From Harvard Law to the Freezer Aisle: How Evergreen Is Reinventing the Frozen Waffle
Evergreen’s frozen waffles are made with whole grains, real fruits and veggies, and cage-free eggs—offering a quick, wholesome breakfast without refined sugars or artificial ingredients.
When Emily Groden walked into corner stores around Chicago with a toaster under her arm, she wasn’t just handing out samples—she was rewriting the frozen breakfast playbook. With no CPG experience and a blender full of ambition, Groden launched Evergreen in 2020. By 2024, her veggie-packed frozen waffles were generating $9.3 million in retail sales and stocked in over 8,000 stores including Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Target.
Groden’s path to waffles wasn’t linear. A Harvard Law grad and former general counsel at Chicago’s Alinea restaurant, she left a prestigious legal career to build a business inspired by motherhood. While pregnant with her first child, she noticed a glaring gap in the frozen food aisle: “healthy” waffles still came loaded with seed oils and preservatives. So she got to work—batching recipes with real fruits, vegetables, and avocado oil in a commercial kitchen before scaling up production.
Bootstrapped Beginnings, Big-Time Growth
In the early days, Groden handled everything—from pitching stores and making deliveries to sweeping floors at her own production facility. She was seven months pregnant with her second daughter when she opened that facility, running long shifts with a small team and then giving birth just 72 hours after locking the freezer door behind her.
Evergreen’s commitment to quality—and to being scrappy—paid off. The brand is now on track to double last year’s sales, projecting $26 million for 2025. And while many food startups race to expand categories, Groden’s focus remains clear: “There’s still so much white space, even within waffles.”
What Makes Evergreen Different
Unlike mass-market frozen waffles, Evergreen’s products avoid emulsifiers, artificial flavors, and seed oils. Groden’s waffles embrace imperfection: “If a waffle isn’t uniform in color, fine. That’s how real food looks.” Kid-friendly flavors like Apple Cinnamon Cobbler and Peanut Butter Banana Bread help make healthy eating approachable for families without compromising on taste.
With new institutional investors on board (Melitas Ventures and Terpsi Capital) and a Series A on the horizon, Groden’s vision is expanding—but her priorities remain grounded: keep the ingredients real, the mission focused, and the waffles within reach of every family.
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