Hungry Harvest Scales Food as Medicine Programs with Mezzanine Financing from Momentus Capital

From Food Waste to a Scalable Growth Business

Evan Lutz, founder and CEO of Hungry Harvest, has been thinking about social entrepreneurship since he was a teenager.

He was drawn to the idea of building a company where business growth and social impact could reinforce each other. The more successful the business became, the more impact it could create.

That idea became more concrete when he learned about food recovery work in college. Through a project focused on recovering surplus produce from farms, he saw how much healthy food was going uneaten simply because it did not meet conventional retail standards.

“Around that time, I learned that about 40 percent of all food grown is wasted,” Lutz said. “That means wasted food, but also wasted water, labor, and resources. The problem felt preventable.”

In 2013 and 2014, he began selling five-pound bags of produce to college students through a small farm stand. Soon after, he started working directly with farmers to source surplus produce and build a local supply chain in Maryland.

From there, he began knocking on doors to ask households to try the service. Those early conversations became the foundation for Hungry Harvest’s direct-to-consumer subscription model, which launched in 2014.

Today, Hungry Harvest has about 100 team members and has recovered more than 60 million pounds of produce that would have otherwise gone to waste. The company operates across eight states, runs about 250 active programs with hospitals, schools, insurers, nonprofits, and other partners, and delivers to tens of thousands of people every week.

How Hungry Harvest Built a Scalable, Partner-Sponsored Growth Model

Hungry Harvest’s early business was built around direct-to-consumer produce delivery. But over time, the company saw new demand from organizations trying to address food access, nutrition, and health outcomes at scale.

That shift accelerated during the pandemic.

Hospital systems and nonprofits began reaching out to Hungry Harvest about food security needs in the communities they served. Those conversations helped lead to the creation of HarvestRx in 2021.

HarvestRx is Hungry Harvest’s Food as Medicine program. Through the program, partner organizations such as hospitals, schools, nonprofits, YMCAs, and insurers sponsor produce and grocery deliveries for eligible participants.

For Hungry Harvest, the model marked an important shift from individual consumer subscriptions to institutional partnerships and recurring programs.

“The need is very clear,” Lutz said. “There are a large number of institutions serving populations that want or need to eat healthier. At the same time, health care spending in the United States is extremely high, which creates a strong incentive to invest in preventative approaches like nutrition.”

That demand helped Hungry Harvest move into a new growth phase. Rather than relying only on customer-by-customer acquisition, HarvestRx allows the company to build longer-term relationships with partners that can sponsor programs for patients, students, members, and families.

How Food as Medicine Programs Work in Practice

For participants, HarvestRx is designed to be simple.

A person enrolls through a partner organization, such as a hospital, nonprofit, school, YMCA/YWCA, or insurer. Once enrolled, they receive recurring boxes of fresh produce and grocery staples delivered to their home.

The boxes can include vegetables, fruit, and staple grocery items such as eggs and other essentials, depending on the program design with each partner. Some partners also provide nutrition education to help participants build healthier habits over time.

Although HarvestRx uses the language of “prescriptions,” the partnerships do not always function like a traditional medical prescription. Participants generally qualify based on criteria set by the sponsoring organization. Some programs focus on chronic condition management, while others address food access, income, school-based needs, or broader health and wellness goals.

Hungry Harvest also offers a marketplace model that allows participants to choose items based on taste, cultural preferences, dietary needs, and household size. In those cases, the shopping experience can be prepaid by the sponsoring organization, so participants are not prompted to enter a credit card at checkout.

This structure is designed to remove two of the most common barriers to healthy food access: cost and transportation.

As demand for HarvestRx grew, Hungry Harvest needed flexible capital to expand partner-sponsored programs for the Food as Medicine business line, reach more people, and support the operations behind recurring produce and grocery deliveries. The company also sought growth capital to support that expansion without giving up additional ownership.

In 2024, Momentus Capital provided $1.5 million in mezzanine financing with a revenue share structure to help Hungry Harvest continue scaling HarvestRx.

For Swetha Krishnakumar, Investments Director at Momentus Capital, the investment reflected the strength of Hungry Harvest’s model and the company’s ability to fill food access gaps through partnerships with health care providers, schools, and community organizations.

“Momentus Capital’s $1.5 million investment in Hungry Harvest reflects mission alignment  because Hungry Harvest is much broader than a food delivery company,” Krishnakumar said. “The company is helping get healthy produce to people who may not have access to it because of financial barriers, transportation challenges, or health-related needs.

