What’s your top priority when you reach for a snack in the office? For The FruitGuys’ customers, something with plenty of protein is high on their list. That’s why we’re so excited to bring a brand-new snack brand, Field Trip meat sticks, to our snack boxes this fall!
Field Trips makes high-protein, low-sugar snacks for the office break room from ingredients like grass-fed beef, vegetarian-fed pork, and free-range turkey. You might think it was founded by farmers—but the real story is more surprising.
The company is actually the brainchild of three college friends from New York. When they started Field Trip in 2010, one worked in finance, one was a lawyer, and the third worked for a luxury car company. So how did they get into the meat business? The FruitGuys sat down with Cofounder Matt Levey to find out.
The Field Trip story starts at Syracuse University in New York, where Matt, Tom Donigan, and Scott Fiesinger became friends. After college, Matt went into finance, Tom passed the bar to become a lawyer, and Scott picked up a job at BMW. But none of them loved the work. Then, on a group ski trip to Vermont, they stopped at a country store that tilted their life trajectory.
It was called Singleton’s General Store, and it sold homemade jerky in ziplock bags. The trio bought one and passed it around. It was their first time tasting what Matt calls “craft jerky”—jerky made by hand with simple, whole ingredients—and they were hooked. Back in New York, they decided to start a jerky company.
“We started building this thing at night, because we didn’t have any money, we had nothing—we were building it with no capital, no investors. We put in $3,750 each, so $11,000 and change. Some was borrowed, and we worked our tails off to build it together,” Matt told The FruitGuys. “We all knew each other from college days and felt like it was time to do something exciting.”
They called their company “Field Trip” because they wanted to speak to active, adventurous eaters. Before long, they were loading up backpacks with jerky samples they’d made in their apartment kitchen. They rode their bikes around the city, handing them out to stores in the hopes of getting their product on shelves.
It worked—probably because the jerky was just that good! Field Trip uses Argentinian grass-fed beef with the fat removed for a lean, tender cut. Today, its fun flavors and simple ingredients set it apart.
In the beginning, Field Trip made jerky in three flavors: Original, Teriyaki, and Honey Spice. Today, the company also makes meat sticks and pork rinds and offers a variety of creative flavor options, like Carne Asada, Gochujang, Everything (a nod to the bagel), and Mandarin Orange.
Matt is Field Trip’s resident flavor fanatic. He told The FruitGuys that his favorite part of working at a meat snack company is the hands-on process of coming up with new and innovative bites.
“It’s kind of like being in arts and crafts in the sixth grade. You just drew something and you can’t wait to show it to your parents. I can’t wait to share [these new flavors] with my family and friends and be like, ‘Look at what we developed. This is awesome. Give it a shot!’” he said.
Creating a new flavor is a lengthy process, but Matt will stay in the kitchen until he gets it right. Some flavors, like the Everything jerky, took him more than thirty rounds of research and development (R&D) to perfect.
One thing that makes the R&D process challenging is Field Trip’s commitment to using real, simple ingredients instead of shortcuts like artificial flavors. Matt looks for ingredients you could find in a home kitchen and opts for adding fruit instead of sugar. Field Trip’s Buffalo Style Chicken Stick includes dried apples and the Mango Habanero Chicken Stick has real mango.
“Our product is hand-packed into bags, and then the bags are sealed. It’s made with love and care. The meat is marinated—we don’t inject different elements into the meat; we marinate it overnight. Our seasonings are actual seasonings and actual flavors without artificial ingredients,” Matt said.
That dedication to the craft paid off. After a year of legwork, Matt, Tom, and Scott caught a big break: Their jerky snagged the eye of the airline JetBlue. The company added Field Trip to its in-flight snack lineup and invited the founders to its award-winning Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.
“They had us bring in our entire wooden tradeshow display booth to give out samples to people walking through the JetBlue terminal for the launch,” Matt said, still giddy at the memory. “We walked around the airport with security guards because we didn’t have plane tickets.”
You can still eat Field Trip’s meat snacks on JetBlue flights today, and in 2025, the snack company joined forces with another partner—The FruitGuys!
The FruitGuys delivers Field Trip’s meat snacks to offices nationwide in our snack boxes. We’re fans of the company’s fun flavors and simple ingredients. We also love that it gives back to causes like Homes with Hope, a homeless shelter near its Westport, Connecticut, headquarters.
Field Trip makes great low-sugar snacks for the office break room. They’re easy to grab and eat on the go, and they’re packed with protein that keeps workers energized and feeling full. But you don’t have to take our word for it—you can find out by ordering our Thoughtful Snack Box for your office!
The assortment of snacks in the box rotates weekly, but we’re featuring Field Trip as our Snack of the Month for October 2025, so you’ll find its Carne Asada Turkey Sticks, Pepperoni Meat Sticks, and/or Cracked Pepper Turkey Sticks in every box.
To kick off fall with a protein boost, you can also order Field Trip meat sticks by the case as a special team treat while they last.
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