April 19, 2022 – It’s been an exciting day for the Santa Cruz-based mac ‘n cheese company Goodles—which is backed by Hollywood star Gal Gadot aka Wonder Woman. You may recall Edible broke the story last fall of the local start-up operating out of the former Oasis Taproom on River Street. Today their four flavors of protein-enriched mac ‘n cheese began appearing on shelves at Target stores nationwide.
“About 75% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a Target, so this partnership means Goodles are available at neighborhood stores almost all over the country, including Hawaii,” says CEO Jennifer Zeszut.
The Capitola Target store is already stocking Goodles in four flavors—Mover & Shaker, Twist My Parm, Cheddy Mac and Shella Good—and selling them for $2.99 a box. Zeszut says roll out to other Monterey Bay area Targets will be completed by May 8.
Gal Gadot is a founding partner and, in between films, has been involved in all aspects of developing the business from taste tests and packaging to meeting with buyers and announcing the deal with Target today to her 78 million social media followers on Instagram and asking them to share their “shelfies.”
“The first time I met with the people from Target, they looked at our colorful boxes and humor on the packages and said it seemed like we designed it with Target in mind, it’s such a perfect alignment of brands,” says Zeszut.
In Santa Cruz, Shopper’s Corner also carries Goodies mac ‘n cheese because they are one of the CEO’s favorite places to shop. Zeszut has also made it clear that Target is just the beginning of her sales strategy and she hopes eventually to place Goodles alongside Kraft and Annie’s brands on every supermarket shelf.
Through customer research, Goodles has discovered that 50% of their customers are millennials (ages 26-41) and 84% of customers said that Goodles mac ‘n cheese has changed their feelings and behaviors more positively towards the food category since the brand’s launch.
Goodles has big plans to further its mission of changing the way we eat by adding nutrition to comfort foods that everyone loves and is working on a delicious vegan mac ‘n cheese option.
Each serving contains 15g of protein (60% > leading brands), 6g of fiber (3X > leading brands) and 21 nutrients from organic vegetables like kale, spinach, and maitake mushrooms, prebiotic flour to support immunity and gut health, and real cheese.
“We’re really proud to be a Santa Cruz-based company,” Zeszut told me in an earlier interview. “We are a silly, quirky, joyful and mischievous brand, so I can’t think of a better place to be.”
This is the fourth start up for Zeszut, who lives in Santa Cruz and says she got tired of driving over the hill to work. “I’ve launched three companies that are all very successful, but what it happening with this one is just pandemonium, it’s so exciting!”
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
