Help Vince Get Onto Supermarket Shelves 🥕🍅🌱
By Debbie Stowe
PledgeMe.Project
Food,
NZ $10,135 pledged
83 people pledged
Closed
NZ $10,000 minimum target
This campaign was successful and closed on 15/12/2023 at 12:00 PM.
Make a PledgeAbout
Help Vince Get Onto Supermarket Shelves 🥕🍅🌱
Project 2023-07-19 11:56:44 +1200
Vince = Vegetable Mince
Vince exists to make it easier for you, your children and your family to eat more veggies, every day. We are experts at helping you hide loads of veggies in your meals.
Made from fresh NZ-grown veggies, crafted into a range of mixes to add to your mincey dishes for a nutrition boost or eat on its own as a vegetarian meal.
Vince has a super clean label and is made from cauliflower, tomato, carrot, celery, onion, peanuts, herbs and spices. Vince lives in your pantry and only requires 1 cup of boiling water to transform a 100g pack into a 350g ready meal.
Our Slow-Dried production techniques ensure that we lock in the concentrated vitamins and nutrients that our fresh NZ veggies have on offer.
Why are we raising funds?
Last year, we won Foodstarter, a competition up against 170 other NZ Food Producers (we also won the NZ food awards in 2021!)
The winner of this prize gets their product on EVERY New World shelf right across New Zealand, that's 156 stores!
BUT ... our current production facility is too small, and we need larger equipment to make enough Vince to supply all of New Zealand, currently we can only supply about 40.
We need your help. By purchasing our rewards, you get us a step closer to our plan of being on a New World shelf in every town. We are aiming to launch in April 2024.
Ngawha Innovation Park and The Food Bowl
Over the past couple of years we have been engaging with Ngawha Innovation Park here in Northland. They are planning a shared food manufacturing facility with the help of the Food Innovation Network.
Moving to a model where we produce VInce at a larger scale will help us grow our capabilites and supply Vince nationwide.
The shared facility is due to be completed in 2024, so we will use The Food Bowl (part of the Food Innovation Network) in Auckland while we wait for the completion. Manufacturing at the Food Bowl means we can produce x10 to x20 the amount we can currently make.
 |
 |
Each production run will cost 8 - 10K for ingredients, labour and facility hire. We will use the funds raised through Pledgeme for our first production run. If we pass our minimum target and put funds toward a second production run.
Moving to a shared facility also means.....no peanuts! So, I am working on replacing peanuts with an alternate source of protein.
A bit about us...
So, you might be wondering what started us with the idea of making delicious dried veggie mixes, right?
Our family's problem
Well, it all grew from our family's health journey. And guess what? That same reason still keeps us going strong. We're all about making it easy and tasty for people to increase their veggie intake.
When our little one, Olivia, was just a baby, she was dealing with some serious eczema issues. Picture this – one night, we're slathering her in creams, wrapping her up in bandages, and practically having a mini wrestling match to give her meds. Tears all around, from her and us. We hit a breaking point. It was crystal clear that we needed to find another way to help Olivia because she was in constant discomfort, and nothing seemed to help.
The solution - which led to Vince
|
That's when Nige went on an internet deep dive. And guess what he found? Lots of people were getting relief by cutting out dairy, gluten, and meat from their diets. It was a lightbulb moment. By giving Olivia's tummy a bit of a break, her body started bouncing back, and finally, she got much needed relief. So, our family jumped on board with this new way of eating, not just to support Olivia, but also because the evidence showed that it could be a game-changer for our own health too. |
We were running a cafe in Whangarei at the time, and we overhauled our menu, making our dishes more vege-centric. The customers loved it, and as a Chef I enjoyed discovering new ways of making healthy options taste amazing. One of our most popular meals was the Nacho dish which was completely vegetarian. People assumed there was meat in the dish as they were accustomed to it. Some would get halfway through their meal and realise it was all veggies, but loved it regardless. No complaints, only love.
