After feeling frustrated by the lack of product choice and waste generated by mainstream food shops, Rod Thomas took matters into his own hands. He quit his job in property and decided to open a one-stop zero-waste and organic shop, where Viva Organic was born. We caught up with him to find out more.
About two years ago I was looking for a change of career, I was in property before I did this and never even worked in retail. My children were born with food allergies and intolerances. This led my wife and I to try and cut anything from their diet that could be harmful, so we removed gluten and dairy and made the choice to go completely organic in our household as well. My wife was already vegan, so my children were brought up eating plant-based foods, too. My son had meningitis when he was about two weeks old and they gave him antibiotics for this. Although he’s fine now, all the medicines really harmed his gut. So, we were looking at ways to make his gut better and I did a naturopathy course to learn a little bit more about food and how it can heal. This led me to start juicing and we now have a cold press juice bar within our shop, too.