30 | MAY 14 • 2020 

I

f you’
re noshing more frequently as a 
result of staying home, you’
re not alone. 
While we want to provide satisfying 
and nutritious snacks for our families, it can 
be challenging to find healthy alternatives to 
traditional high-fat, high-sodium munchies. 
A new sprouted nut option is now available 
from Daily Crunch Snacks, a new business 
by local community leader and mental 
health advocate Diane Orley and her niece, 
Laurel Orley, a marketing professional living 
in Nashville.
“It started as a fluke,
” said Diane, who 
began making sprouted nut snacks years ear-
lier, after learning the process from her sister, 
Cynthia Reynolds of Austin, Texas.
Family and friends who sampled Diane’
s 
creations encouraged her to market them to 
the public. Under the name The Health Nut, 
she began selling nuts to customers across 
the country. 

Laurel Orley was on maternity leave from 
her job in the consumer-packaged goods 
industry when she realized she was not eager 
to return to the corporate culture.
“I’
ve been inspired by people who start 
their own companies,
” she said. “I wanted 
something that was my own, a brand identity 
and a story that reflected me.
”
She kept coming back to her aunt’
s sprout-
ed nut snacks, which her family enjoyed 
during their visits to Metro Detroit. 
“We would inhale them, finish a whole 
bag before we got back home,
” recalls Laurel, 
who is married to former Detroiter Ethan 
Orley. “There was nothing like this in the 
marketplace.
”

Laurel called her aunt and proposed tak-
ing the business to the next level. It was the 
impetus Diane had been waiting for.
“I had this business for 17 years,
” Diane 
said. “I always knew it would work as a big-
ger business, but I needed that push.
”
The new partners moved quickly to put 
their plan into action. Using Laurel’
s mar-
keting background, they chose packaging 
geared toward their primary market: busy 
moms and millennials. They created pas-
tel-colored pouches with bright lettering; the 
back shares information about the sprouting 
process and why it enhances the taste, texture 
and nutritional value.
The nuts are made using Diane’
s original 

business SPOTlight

brought to you in partnership with 

here’s to

Larry J. Glanz, 
a private wealth 
advisor with 
Glanz Wealth 
Advisors, a 
financial/private 
wealth advi-
sory practice of Ameriprise Financial 
Services Inc. in Farmington Hills, has 
qualified for the company’
s Circle of 
Success annual recognition program 
and will be honored for this achieve-
ment in 2020. He has 25 years of 
experience in the financial services 
industry, including six years with 
Ameriprise Financial.

The Community 
Foundation 
for Southeast 
Michigan wel-
comed Mark 
Davidoff as its 
newest board 
member. He currently serves as 
the president and CEO of the 
Fisher Group, the central office of 
the family of Max M. Fisher, over-
seeing strategy, operations and 
investments for one of Detroit’
s 
most prominent families. He also 
serves as the chair of the board 
of both the Detroit Symphony 
Orchestra and the Michigan Israel 
Business Accelerator.

The Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus was 
selected as one of 17 Jewish organizations in Metropolitan Detroit 
to receive an OnBoard Sustainability Challenge Grant. The Holocaust 
Memorial Center was awarded the grant based upon its exceptional 
performance as a member of the fifth cohort of the OnBoard Program in 
2018-19. The program is a 15-month program designed to strengthen 
and develop the skills of board members of Jewish organizations through 
targeted mentorship, skills-based workshops and personalized Jewish 
learning. The goal of the program is to nurture effective and dynamic lay 

leadership for the Jewish community. 

B I R M I N G H A M

Let’s Go 
Nuts!

New snack is alternative 
to high-fat, high-sodium 
choices.

RONELLE GRIER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Diane Orley and her 
niece, Laurel Orley

The Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern 
Israel announced that Prof. Kenneth “Ken” Waltzer 
has been selected as a recipient of the MSU Faculty 
Emeriti Association “Outstanding Contributions by an 
Individual Award” for 2019-2020 in recognition of 
his extensive contributions to the Serling Institute for 
Jewish Studies and Modern Israel, the College of Arts and Letters, James 
Madison College and MSU as a whole.