Fast forward a couple of years after we sold the cafe, Nigel moved back into IT, and I was looking for my next venture. I had been using dehydration through the cafe to add interest to my menu. At home, I had created a veggie mince for my family after being disappointed with the meat alts offered at the supermarkets. We had moved to a veggie-filled diet for our health, so eating overly processed meat alternatives felt counter-intuitive. With my experience in dehydration, it seemed like a natural progression to try and dry my veggie mince. When we realised how great this tasted, how easy it made it to prepare a veggie-rich meal and how simple it would be to ship it worldwide - we launched Vince (Veggie Mince). Easy as that (laugh out loud).
We are super stoked to have won so many awards as experts and judges tasted Vince for the first time.
Winning the NZ Food awards up against some huge household names like Whittakers chocolate was awesome!
However it was our last national award that was a game-changer. We were offered full-ranging across New World nationwide.
We have learnt a lot from our customers along the way.
One great insight they gave us was adding Vince to small portions of beef mince. It made so much sense.
It is the perfect way to increase the health of a meat-based mince dish. It adds fibre, nutrients and flavour and reduces saturated fat.
And still produces a meal in 5 minutes!
We love wonky veggies!
Vince uses wonky veggies as much as possible and we aim to use them more and more as we grow.
As a startup, our cashflow is tight so we need to raise the funds to move our prodcution to The Food Bowl and Ngawha Innovation Park.
It would be amazing to have your support, in exchange for bags of Vince or boxes full of veg, so we can continue our mission of making it easier to eat more veggies.
Comments
Updates 5
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11/12/2023 at 9:10 PM
How amazing! We have reached our target!
Thank you for your support. It is so uplifting to know that you believe in our mission.
One thing I have learned on this startup journey is that you don't do it alone. Knowing that I have people willing to pledge and support Vince is such a gift.
After our launch into NZ, I plan to do a crowdfund for shares in Vince in 2024 or 2025 when we are ready to take Vince to export. Stay tuned!
Debs & Nige
Embracing Change ❤
17/11/2023 at 5:08 PM
A massive thank you to all of you that have pledged.
It has been amazing to have your support to help us grow Vince.
Since we started this campaign, we have hit a few speed bumps, as many start-ups do.
These bumps in the road have forced us to take a good look at how we could improve our operations
Over the past couple of years we have been engaging with Ngawha Innovation Park here in Northland. They are planning a shared food manufacturing facility with the help of the Food Innovation Network.
Moving to a model where we produce VInce at a larger scale will help us grow our capabilities and supply Vince nationwide.
The shared facility is due to be completed in 2024, so we will use The Food Bowl (part of the Food Innovation Network) in Auckland while we wait for the completion. Manufacturing at the Food Bowl means we can produce x10 to x20 the amount we currently produce in one batch.
 |
|
What does this mean for our PledgeMe campaign?
Unfortunately, our partnership with Taimahi Trust is no longer viable. We will need such large volumes of chopped vegetables for each batch that it must occur at The Food Bowl.
Each production run will cost 8 - 10K for ingredients, labour and facility hire. We will use the funds raised through Pledgeme for our first production run. If we pass our minimum target we will put funds toward a second production run.
Moving to a shared facility also means.....no peanuts! So, I am working on replacing peanuts with an alternate source of protein. If you want to help me taste test the new recipe, please let me know at [email protected]. I would love your feedback.
Ordering larger volumes of veggies means we can work with organisations such as Perfectly Imperfect and use wonky veggies, which has been one of our goals.
Most rewards will stay the same, and I will add a few new ones.
I understand that your pledge may have been based on our partnership with Taimahi. If you would like to change your pledge, please email [email protected]
Thank you for your support.
The future of Vince is exciting and I am looking forward to our next steps.
All the best,
Debs
You need to pledge to see this update.
Fund Female Founders Showcase
11/10/2023 at 2:55 PM
Ministry of Awesome and PledgeMe have organised an online event on October 19th to showcase a few of their female founder campaigns, including ours!
Yipeeeeeeee....... we have reached our first $1,000.
10/10/2023 at 9:59 AM
Thank you to all of our early pledgers getting us over $1,000!
We truely appreciate your support in helping us reach our 1st milestone.
