Sunshine Nut Co.

OUR BEGINNINGS:

At Sunshine Nut Co., being a little “nuts” is part of the job description. I started Sunshine Nut Co. after enjoying a successful 25-year career in the corporate food industry. In 2011, I gave it all up and moved my family to Mozambique to start Sunshine Nut Co.

It wasn’t an immediate decision. During my time as Director of Cocoa Operations at Hershey, I traveled to developing nations to source cocoa and witnessed the effects of extreme poverty firsthand. I had worked for years as the go-to “turnaround guy” at Hershey solving seemingly insurmountable problems in varying departments. This role led me to a problem that truly felt impossible – but that didn’t stop me from wanting to solve it.

In 2007, I turned down a major career move and left my corporate life for a spiritual journey to discover God’s true purpose for my life. It was in this season of listening and waiting that God spoke to me with clarity that was almost audible – saying, “Go and build food factories in developing nations to bring lasting economic transformation.” Through prayer and solitude, I then developed the Sunshine Approach business model, focusing on transforming lives at every level of the business. Not long after, I was led to Mozambique and its abundance of amazing cashews to start this grand adventure. Faced with a calling I had little desire to fulfill, I chose to be obedient. My wife and I sold everything we owned and moved our family to Mozambique…

1. Our Founder, Don Larson, quit corporate America and used his 25 years of experience as a food industry executive to develop a business model which builds food factories in third world nations to bring lasting economic transformation.

2. Don and his wife, Terri, sold off all their possessions in the USA and moved along with their youngest child, William, to Mozambique in 2011 to live among those they were inspired to help.

3. We give 90% of distributed profits from the sales of our cashews to the poor and orphaned through transformative projects that we ourselves manage in the villages.

4. We oversee and partner with international organizations to work in their areas of expertise to help us achieve the

vision of the Sunshine Approach, our business model.

5. Our emphasis is to work with the smallholder farmers (instead of large scale farms) to develop a market which will pay them fairly.

6. We intentionally strive to transform lives with all that we do – from healthcare, to education, to quality of life, to our Sunshine Houses and factory operations.

7. We provide employment for young men and women who were orphaned or abandoned in their youth – giving them hope, opportunity, and a future.

8. We make promoting from within a priority, providing the proper training for excellence.

Guiding Principles