For Sorghum Symphony, inclusion isn’t an initiative added after the fact. It’s built into how the company develops products, chooses partners, works with suppliers, and creates opportunities for its workforce.
The company calls that philosophy “Inclusive by Design.”
As Sorghum Symphony prepared to expand its production capabilities, that philosophy led the company to Diamond America. We made a food extruder designed not only around its products, but also around the people who will operate it.
A Different Approach to Sorghum
Sorghum Symphony takes a scientific, highly intentional approach to food development.
Rather than treating sorghum as a commodity ingredient, founders Shwetha Shrivatsa and John Hammerstone work directly with farmers and sorghum experts to understand how different varieties influence flavor, texture, structure, nutrition, and performance.
Their approach can get as specific as working with a single sorghum variety from a single farm.
That same attention goes into the finished product. Sorghum Symphony emphasizes real ingredients rather than fillers and develops foods designed to accommodate a wide range of dietary needs and preferences.
As the company grew, that inclusive philosophy began extending beyond its products and into its workforce.
Creating Opportunities for a Neurodiverse Workforce
After opening its own production facility, Sorghum Symphony partnered with Township High School District 211’s Independence for Life (IFL) program under Transitions program that provides neurodiverse students with vocational and independent living skills.
Program leaders asked the founders what jobs the students could perform in the facility.
Their answer was simple: everything.
Four students began working at Sorghum Symphony with the support of a job coach. The company quickly discovered that each student brought different strengths. Some excelled at computers and inventory, while others thrived in hands-on production.
The experience also encouraged Sorghum Symphony to become more intentional about its processes.
Tasks were broken into clear, repeatable steps. Once those processes were established, the students learned quickly and demonstrated impressive speed, accuracy, and consistency.
The partnership has been so successful that Sorghum Symphony has become a preferred worksite within the school district, and the company plans to hire one of the program participants as production expands.
That expansion, however, required the right equipment.
Searching for More Than an Extruder
Sorghum Symphony wanted to bring more extrusion capabilities in-house, but the founders weren’t looking for equipment designed to make just one product.
They wanted a flexible food extruder that could handle relatively small production runs while giving the company room to experiment with new ingredients, textures, shapes, and products.
Just as importantly, they wanted an equipment manufacturer willing to build a relationship with a growing company.
After researching extruder suppliers, Sorghum Symphony reached out to several companies.
Diamond America stood out almost immediately.
Within about a day of submitting an inquiry, the company received a response from Diamond America’s Mark George. Some other manufacturers never responded.
For Sorghum Symphony, the difference was meaningful.
“We want somebody that we can grow with, that can grow with us,” John and Shewtha explained during the interview. “For a small company like us, we want to have a partnership.”
Working Together Through the Grant Process
That partnership became especially important when Sorghum Symphony pursued grant funding for its extrusion equipment.
The original equipment proposal was built around approximately $150,000 in funding. When the state determined the project fell under the program’s $75,000 individual-project cap rather than the collaborative-project tier, the equipment proposal had to be revised to fit within it
Diamond America worked with the company to revise the proposal while ensuring the resulting system would still meet Sorghum Symphony’s needs.
Then came another challenge: timing.
Sorghum Symphony learned on June 1 that it had received the grant and needed to spend the funds by June 30. Diamond America responded quickly, bringing the Sorghum Symphony team in within days to test the equipment and make sure the investment would work before moving forward.
Testing the Equipment—and Discovering New Possibilities
The visit to Diamond America became more than an equipment test.
The two teams experimented together, adjusting shapes and textures, evaluating how different sorghum varieties performed, and tasting products directly off the extruder.
The testing even revealed flavor characteristics the Sorghum Symphony team hadn’t experienced with its existing extrusion process.
More importantly, the flexibility of the system sparked new ideas.
During the testing process, the team began discussing entirely new products that could potentially be produced using the same equipment.
What started as a search for a better way to manufacture an existing product suddenly opened the door to multiple potential product lines.
Designing Around the People Using the Equipment
There was another critical consideration throughout the process: Sorghum Symphony’s neurodiverse workforce.
The company intends for neurodiverse employees to work with the new food extruder system, making safety and usability important parts of the equipment design.
Diamond America’s team considered who would actually be operating the system and identified ways to make the equipment safer and more accessible, including design considerations involving heating components and potential hazards.
For Sorghum Symphony, that demonstrated the type of systems thinking the company had been looking for.
The extruder wasn’t simply being designed around a product specification. It was being considered as part of the entire production environment—including the people working within it.
A Partnership Built for Growth
For a growing company, a $75,000 equipment investment represents a major commitment. Sorghum Symphony needed more than a vendor capable of building an extruder. It needed a partner willing to listen, experiment, adapt, and take its ambitions seriously.
That’s what the company found with Diamond America.
There’s also a fitting connection between the two organizations.
Sorghum Symphony created opportunities for neurodiverse students by focusing on what they could accomplish rather than making assumptions about their limitations. Diamond America approached Sorghum Symphony with a similar openness—seeing the potential of a growing company and helping develop a solution around where it wants to go next.
For Sorghum Symphony, that’s Inclusive by Design in action: better products, thoughtful partnerships, meaningful employment opportunities, and a production system designed to help all of them grow together.