A look back at Thistle’s first decade with co-founders Ashwin Cheriyan and Shiri Avnery.
Today we hit an important milestone: ten years ago, we embarked on a journey to bring the nourishing power of plant-based meals, juices, and snacks to customer doorsteps.
We started Thistle motivated by the fact that two of the greatest challenges of our generation — our growing health crisis and the climate emergency — pointed to a common solution: eating less meat and eating more plants. At the time, we were having trouble sticking with a plant-based diet, as much as we wanted to for our own health and to reduce our environmental footprint – it was just too difficult and time-consuming to plan, shop for, and cook meals that tasted great, provided variety, and were nutritionally optimized day after day, week after week. We figured we weren’t the only ones facing these challenges, so that’s the problem we set out to solve with Thistle: making nutritious, plant-based, planet-friendly foods convenient, accessible, and above all, delicious. That was how Thistle was born.
On our tenth birthday, here’s a quick trip down memory lane to share how we got here.
We could never have imagined that what started as a single pop-up location selling a handful of cold-pressed juices in Bernal Heights, San Francisco would turn into a team of hundreds delivering over a hundred thousand delicious plant-based meals, snacks, and juices to customers across the West Coast and East Coast every single week – nearly 18 million meals to tens of thousands of customers since launch.
Our hearts are overflowing with deep gratitude for all of you in the Thistle community. We are so grateful to our team, the heart and soul of this company, whose dedication to our mission has been our driving force. It's through their hard work, collaboration, passion, and pure grit that we've overcome challenges, celebrated victories, and grown into the family we are today.
To all of our customers, thank you for inviting us into your homes each and every day. Your feedback pushes us to new heights, whether helping us make our meals taste even better or the delivery experience smoother. Hearing how we’ve helped you achieve your health goals, gotten you through a tough time, or accelerated your journey towards eating less meat brings us so much joy and motivation. Thank you for your support and the privilege of your trust.
Looking back over this period, there have been times that have been nothing short of pure elation. We remember those well. There have also been times that have been really tough - full of hard choices we thought we would never have to make. We remember those even better. But as we look to the next 10 years, we know our mission matters now more than ever.
Poor diet is now the leading risk factor for deaths in the majority of the countries of the world. We eat far too little of the good stuff – fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds – and we consume far too much sugar, salt and red & processed meat. Today poor diet causes almost 700,000 deaths each year in the U.S. and 11 million globally due to contributions to heart disease, cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other diseases. More than 70% of U.S. adults are considered overweight/obese, 50% have diabetes/prediabetes, and 50% have cardiovascular disorders, with healthcare and economic costs surpassing $1 trillion annually. Switching from a typical Western diet to a whole-food, plant-forward diet as young adults would increase life expectancy by 10 years for women and 13 years for men.
At the same time, addressing climate change while feeding a growing world population in a sustainable way is one of our most pressing challenges, one we simply cannot solve without addressing our addiction to meat. What you eat – and specifically, the percent of your diet that comes from animal products – is the biggest driver of our food system’s GHG emissions and other negative environmental impacts. Meat and dairy have 10-100x the emissions of plant-based foods, account for about 60% of food system emissions overall and at least 15% of total global greenhouse gas emissions (about on par with the entire transportation sector). Our food system is so carbon intensive that emissions from global agriculture alone would put Paris climate goals out of reach, even if we eliminate all other sources of fossil fuels. Just a few weeks ago a new pivotal study confirmed that vegan diets result in a fraction (30%) of the overall environmental impact of a high meat diet, including 75% less greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water pollution, 54% less water use, and a 66% reduction in wildlife destruction.
This summer, we’ve all gotten a glimpse of a world warmed 1.5°C above pre industrial times – July was the hottest month on record and breached this critical threshold – and the utterly devastating and deadly heat waves, fires, drought, flooding, and other extremes that come with it. While a single month beyond 1.5°C doesn’t mean we’ve breached the Paris agreement permanently, it underscores the dire urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at every opportunity – an opportunity we have three times a day by choosing to put more plants on our plates.
Over the next decade as individuals increasingly prioritize wellness through diet and the power of food as medicine, we hope our delicious, registered dietitian designed meals will offer an incredibly convenient means to enhance health and mitigate the early onset of chronic diseases and improve longevity. Moreover, we hope to continue to drive daily climate action by helping more people choose plant-based whenever they can to reduce their carbon and overall environmental footprint.
Here's to another decade of growth, impact, and celebrating the power and deliciousness of plants. The time spent building Thistle has been the most deeply satisfying in our career. We wouldn't trade it for anything. Thank you all for being a part of our story – a story that is still unfolding, one vibrant and delicious meal at a time.
