Cooks Who Feed

Overview

Cooks Who Feed is the for-profit social enterprise founded by Seema Sanghavi, ethically producing kitchen linens with a meal give-back model and a B2B-heavy customer base.

Current Profile

In the episode, Cooks Who Feed has provided around two million meals through product sales, operates its own production facility north of Delhi, and hires and trains women from surrounding villages as seamstresses. It sells chef aprons, kids’ aprons, tea towels, grocery totes, wine totes, linen napkins, server aprons, bar aprons, chef coats, tablecloths, and other customized linens.

The company is currently about 75% B2B, with customers including restaurant groups, Celebrity Cruises, and culinary schools. Its advice problem is how to convince businesses to switch vendors. Daymond John and Guy Raz push the company toward low-risk trials, hard referrals from existing clients, product quality and value, mission-aligned prospects, and sales language that makes the buyer’s own sustainability and impact story stronger.

Key Characteristics

• For-profit social enterprise with a meal give-back model and ethically produced kitchen linens.
• Operates a production facility north of Delhi that hires and trains women from nearby villages.
• Has a B2B-heavy revenue mix and offers extensive customization, including logos, colors, pocket styles, straps, and embroidery.
• Sells to hospitality, restaurant, cruise, culinary-school, and related institutional customers.
• Needs to make vendor switching feel low-risk while proving quality, price, service, and impact.

Evidence

• Mission and production: Advice Line with Daymond John of FUBU says Cooks Who Feed has provided about two million meals and operates a production facility that hires and trains women seamstresses.
• Product set: Advice Line with Daymond John of FUBU lists aprons, towels, totes, napkins, chef coats, tablecloths, and customization options.
• B2B profile: Advice Line with Daymond John of FUBU says about 75% of sales are B2B and names customers including restaurant groups, Celebrity Cruises, and culinary schools.
• Sales advice: Advice Line with Daymond John of FUBU advises a low-risk test package, referrals, mission-aligned prospects, and client-hero storytelling.

Qualifications

The source gives no audited impact accounting, margin data, production-capacity detail, labor-practice audit, or customer-retention data. The meal count, client examples, and price-competitiveness claims should remain source-scoped.

What Changed

• Added Cooks Who Feed as a B2B social-enterprise case where mission must be sold through quality, risk reduction, customization, and the buyer’s own story.

Relationships

• Seema Sanghavi - founder and caller.
• Mission-Aligned Vendor Switching - primary B2B-sales concept illustrated by the company.
• Purpose Driven Business - broader mission-and-commerce frame.
• Mission Driven Customer Education - adjacent need to explain why impact improves the purchase.
• Relationship-Led Growth - referral and existing-client path recommended in the episode.
• Founder-Led Live Selling - direct-consumer feedback tactic Daymond recommends even for a B2B-heavy company.
• Enterprise Customer As Market - B2B branch where each institutional customer can become proof for the next.