When Max Surnow was a child, his household left Michigan each summer season for his or her cabin in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He and his brother Sam spent days mountain biking on the foot of Sundown Peak and mountain climbing by means of White River Nationwide Forest.
After they made it again to the cabin on Cooper Avenue, it was time for a household ritual. The brothers loaded up plates with their mother Elaine’s cinnamon chocolate chip cookies (made with their great-great-grandmother’s recipe) and ate them across the hearth.
“That’s the place we got here up with the concept to start out a snack enterprise. We have been sitting round consuming cookies speaking about how nice they have been. As a household, we got here up with the title Cooper Avenue and began spitballing about how we might do it if we may,” Max informed The FruitGuys.
Little did the Surnows know that Cooper Avenue would grow to be a actuality, and a decade later their household would make a few of The FruitGuys’s favourite wholesome snacks for the workplace. We’re celebrating Nationwide Wellness Month by including their Granola Bakes to all of our Considerate Snack Bins in August 2024 and providing them by the case for workplace celebrations.
However earlier than we discuss extra about these Snacks of the Month and what makes them particular, let’s get again to Max’s story.
Constructing a Cookie Firm
Max was on summer season break from faculty at Michigan State College when that brainstorming session occurred in 2011, and he took it significantly. He introduced the primary Cooper Avenue marketing strategy to MSU’s Product Heart, which provided free consultations for college students.
“I met with someone to study the right way to generate vitamin information, be taught to purchase packaging, and discover out in regards to the legal guidelines for producing meals,” he mentioned.
Max Surnow, co-founder of Cooper Avenue
The subsequent few months have been a blur of recipe testing with Elaine and shopping for huge quantities of eggs on the native warehouse retailer. Her household cookie recipe was really for mandel bread—a crispy, crunch cookie paying homage to biscotti. Elaine put her personal spin on it with the rules Max realized at MSU. She swapped out components to scale back the sugar, salt, and fats, and match her household’s wholesome way of life.
In the meantime, Max and Sam went all-in on the household enterprise. Max turned the CEO working the day-to-day operations and Sam left his profession in accounting to deal with the numbers.
Left to proper: Max, Elaine, and Sam with Cooper Avenue’s Granola Bakes
“We began promoting our Cinnamon Chocolate Chip Twice-Baked Cookies at farmers’ markets in 2012. Then, we wished to see if individuals would purchase our cookies at a grocery retailer,” Max mentioned. They reached out to Market Sq., a neighborhood market the place the Surnows had shopped for years. “We informed them that we had this concept and so they mentioned, ‘After all, we’ll provide you with a shot. Are available and do a demo or sampling, and if it does nicely we’ll hold shopping for the cookies.’ They’ve been shopping for them ever since.”
A New Route: Wholesome Granola Bakes
By 2015, Cooper Avenue had its personal bakery and a lineup of twice-baked cookies in flavors like Cherry White Chunk and Lemon Blueberry. Due to Elaine’s updates, the cookies have been licensed kosher and dairy-, soy-, and trans fat-free, with none synthetic components. However all of them had the identical mild, crunchy texture—and the Surnows wished to attempt one thing totally different.
They got here up with Granola Bakes: wholesome snacks for the workplace which are a grab-and-go various to oatmeal.
“Our No. 1 focus was well being and style. We wished it to eat like a cookie and style like a healthful product you’d bake at your own home,” Max mentioned.
The smooth and chewy bakes are filled with wholesome components like rolled oats, buckwheat, chia and flax seeds, and protein-rich quinoa. They’re additionally loaded with native Michigan fruits. The Surnows purchase blueberries, cherries, and cranberries from native farms like Shoreline Fruit in Northern Michigan—and so they don’t skimp on them.
“You wouldn’t cheat your self on the quantity of chocolate and blueberries should you have been making one thing do-it-yourself, would you?” Max mentioned.
In 2018, Cooper Avenue’s Granola Bakes formally hit the market. And this August, The FruitGuys is proud to supply the Oatmeal Cranberry and Blueberry Pomegranate flavors as our Snacks of the Month. They’re the proper Nationwide Wellness Month deal with for workers.
Not solely are the bakes wholesome and handy, however each buy helps a woman- and family-owned firm that provides again.
Purchase a Bake, Assist a Youngster
Cooper Avenue is a family-owned enterprise, however the Surnows aren’t the one ones who profit once they promote a Granola Bake or cookie. Additionally they associate with native nonprofits just like the Michigan branches of The Crohn’s & Colitis Basis and Make-A-Want. They donate funds, sponsor occasions, and hand out free bakes and cookies to oldsters and youngsters.
“Make-A-Want has all the time been close to and pricey to my household—we’ve all the time supported the nonprofit, donated, or sponsored occasions,” Max mentioned.
As a child, Max participated within the Want-A-Mile Bicycle Tour, a three-day, 300-mile bike journey throughout southwest Michigan that raised funds for youngsters with crucial diseases.
“I did it with relations and made among the finest reminiscences of my life,” he mentioned. “…The truth that we based this firm and it has grown sufficient to have the power to donate and proceed that work from a company standpoint is fairly cool.”
In the event you’d wish to assist Cooper Avenue and provides your group a vitamin enhance with their wholesome snacks for the workplace, take a look at our Considerate Snack Field, which is able to characteristic Cooper Avenue all August. You can even order Granola Bakes by the case throughout Nationwide Wellness Month.
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