Here's to the next decade,
Ash + Shiri
A look back at Thistle’s first decade with co-founders Ashwin Cheriyan and Shiri Avnery.
Today we hit an important milestone: ten years ago, we embarked on a journey to bring the nourishing power of plant-based meals, juices, and snacks to customer doorsteps.
We started Thistle motivated by the fact that two of the greatest challenges of our generation — our growing health crisis and the climate emergency — pointed to a common solution: eating less meat and eating more plants. At the time, we were having trouble sticking with a plant-based diet, as much as we wanted to for our own health and to reduce our environmental footprint – it was just too difficult and time-consuming to plan, shop for, and cook meals that tasted great, provided variety, and were nutritionally optimized day after day, week after week. We figured we weren’t the only ones facing these challenges, so that’s the problem we set out to solve with Thistle: making nutritious, plant-based, planet-friendly foods convenient, accessible, and above all, delicious. That was how Thistle was born.
On our tenth birthday, here’s a quick trip down memory lane to share how we got here.
We could never have imagined that what started as a single pop-up location selling a handful of cold-pressed juices in Bernal Heights, San Francisco would turn into a team of hundreds delivering over a hundred thousand delicious plant-based meals, snacks, and juices to customers across the West Coast and East Coast every single week – nearly 18 million meals to tens of thousands of customers since launch.
Our hearts are overflowing with deep gratitude for all of you in the Thistle community. We are so grateful to our team, the heart and soul of this company, whose dedication to our mission has been our driving force. It's through their hard work, collaboration, passion, and pure grit that we've overcome challenges, celebrated victories, and grown into the family we are today.
To all of our customers, thank you for inviting us into your homes each and every day. Your feedback pushes us to new heights, whether helping us make our meals taste even better or the delivery experience smoother. Hearing how we’ve helped you achieve your health goals, gotten you through a tough time, or accelerated your journey towards eating less meat brings us so much joy and motivation. Thank you for your support and the privilege of your trust.
Looking back over this period, there have been times that have been nothing short of pure elation. We remember those well. There have also been times that have been really tough - full of hard choices we thought we would never have to make. We remember those even better. But as we look to the next 10 years, we know our mission matters now more than ever.
Poor diet is now the leading risk factor for deaths in the majority of the countries of the world. We eat far too little of the good stuff – fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds – and we consume far too much sugar, salt and red & processed meat. Today poor diet causes almost 700,000 deaths each year in the U.S. and 11 million globally due to contributions to heart disease, cancer, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and other diseases. More than 70% of U.S. adults are considered overweight/obese, 50% have diabetes/prediabetes, and 50% have cardiovascular disorders, with healthcare and economic costs surpassing $1 trillion annually. Switching from a typical Western diet to a whole-food, plant-forward diet as young adults would increase life expectancy by 10 years for women and 13 years for men.
At the same time, addressing climate change while feeding a growing world population in a sustainable way is one of our most pressing challenges, one we simply cannot solve without addressing our addiction to meat. What you eat – and specifically, the percent of your diet that comes from animal products – is the biggest driver of our food system’s GHG emissions and other negative environmental impacts. Meat and dairy have 10-100x the emissions of plant-based foods, account for about 60% of food system emissions overall and at least 15% of total global greenhouse gas emissions (about on par with the entire transportation sector). Our food system is so carbon intensive that emissions from global agriculture alone would put Paris climate goals out of reach, even if we eliminate all other sources of fossil fuels. Just a few weeks ago a new pivotal study confirmed that vegan diets result in a fraction (30%) of the overall environmental impact of a high meat diet, including 75% less greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water pollution, 54% less water use, and a 66% reduction in wildlife destruction.
This summer, we’ve all gotten a glimpse of a world warmed 1.5°C above pre industrial times – July was the hottest month on record and breached this critical threshold – and the utterly devastating and deadly heat waves, fires, drought, flooding, and other extremes that come with it. While a single month beyond 1.5°C doesn’t mean we’ve breached the Paris agreement permanently, it underscores the dire urgency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at every opportunity – an opportunity we have three times a day by choosing to put more plants on our plates.
Over the next decade as individuals increasingly prioritize wellness through diet and the power of food as medicine, we hope our delicious, registered dietitian designed meals will offer an incredibly convenient means to enhance health and mitigate the early onset of chronic diseases and improve longevity. Moreover, we hope to continue to drive daily climate action by helping more people choose plant-based whenever they can to reduce their carbon and overall environmental footprint.
Here's to another decade of growth, impact, and celebrating the power and deliciousness of plants. The time spent building Thistle has been the most deeply satisfying in our career. We wouldn't trade it for anything. Thank you all for being a part of our story – a story that is still unfolding, one vibrant and delicious meal at a time.
Here's to the next decade,
Ash + Shiri
