ELEVATOR PITCH
ESSTAR is a natural food brokerage company that makes healthy, life-giving foods accessible, in order to fight disease and promote optimal living. It partners with retailers to give them creative and cost-effective solutions for providing their customers with high-quality, nutritious foods.
THE STORY
Founder & CEO, Krista Anderson, made it her mission to improve the health of America, by making healthy food accessible and convenient, after being diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and given just three months to live!
Krista beat the odds and, after adapting to a healthy lifestyle, surgery and chemotherapy, she made a full recovery. “I now bear no lasting side effects from the loss of one kidney and two-thirds of a lung, not to mention over a year of chemotherapy. After being told I would most likely not live a normal life missing most of a lung, I fully appreciate my regular workouts, running and lifting weights like anyone else around me.”
While natural remedies didn’t immediately heal Krista’s cancer, she says the education she received in healthy living taught her how to eat life-giving foods. “This journey proved to me that these foods are not as easily found as I believe they should be. Over the last few years, I’ve found myself circling gas stations and convenience stores, searching for healthy options while on the go. But even with the increase in interest for healthy lifestyle choices, you still must go out of your way to find a health food store.”
In 2014, more than four years after her surgery, living in a new state, Krista says the Lord gave her the vision for ESSTAR: to make healthy, life-giving foods accessible on every corner through convenience stores. “Even in the fledgling stage, this movement has already been worth every sacrifice I’ve made, and so much more. I’ve sold almost everything I own and moved into a 500-square foot studio apartment in order to make my vision a reality.
The ‘stuff’ is worth nothing compared to this passion I’ve found to take a stand for my people – those who desire to live healthy lives and people fighting disease who need life-giving food for their bodies. Like Esther in scripture, I refuse to stand idly by when I have the power to influence change.”
Through partnerships with various organizations (such as Partnership for a Healthier America, with honorary chair Michelle Obama), retailers, and brand partners who align with the mission and integrity of this vision, ESSTAR has begun to realize Krista’s mission. More than 200 convenience stores, hospitals, colleges, and corporate cafeterias already contain ESSTAR’s “Krista’s Healthy On The Go” stations, conveniently providing customers with healthy options in places they’ve never been available before. And new locations are being added all the time.
“The goal for each of our products is that it should contain ingredients that you can pronounce, probably recognize, and buy for your own kitchen if you’d like! Our brand partners go through a rigorous product selection process in order to bring high-quality products to our customers and to provide the highest sales potential for our retail customers,” explains Krista.
