Tasting success: Fueled with funding from diverse sources, Seal the Seasons delivers flash-frozen produce straight off the farm, especially to those who need it most.

• Position: Financing

More than 20% of North Carolina residents experience food hardship, according to Morrisville-based North Carolina Alliance for Health, an independent coalition that promotes wellness policies. Many don't have the money to buy the food they need, and 15 million of them live in one of the state's 349 "food deserts," which the U.S. Department of Agriculture says lack healthy food providers such as grocery stores or farmers markets. Many are forced to eat whatever is sold at the local convenience store.

Patrick Mateer, 24, has heard their stories. He interviewed 87 low-income residents of Chapel Hill and Carrboro about food access while studying political science and economics at UNC Chapel Hill. "They knew what to eat and how to eat healthy, but they didn't have the money or transportation to go get that food. Money was a large factor for people. It was a big barrier for them."

Mateer launched Hillsborough-based Seal the Seasons Inc., a benefit corporation that addresses social and economic issues, in 2015 to break down that barrier. "That study propelled me to start this business to bridge the gap between farmers and those who can't access healthy food. I was working at [Durham-based] Farmer Foodshare all four years in school ... and I connected with a lot of farmers and food banks and people who didn't have access to local foods. So Seal the Seasons solved a demand for this product." Its purpose is three-fold: feeding people in need, providing local farmers a market for their crops and creating an outlet for Mateer's passion for social activism.

Seal the Seasons began with Mateer and longtime friend Daniel Woldorff, who together managed a community garden in Chapel Hill while in high school. It buys surplus produce from farmers, flash freezes it and sells it at grocery stores across the Southeast, including Matthews-based Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc. and Winston-Salem-based Lowes Foods LLC. Its products include North Carolina blueberries, Florida strawberries and South Carolina peaches. It also sells broccoli, and Mateer iis considering offering corn, squash, peppers and onions. "Our goal is to show people --and show the world--that locally produced food can be just as affordable and accessible as other foods, and people can have fresh food and know where it comes from." If a 1-pound bag of store brand frozen blueberries costs $3.99, for example, Mateer's may cost 50 cents more, but buyers are sure of its origin. "It's not a mystery where...