Laura Kovacevich

Background

About Laura Kovacevich

Laura Kovacevich was born and raised in the San Joaquin Valley where she found her passion early on for helping underserved communities and a lifelong mission of connecting individuals to the earth and their roots. Kovacevich’s family has deep ties to California Agriculture and ranching, as well as a lengthy legacy of civic service. For 70 years her family grew grapes in California. Her grandfather, John J. Kovacevich helped introduce the Flame Seedless grape in 1973, which has become one of the most widely recognized and planted grapes in the California table grape industry. His collaboration with the USDA-ARS in Fresno, Calif, ushered in a new era of table grapes. Having spent a substantial amount of time in South America, Kovacevich saw firsthand how poor infrastructure, inadequate access to healthcare, and food insecurity impacted communities and families. These experiences inspired Laura to Roots Food Foundation. Kovacevich’s mission to connect individuals to their roots and the earth, as well as her drive to irradiate food insecurity, echoed the ethos of Roots Food Group, a mission-driven technology, healthcare, philanthropic and food company that believes in creating healthy outcomes through 'Food is Medicine.’ Roots Food Foundation brings generational change to underserved communities through access to earth-made healthy food. Roots Food Group established a perpetual philanthropy model for every 10 meals sold, the foundation donates one medically tailored meal. Through a partnership with Be My Eyes in 2021, Jones and Kovacevich delved further into the space of impactful change by founding the 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Feeding the Blind, to provide free and subsidized healthy, medically tailored meals for the blind and low-vision community. When Kovacevich learned of significant challenges that come between the health and wellness of the estimated 25 million Americans who are blind or have low-vision, the majority of whom are over 50 years old, it was a call to help.