🗓️ February 28, 2025
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About ten years ago, a Major League Baseball Organization was looking to feed their players a 100% organic diet. This team was leading the MLB in the direction of acknowledging the importance of a whole, balanced diet for the performance of their players.
The correlation between nutrition and performance has always been of importance to dietitians and nutritionists in the League, but most Executives in the League did not see the value in spending slightly more on their food to improve performance. This particular MLB Team that is the focus of this case study, was determined to pioneer a new path for Major and Minor League players to eat well, and they would play well in return.
In the past, it was commonplace for concessionaires to be providing the food for athletes. The same food that was being served to the fans, was being served to the professional athletes those fans came to watch. An athlete running on food doused in seed oils, high in sugars and fats, with no balance to their diets, is not an athlete in a place to perform at their best. Even in exercise, the wrong diet can make even the toughest strength and conditioning training ineffective. The fact of the matter is, you cannot out-work out a bad diet.
This MLB Team’s former culinary partner had made the promise of a 100% organic menu, a promise they failed to deliver on. Pivot stepped up to the challenge.
While sourcing 100% organic ingredients for mass food production is not impossible, it can prove to be rather difficult to acquire certain products that pass the 100% organic test. Not every food supplier carries certain ingredients, which requires outsourcing from boutique suppliers at a significantly higher cost.
Pivot agreed to provide this team with a 100% organic menu for two years. Down to the salt and pepper, every ingredient was organic. However, catering to that need proved to be difficult, and expensive.
The goal between the partnership of Pivot Culinary and this MLB team was to create nutrition-focused menus for professional and semi-professional athletes. While a 100% organic diet may be ideal on paper, there is little research that suggests there is a long-term health benefit to the lifestyle. Of course, a diet of whole, un-processed foods can prevent illness, injury and promote an overall healthy lifestyle, however 100% organic is not necessary to achieve those goals. Pivot has found that a balanced meal of blended organic and locally sourced product tied together with portion control yields much broader menu options while still enhancing the performance of athletes.
Pivot’s motto has always been ‘Eat Well, Play Well’. They use a blend of organic and local products, incorporate whole ingredients into their recipes to provide well-rounded meals for athletes, and create. customized protein:starch:vegetable ratios to ensure that these players are fueled to perform their best. Pivot doesn’t stop there, they bring the attention to detail and care to the hospitality side of food service that provides a deeper sense of community within the team.
Pivot swiftly began planning for the upcoming Minor League Facility ‘Takeover’. The dining space needed some attention to detail. The tables needed centerpieces, the empty cork board needed the flair of visuals in order to educate MiLB players on important nutrition facts; the dining room needed an overall sense of community to bring these players together for their meals, and it worked. More than ever before, this team is enjoying their meals together in the no-longer-stale dining room. Culinary is not Pivot’s only game, they have a long background in hospitality that nurtures attention to detail, and the improvement in these players’ health and wellness goes far beyond just what they eat in a day.
Pivot created a meal plan for athletes similar to the way they built recipes for their parent company, The Herb Box. Every ingredient was either sourced organically, locally or farm-raised. This allowed Pivot to expand on their menus after two years of being limited to select organic products. This also allowed Pivot to battle what has been coined ‘food fatigue’, when the players do not want to
eat due to repetition of menu items during the season. This MLB Team agreed to the ‘mostly’ organic approach to the menus, and have thrived both on and off-season with a variety of cuisines that Pivot has curated over the years.
Image from SportsLogos.Net
Pivot was hired during mid-season for this MLB Team and their affiliate MiLB team, and was thrown into the non-stop six weeks of Spring Training. Spring Training proved to bring in much higher volumes of players and coaching staff, so Pivot needed to ‘pivot’ quickly to meet the demands of the Spring season. This consisted of building an on-site tent kitchen outside of the Spring Training Facility to fire all food on-site for maximum quality, creating quarterly menus that could be adjusted based on player needs, forging muscle-building protein, recovery and weight-loss smoothie recipes in bulk; you name it, Pivot provided it.
Over the last decade, Pivot Culinary’s partnership with this MLB Team has been impactful in many ways. This MLB team has made great strides within their organization, clinching two World Series wins while being fed by Pivot Culinary throughout their Spring Training season. Their MiLB Affiliates are turning out incredible athletes fueled by nutrition that make their workouts more effective, in turn preventing injury, and enhancing player performance. The additions made to the Clubhouse dining room have fostered a better sense of community amongst players, who now, more frequently than ever, are enjoying their meals in the company of their peers.
Pivot’s dedication to nutritionally sound meals and attention to detail in the hospitality aspect of food service have proven to this MLB Team that they have a culinary partner that they can trust, and they have trusted Pivot for the last 10 years. The length and strength of this partnership is a testament to Pivot’s mission of fueling and fostering professional athletes everywhere.
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