Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Spring 2016 | Page 4

Matt Davis ’07:

Building a more sustainable
food supply chain

Founded in 2012, Blue Apron employs
over 2,500 people nationwide, many of
whom measure, package, and ship the
precise amount of fresh ingredients
- veggies, spices, herbs, seafood, and
meats (with corresponding recipes) to your door. If you’re thinking pizza
delivery, stop right there. We’re not
talking about the spaghetti and red
sauce that many of us might manage
on a work night, but Seared Steaks &
Peanut Noodles or Jamaican Curry
Chili or Cod Kedgeree with Basmati
Rice, Eggs & Frizzled Onion, all made
yourself from scratch. Of course, I didn’t
want to stop at just interviewing Matt, so
I signed my daughter up to receive the
meal deliveries as she’s off on her own
in an apartment for the first time. She
raved about the food and so I plowed on
to learn more.
Matt explained what the back end of this
operation looks like and his role in it.
“For me, the day-to-day operation is all
about the boots on the ground in Blue
Apron’s Fulfillment Centers. There are
three of them nationwide in Jersey City,
Arlington, TX, and Richmond, CA.
This is where we portion ingredients
and create Blue Apron boxes (Matt
is holding one in the cover photo).
Over the past two years, I’ve seen
that footprint grow substantially with
hundreds of thousands of square feet of
additional space and thousands of new
employees. Now we’re shipping out over
5 million meals per month.”

BY PATRICIA
ERIKSON

Director of Operations Matt
Davis ’07 pauses at the Blue
Apron’s test kitchen before
heading back to the packing
facility where the company
measures, packages, and ships
perishable ingredients for five
million meals per month to
households. Photo courtesy
of Chris Montgomery
Photography.

I asked him how this home delivery
system is changing the food supply
chain. “We’re taking the usual farmto-table inefficiencies out of the system
by creating and concentrating demand
first. You see, normally, farmers guess
on which product will sell best or pay
the most, and then they decide what to
grow. All farmers play that same game.
Many sell to wholesalers. The food is
then stocked, stored, and distributed
to retail groceries or restaurants, then
the food gets to consumers. Then, that
day in the grocery store or restaurant,
consumers decide what they want.
There is a percentage lost at each step
of the way due to spoilage and damage.
The whole food system works based on
guessing what the demand is in the next
step.

One of the joys of writing for Postscripts is meeting alumni from Thornton Academy’s more than
10,000 graduates. Each magazine issue takes both writer and readers to new walks of life all over the
country. Exploring the theme of innovation led me to Matthew Davis ’07 who finds himself working
at the heart of a national food revolution that’s been described as “reinventing the grocery supply
chain.” A Saco native and Duke University grad, Matt is the Director of Operations at Blue Apron, a
cook-at-home meal delivery service whose mission is “to make incredible home cooking accessible “At Blue Apron, we start with the seasons
and decide what we want to cook
to everyone.” They aim to develop a more sustainable food system in the process.

4 INNOVATION

and plan that months in advance. We know how many people want
to cook, because it’s a subscription service. We tell farmers directly
how many thousands of pounds of fresh produce we’re looking for
while they are still planning their growth cycles. This changes how
they grow food and reduces risk and waste and is a win-win for both
Blue Apron and the farmers we partner with. We might let the farmer
know that we want honeynut squash instead of butternut squash. Or
heirloom carrots. These are things farmers won’t normally grow. It
diversifies the food supply. We draw from over 100 small to mid-size
independent family farms, just to acquire produce. We have captured
the spirit of ‘Buying Local’ even though we source from across the
country and from selected farmers who are taking care of the soil and
growing crops properly.”

“The whole food system works based on
guessing what the demand is in the next
step...We’re taking the usual farm-to-table
inefficiencies out of the system by creating
and concentrating demand first. ”

I was curious how the supply chain worked for the seafood and meats.
Matt explained, “For salmon, we contract with Alaskan fishermen who
have signed off to us entire catches in the wild. This is a huge quantity
of salmon, and we work with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood
Watch to ensure that we are sourcing only sustainable seafood. These
sorts of arrangements don’t come easily and we invest a ton of effort as
a business in doing the right thing from a sustainability perspective and
in sourcing top-notch ingredients for our customers.
“A lot of what I do is come up with new tools and software systems to
create efficiencies. We’re working with software engineers in New York,
developing our own in-house warehouse management software rather
than buying something off the shelf. Our operation is extremely unique,
so if we’re building software to help a manager in the Fulfillment Center
plan a shift more efficiently, we benefit from custom solutions. In my
job, I’m ٝ[