Juice Plus+

According to the USDA, as many as 19 million Americans, or 6.2% of the U.S. population, live in food deserts — defined as low-income areas where at least a third of the population does not have access to a supermarket. Food deserts have seen increasing attention in recent years as researchers discover the links between lack of access to healthy food options and the high rates of heart disease, diabetes and other diseases among America’s poor.

That’s where Juice Plus+, the health and wellness company famous for its juice powder concentrate products, comes in. The company has committed itself to donating 10 million of its Complete by Juice Plus+ shakes to individuals that have limited access to daily nutrition.

“The most powerful way to make a difference in the world is through giving back,” explains Parker Mabry, senior director of global information technology at Juice Plus+. “That’s why the Juice Plus+ Foundation is committed to charitable giving that impacts the lives of children and families across the globe. In addition to our 10 Million Meals program, which helps individuals with low incomes get access to daily nutrition — including those in food deserts — Juice Plus+ has also donated large numbers of our Tower Garden aeroponic gardens, which allow kids to grow fresh fruits and vegetables, to communities across North America.”

Getting millions of nutritional shakes to individuals across the country is no trivial matter, however. To execute on their charitable goals, Juice Plus+ partners with a number of volunteer, nonprofit, and charitable organizations such as the Children’s Hunger Fund and the Boys and Girls Club. Nevertheless, getting these products out to those in need is logistically complex, and Juice Plus+ relies heavily on digital technologies to get the job done. When the company embarked on its 10 Million Meals initiative, the company knew it needed a robust database that can efficiently scale with any increases and decreases in production or distribution. Thankfully, Juice Plus+ already had a strong IT infrastructure partner in Paradigm Systems.

Results

For Juice Plus+ and all its customers, Paradigm leverages Rocket® UniData and Rocket® UniVerse for its application development platforms to deliver high availability solutions that stand up to the needs of modern business. The key differentiators for the platforms are their MultiValue database models, which are not only more efficient than other database models, but also accelerate application development time.

Juice Plus+, for its part, has been more than satisfied with their IT systems and service levels. “Paradigm Software has been an amazing partner in the 10 Million Meals program and all our missions,” Mabry says. “One of their strategic advantages is their software, based on Rocket Software’s UniData and UniVerse database application platforms. From manufacturing to logistics to distribution, UniData and UniVerse have the flexibility and the scalability to support our growth. Moreover, the systems are efficient and cost-effective, which gives us an edge in the highly competitive health and wellness spaces.”