How Mezzanine Financing Supports Growth Without Dilution

Mezzanine financing sits between traditional debt and equity. For growing companies, it can provide access to flexible capital without requiring founders to give up ownership. In Hungry Harvest’s case, the structure was designed as a revenue-based financing product, meaning payments are tied to the company’s revenue performance.

That mattered because Hungry Harvest was approaching sustained profitability, but was still in a growth phase.

“Because Hungry Harvest was approaching sustained profitability, a revenue share structure was a better fit than a profit share structure”, Krishnakumar said. “It allowed the company to keep growing while aligning repayment with revenue.”

Unlike traditional equity, the investment did not require the founder or existing investors to give up additional ownership. Unlike traditional debt, the structure did not rely on a fixed principal repayment schedule in the same way a standard loan might.

For Hungry Harvest, that flexibility made the financing a fit.

When Mezzanine Financing is the Right Kind of Growth Capital

Mezzanine financing for companies seeking growth capital can be especially useful for companies that have strong revenue, proven demand, and a clear path to profitability, but may not fit neatly into traditional lending or equity financing options.

For some companies, senior debt may not be flexible enough. For others, equity may be too dilutive. Revenue-based financing can provide another option, particularly for businesses that are scaling a proven model and need capital that aligns with business performance.

Momentus Capital looks for companies with strong impact alignment, credible financial performance, a clear growth narrative, and a management team that can adapt as the business grows.

Hungry Harvest fits that profile.

The company had a clear impact mission, a growing Food as Medicine business line, improving financial performance, and a founder-led team committed to scaling the model in a sustainable way.

Expanding Access with Measurable Outcomes

Hungry Harvest’s programs are designed to address practical barriers that affect whether people can consistently access healthy food.

For some participants, the barrier is geographic. They may live far from a grocery store or lack reliable transportation. For others, the barrier is affordability. For many families, both challenges exist at the same time.

HarvestRx helps partners address those barriers through recurring home delivery, program design, and support services.

Hungry Harvest also works with schools as part of its broader mission to expand food access. The company currently partners with around 50 schools, providing produce boxes to students who qualify. That work began in 2024 and has become a natural extension of the company’s food security mission.

In health care, Hungry Harvest works with partners such as MedStar, a large hospital system in the region. In one diabetes-focused program, participants are monitored using HbA1c levels, a key metric for diabetes management. Hungry Harvest is working with its partners to share additional data that illustrates how these programs support health outcomes over time.

Across its programs, the company is focused on outcomes such as reduced food insecurity, improved diet quality, participant retention, and stronger access to fresh food.

Scaling Growth With Flexible Capital From Momentus Capital

Since receiving the financing from Momentus Capital, Hungry Harvest has continued to grow its HarvestRx programs and deepen its partner relationships.

According to Lutz, Hungry Harvest’s annual recurring revenue has more than doubled, approaching triple the level it was when the financing closed in 2024.

The capital helped Hungry Harvest continue expanding at a pivotal moment for the company, while the partnership with Momentus Capital added value beyond financing.

“What stood out was Momentus’ openness and willingness to collaborate with other partners,” Lutz said. “The team acts as advocates for the business. They are flexible and willing to make introductions that support business development and future investment, which has been incredibly valuable.”

For Momentus Capital, this investment shows how flexible mezzanine financing can meet a company at a key inflection point, providing capital for growth while giving the borrower room to preserve ownership, manage cash flow, and keep building for the long term.

“We provide capital to help companies get to the next level,” Krishnakumar said. “Our goal is to be a partner and structure financing that fits the company’s needs.”

What’s Next for Hungry Harvest

Hungry Harvest is now focused on scaling.

The company currently runs about 250 HarvestRx programs, and Lutz said the goal is to significantly expand that number over the next few years. That includes growing geographically, serving more patients and students, and continuing to work with partners that see healthy food access as part of a broader strategy for health and well-being.

The company also sees an opportunity to advocate for more funding for Food as Medicine programs, including through Medicaid and Medicare, to support people living with lower incomes.

For Lutz, the company’s next phase is about building on the mission that started Hungry Harvest in the first place.

“We expect to continue scaling significantly, expanding programs, and serving more people,” Lutz said.

With the right capital structure and partners in place, Hungry Harvest is continuing to show how a business can grow while strengthening food access, reducing waste, and supporting healthier communities.