Pledgers 83
24/10/2023 at 1:51pm
23/10/2023 at 8:36pm
22/10/2023 at 12:15pm
"Way to go Debbie."
20/10/2023 at 12:49pm
"Go Debbie! Your product is delicious and the work you’re doing is awesome! Philip from Upstock"
19/10/2023 at 7:44pm
19/10/2023 at 5:57pm
"Love the story and love the mahi! Wish I could give more!"
19/10/2023 at 5:56pm
"Go Vince! You've got this! Hang in there."
19/10/2023 at 5:51pm
19/10/2023 at 5:50pm
19/10/2023 at 5:50pm
19/10/2023 at 5:39pm
"Such an awesome product - we love taking it with us on hiking trips :) good luck with the new chopper!"
19/10/2023 at 5:38pm
"Ka pai Debbie, love your work! please donate this veggie box to a local family in need!"
19/10/2023 at 5:37pm
"Loving the practicality and your innovative and local supply partnership. Tautoko!"
19/10/2023 at 5:35pm
18/10/2023 at 9:44am
"Good luck with your efforts to supercharge your production! From fellow (veggie) Pledgeme crowdfunders aiming to create a better planet :)"
16/10/2023 at 2:36pm
15/10/2023 at 6:48pm
"All the best, excited to see this great product fly!"
14/10/2023 at 10:54pm
"Team Vince 👏 "
14/10/2023 at 2:15pm
13/10/2023 at 8:35pm
"Love veges! What a brilliant idea! "
13/10/2023 at 4:49pm
"All the best guys, so happy to support this! "
13/10/2023 at 3:00pm
"Yay Debbie! Love what you are creating! Can't wait to get me some Vince!"
13/10/2023 at 1:37pm
"Love the bulk bag option!"
13/10/2023 at 11:02am
13/10/2023 at 6:19am
"Love your mahi team! "
12/10/2023 at 2:20pm
12/10/2023 at 1:46pm
12/10/2023 at 8:30am
"Fantastic idea! "
12/10/2023 at 8:12am
"You have made a delicious, easy to use product that we very much enjoy in our house. I love your plans to take it further - good luck!"
12/10/2023 at 7:55am
"Congrats on your expansion!"
Followers 3
Followers of Help Vince Get Onto Supermarket Shelves 🥕🍅🌱
Help Vince Get Onto Supermarket Shelves 🥕🍅🌱
Project 2023-07-19 11:56:44 +1200
Vince = Vegetable Mince
Vince exists to make it easier for you, your children and your family to eat more veggies, every day. We are experts at helping you hide loads of veggies in your meals.
Made from fresh NZ-grown veggies, crafted into a range of mixes to add to your mincey dishes for a nutrition boost or eat on its own as a vegetarian meal.
Vince has a super clean label and is made from cauliflower, tomato, carrot, celery, onion, peanuts, herbs and spices. Vince lives in your pantry and only requires 1 cup of boiling water to transform a 100g pack into a 350g ready meal.
Our Slow-Dried production techniques ensure that we lock in the concentrated vitamins and nutrients that our fresh NZ veggies have on offer.
Why are we raising funds?
Last year, we won Foodstarter, a competition up against 170 other NZ Food Producers (we also won the NZ food awards in 2021!)
The winner of this prize gets their product on EVERY New World shelf right across New Zealand, that's 156 stores!
BUT ... our current production facility is too small, and we need larger equipment to make enough Vince to supply all of New Zealand, currently we can only supply about 40.
We need your help. By purchasing our rewards, you get us a step closer to our plan of being on a New World shelf in every town. We are aiming to launch in April 2024.
Ngawha Innovation Park and The Food Bowl
Over the past couple of years we have been engaging with Ngawha Innovation Park here in Northland. They are planning a shared food manufacturing facility with the help of the Food Innovation Network.
Moving to a model where we produce VInce at a larger scale will help us grow our capabilites and supply Vince nationwide.
The shared facility is due to be completed in 2024, so we will use The Food Bowl (part of the Food Innovation Network) in Auckland while we wait for the completion. Manufacturing at the Food Bowl means we can produce x10 to x20 the amount we can currently make.
|
|
Each production run will cost 8 - 10K for ingredients, labour and facility hire. We will use the funds raised through Pledgeme for our first production run. If we pass our minimum target and put funds toward a second production run.
