Distributes up to 300 healthy menus a day among hospitals

Health personnel goes out of their way to care for patients in hospitals overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic. They work to exhaustion. But who cares for the caregivers? Some initiatives seek, at least, to make life a little easier for them. One of them is that of the Catalan startup Nora Real Food, which brings healthy food to health personnel every day. "It seems silly, but you give them encouragement, strength, a moment of rest, and eating well. It doesn't cost us anything, and they appreciate it a lot," says Nora Real Food co-founder Nora Valcorba.

"We make food, so we mobilize to contribute our grain of sand," explains VallCorba, who founded the startup last year together with his mother, Nora Barata. The toilets have little time to eat in some canteens, these days, crowded. "There is a lot of pressure. Their priority is to save lives, not to eat", Vallcorba contextualizes in an interview with Business Insider.

The initiative started charitably as an idea between the two founders of the company. But they did not take long to join, voluntarily, the other workers of the startup. To reach a higher number of health professionals, they chose to create crowdfunding with which they have raised 20,700 euros. Money with which they simply supply food to their kitchen.

Right now, they serve 300 people a day between the Barcelona hospitals of Bellvitge, the Hospital del Mar and the Sant Pau hospital, and the Sant Joan Despí hospital, Moisès Broggi. "Within each center, who receives the menus is coordinated. In general, the department rotates because there are 600 workers in Bellvitge alone. We could try it, but we would not reach everyone", explains the founder, the limits of her project.

On the menu, there is battle food, such as pasta, but "we also try to have fish and salad", Vallcorba details. "In the text of the crowdfunding, it says that the menus come out to 5 euros, but in reality, they come out to 3.5 euros or 4 euros. We make a greater number of menus, and we try to make it economical".

They receive requests from many hospitals, but attending to all is impossible for them. Still, the startup is used to meeting high demand. Up to 500 orders are served daily under normal conditions. Most of its clients are large companies: Telefónica, Isdin, Sanofi, Lindt, or PepsiCo, among others. Companies, all of them that try to offer a healthy alternative to their workers in their daily diets in their collective canteens.

The company launched last year to offer healthy menus to its customers in Barcelona, ​​especially for companies. "There was no homemade robust food service for the office. That is where the idea of ​​Nora Real Food came from. We found this gap in the market, and the office managers told us that the workers wanted this type of food. Our company was evolving as a digital canteen, "says Valcorba.

Nora Real Food closed the year with a turnover of 700,000 million euros. Among his plans were to operate in Madrid in 2022 and close 2020 with a turnover of 1.6 million euros. "Now I do not know how we will close," Valcorba acknowledges when faced with the coronavirus evasion, although he advances that the company was already profitable. Nora Real Food is in the process of closing a round of financing of 800,000 euros. Even with some agreements to settle to reach the figure, the startup already has among its investors the Comaypunto restaurant group, owner of brands such as La Burguesa.

The clients of this startup are, for the most part, the workers of large companies that opt ​​for a healthier diet. "More and more companies are trying to take care of millennial workers because they change a lot of jobs," explains the founder, one of the talent retention mechanisms of large companies.

Enjoyed this article? Stay informed by joining our newsletter!

Comments

You must be logged in to post a comment.

About Author