Store moving from Northfield to Somers Point
SOMERS POINT — New year, new direction for area vitamin and health supplement guru Ruth Kendall, who recently purchased Just Organics, a produce delivery service based in Somers Point.
Just Organics is an organic produce and grocery home delivery service offering fruits and vegetables, plus some marketplace items, to build into a box for a complete meal dropped at the doorstep.
“What you’re going to get is the most abundant, beautiful array of four or five vegetables, four or five fruits. The value is definitely there, and you would probably spend more and get less at ShopRite,” Kendall said.
Kendall has been involved in the natural foods and supplement industry for decades. She said her wellness journey began during her first pregnancy, when she wanted to feed her baby well and supplement herself properly. Two years later, her second child was born with Hereditary Multiple Osteochondromas, requiring her to learn much more to provide for his nutritional needs.
“When it comes to helping people with their health, they need to know where you came from,” Kendall said. “His condition required me to really step it up. It’s why I took it to the level I am now.”
She said she started eating organic more than 30 years ago, when it was “unaffordable, unattainable” and had to be purchased through cooperatives or community agriculture.
Now, she said, it’s easy to purchase organic almost anywhere. The difference, she said, is the freshness and quality. That’s where her new venture ties into her old.
Kendall and her husband, Keith, have owned and operated The Honey Tree natural foods store in Northfield since 2015 after being longtime customers of and working for former owner Ron Groff. He had started the business in the late 1980s in a satellite store at the Tilton Shopping Center.
They offer high-end quality vitamins, supplements, all-natural hair and skin care, and all-natural foods that are healthy and free of contaminants, additives and artificial ingredients, according to their website, honeytree.net.
“Our products are chosen based on efficacy and overall quality, ensuring that we bring you only the best,” Kendall said.
Also available at The Honey Tree is a wide variety of organic, gluten-free, plant-based/vegan, paleo and preservative-free natural foods, as well as high-quality CBD products.
The Kendalls also provide consultations and will continue to do so, not only for the vitamins and supplements but also for the organic produce and associated products.
“Tell me what you eat and let’s find the best choice for you,” Kendall said of her philosophy.
They now are moving everything to Just Organics at 23 Somers Point-Mays Landings Road, Unit 1, near the intersection of Route 9 in Somers Point, where Kendall expects to open Jan. 3.
Kendall plans to have the products from The Honey Tree out front while also offering fresh organic produce, the primary part of Just Organics — its produce delivery service — in the back.
“Organic fruits and vegetables is a new venture for us,” she said.
However, Just Organics has been around since 2015, well before the trend of home delivery took off during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kendall said while they will continue to ship vitamins and supplements via mail, as well as through their home-delivery service, she never would allow a third party to deliver her produce.
“I will never deliver food via the mail. It doesn’t hold up, the quality is not going to hold up,” she said, noting she would lose chain of custody and have to depend on someone else.
Just Organics, on which the Kendalls have partnered with Glen and Donna Ellenbart, has five drivers, each assigned to a specific area. Their products are available for delivery throughout Atlantic and Cape May counties.
“They know the customers, know the routes, live in the community,” she said. “We’re trying to limit the number of people touching your stuff.”
Kendall said she is creating a model based on sustainability, using recycled boxes that customers can reuse and giving any leftover food to Reed’s Organic Farm and Animal Sanctuary in Egg Harbor Township, the only organic farm in the area, to help feed the animals or create compost, completing the circle.
Kendall said she would love to buy everything local but southern New Jersey farmers cannot supply the organic products.
She said she will use the limited organic products she can acquire as an heirloom item in her boxes and offer products that may not be officially organic.
“Some farmers are doing wonderful things with land,” she said. “It might not be organic, but if they can assure me there is no spray on the herbs or produce, if I can have a level of confidence, then I will offer it separately on the menu.”
She is excited to make the move, saying it will “allow us to go back in the direction of supporting and feeding and helping the community maintain health and wellness.”
Visit honeytree.net, call (609) 515-4566 or email thehoneytree@comcast.net for more information.
By CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff