 p.m. on Channel 5 (WEWS). Panelists for the are Mark Cuban, Lori Greiner, Robert Herjave, .Daymond John and Kevin O’Leary.
The evening of the airing, Peaceful Fruits will host a by invitation only watch party and Q&A from 8:00 to 10:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at the Mustard Seed Market & Cafe at 867 W. Market St. in Highland Square.
Delahanty started working on his venture after two years serving with the Peace Corps as a project manager and community economic
development specialist in the Amazon.
Since pilot production began in late 2015, Peaceful Fruits has sold more than $25,000 of snacks online and through local retailers such as Mustard Seed (with stores in Bath Township, Solon and Highland Square) and Krieger’s Market in Cuyahoga Falls, according to the Economic Community Development Institute (ECDI) in Cleveland, which oversees a food-based business training program in which Delahanty participated.