Meet The HIBT Fellows: Mark Atlan & Zach Correa

Marketplace Vision

Zach Correa's vision for LemonGraft is to create a peer-to-peer marketplace for fresh produce, akin to Airbnb or Uber, but for local gardens. He aims to make small-scale farming more efficient by removing traditional market barriers and using technology to connect neighbors with fresh produce 1. Zach's background in architecture and sustainable communities led him to realize that food is a foundational element of sustainability. He believes that a regenerative food supply can catalyze broader sustainable development 2.

If we can just build a regenerative food supply, then that is the one thing that will grow and branch into all other categories of sustainability.

--- Zach Correa

LemonGraft's model encourages local consumption, which aligns with research suggesting that eating locally grown, seasonal food benefits both health and the environment 2.

   

Cultural Identity

Zach is passionate about reconnecting communities with their native food sources, which he believes is integral to cultural identity. LemonGraft employs chefs to create recipes from wild edible plants, aiming to revive forgotten local dishes and foster a sense of geographic identity 3. This approach not only celebrates local biodiversity but also challenges the homogenization brought by industrialization.

In a world of industrialization, where everything is the same, I can go all around the country, and I can eat pretty much exactly the same thing.

--- Zach Correa

By marketing these unique meals on their platform, LemonGraft hopes to inspire a shift towards local food consumption and cultural appreciation 3.

   

Future Plans

LemonGraft's future plans include launching a minimum viable product within four months, with a team working pro bono to develop the platform 4. Zach emphasizes the importance of staying true to the company's core mission despite potential distractions from success. He learned from a workshop that community leaders must be the first followers of their mission, maintaining core values while allowing the culture to adapt 5.

Our identity and who we are as a company will evolve as we grow in a user base because they'll each bring something to the community that is unique and different.

--- Zach Correa

This philosophy underpins LemonGraft's commitment to building meaningful communities through a decentralized platform that empowers local producers 5.