Moving to a shared facility also means.....no peanuts! So, I am working on replacing peanuts with an alternate source of protein.
A bit about us...
So, you might be wondering what started us with the idea of making delicious dried veggie mixes, right?
Our family's problem
Well, it all grew from our family's health journey. And guess what? That same reason still keeps us going strong. We're all about making it easy and tasty for people to increase their veggie intake.
When our little one, Olivia, was just a baby, she was dealing with some serious eczema issues. Picture this – one night, we're slathering her in creams, wrapping her up in bandages, and practically having a mini wrestling match to give her meds. Tears all around, from her and us. We hit a breaking point. It was crystal clear that we needed to find another way to help Olivia because she was in constant discomfort, and nothing seemed to help.
The solution - which led to Vince
|
That's when Nige went on an internet deep dive. And guess what he found? Lots of people were getting relief by cutting out dairy, gluten, and meat from their diets. It was a lightbulb moment. By giving Olivia's tummy a bit of a break, her body started bouncing back, and finally, she got much needed relief. So, our family jumped on board with this new way of eating, not just to support Olivia, but also because the evidence showed that it could be a game-changer for our own health too. |
We were running a cafe in Whangarei at the time, and we overhauled our menu, making our dishes more vege-centric. The customers loved it, and as a Chef I enjoyed discovering new ways of making healthy options taste amazing. One of our most popular meals was the Nacho dish which was completely vegetarian. People assumed there was meat in the dish as they were accustomed to it. Some would get halfway through their meal and realise it was all veggies, but loved it regardless. No complaints, only love.
Fast forward a couple of years after we sold the cafe, Nigel moved back into IT, and I was looking for my next venture. I had been using dehydration through the cafe to add interest to my menu. At home, I had created a veggie mince for my family after being disappointed with the meat alts offered at the supermarkets. We had moved to a veggie-filled diet for our health, so eating overly processed meat alternatives felt counter-intuitive. With my experience in dehydration, it seemed like a natural progression to try and dry my veggie mince. When we realised how great this tasted, how easy it made it to prepare a veggie-rich meal and how simple it would be to ship it worldwide - we launched Vince (Veggie Mince). Easy as that (laugh out loud).
We are super stoked to have won so many awards as experts and judges tasted Vince for the first time.
Winning the NZ Food awards up against some huge household names like Whittakers chocolate was awesome!
However it was our last national award that was a game-changer. We were offered full-ranging across New World nationwide.
We have learnt a lot from our customers along the way.
One great insight they gave us was adding Vince to small portions of beef mince. It made so much sense.
It is the perfect way to increase the health of a meat-based mince dish. It adds fibre, nutrients and flavour and reduces saturated fat.
And still produces a meal in 5 minutes!
We love wonky veggies!
Vince uses wonky veggies as much as possible and we aim to use them more and more as we grow.
As a startup, our cashflow is tight so we need to raise the funds to move our prodcution to The Food Bowl and Ngawha Innovation Park.
It would be amazing to have your support, in exchange for bags of Vince or boxes full of veg, so we can continue our mission of making it easier to eat more veggies.
Comments
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
11/12/2023 at 9:10 PM
How amazing! We have reached our target!
Thank you for your support. It is so uplifting to know that you believe in our mission.
One thing I have learned on this startup journey is that you don't do it alone. Knowing that I have people willing to pledge and support Vince is such a gift.
After our launch into NZ, I plan to do a crowdfund for shares in Vince in 2024 or 2025 when we are ready to take Vince to export. Stay tuned!
Debs & Nige
Embracing Change ❤
17/11/2023 at 5:08 PM
A massive thank you to all of you that have pledged.
It has been amazing to have your support to help us grow Vince.
Since we started this campaign, we have hit a few speed bumps, as many start-ups do.
These bumps in the road have forced us to take a good look at how we could improve our operations
Over the past couple of years we have been engaging with Ngawha Innovation Park here in Northland. They are planning a shared food manufacturing facility with the help of the Food Innovation Network.
Moving to a model where we produce VInce at a larger scale will help us grow our capabilities and supply Vince nationwide.
The shared facility is due to be completed in 2024, so we will use The Food Bowl (part of the Food Innovation Network) in Auckland while we wait for the completion. Manufacturing at the Food Bowl means we can produce x10 to x20 the amount we currently produce in one batch.
|
|
What does this mean for our PledgeMe campaign?
Unfortunately, our partnership with Taimahi Trust is no longer viable. We will need such large volumes of chopped vegetables for each batch that it must occur at The Food Bowl.
Each production run will cost 8 - 10K for ingredients, labour and facility hire. We will use the funds raised through Pledgeme for our first production run. If we pass our minimum target we will put funds toward a second production run.
Moving to a shared facility also means.....no peanuts! So, I am working on replacing peanuts with an alternate source of protein. If you want to help me taste test the new recipe, please let me know at [email protected]. I would love your feedback.
Ordering larger volumes of veggies means we can work with organisations such as Perfectly Imperfect and use wonky veggies, which has been one of our goals.
Most rewards will stay the same, and I will add a few new ones.
I understand that your pledge may have been based on our partnership with Taimahi. If you would like to change your pledge, please email [email protected]
Thank you for your support.
The future of Vince is exciting and I am looking forward to our next steps.
All the best,
Debs
You need to pledge to see this update.
Fund Female Founders Showcase
11/10/2023 at 2:55 PM
Ministry of Awesome and PledgeMe have organised an online event on October 19th to showcase a few of their female founder campaigns, including ours!
Yipeeeeeeee....... we have reached our first $1,000.
10/10/2023 at 9:59 AM
Thank you to all of our early pledgers getting us over $1,000!
We truely appreciate your support in helping us reach our 1st milestone.
24/10/2023 at 1:51pm
23/10/2023 at 8:36pm
22/10/2023 at 12:15pm
"Way to go Debbie."
20/10/2023 at 12:49pm
"Go Debbie! Your product is delicious and the work you’re doing is awesome! Philip from Upstock"
19/10/2023 at 7:44pm
19/10/2023 at 5:57pm
"Love the story and love the mahi! Wish I could give more!"
19/10/2023 at 5:56pm
"Go Vince! You've got this! Hang in there."
19/10/2023 at 5:51pm
19/10/2023 at 5:50pm
19/10/2023 at 5:50pm
19/10/2023 at 5:39pm
"Such an awesome product - we love taking it with us on hiking trips :) good luck with the new chopper!"
19/10/2023 at 5:38pm
"Ka pai Debbie, love your work! please donate this veggie box to a local family in need!"
19/10/2023 at 5:37pm
"Loving the practicality and your innovative and local supply partnership. Tautoko!"
19/10/2023 at 5:35pm
18/10/2023 at 9:44am
"Good luck with your efforts to supercharge your production! From fellow (veggie) Pledgeme crowdfunders aiming to create a better planet :)"
16/10/2023 at 2:36pm
15/10/2023 at 6:48pm
"All the best, excited to see this great product fly!"
14/10/2023 at 10:54pm
"Team Vince 👏 "
14/10/2023 at 2:15pm
13/10/2023 at 8:35pm
"Love veges! What a brilliant idea! "
13/10/2023 at 4:49pm
"All the best guys, so happy to support this! "
13/10/2023 at 3:00pm
"Yay Debbie! Love what you are creating! Can't wait to get me some Vince!"
13/10/2023 at 1:37pm
"Love the bulk bag option!"
13/10/2023 at 11:02am
13/10/2023 at 6:19am
"Love your mahi team! "
12/10/2023 at 2:20pm
12/10/2023 at 1:46pm
12/10/2023 at 8:30am
"Fantastic idea! "
12/10/2023 at 8:12am
"You have made a delicious, easy to use product that we very much enjoy in our house. I love your plans to take it further - good luck!"
12/10/2023 at 7:55am
"Congrats on your expansion!"
Followers of Help Vince Get Onto Supermarket Shelves 🥕🍅🌱
