We’ll admit it — we’ve been associated with granola from time to time! So I find it only fitting that several of our Local Producer Loan Program recipients produce this iconic health food. After all, it’s as yummy today as it was when we opened 30 years ago — maybe even more so!

Like granola, our support for local producers has been around since the beginning. That’s why we started the Local Producer Loan Program, which has provided almost $4 million in low-interest loans to small, local producers. We’re proud to be helping them grow their businesses and bring more products like these great granolas to market.

Michele’s Granola
Owner: Michele Thornett
Timonium, Maryland

In early 2006, Michele took the first dozen bags of her granola to sell at a local farmers market. It quickly gained followers, and within 18 months, she had moved production into a commercial kitchen where she began baking for local food co-ops and natural food stores. Although Michele’s Granola products are now available in almost 100 retail stores, the granola is still made by hand in small batches. Michele recently moved production to a larger commercial kitchen, and she used her loan to purchase equipment and build out the space.

Michele’s products are currently available in our stores in the Mid-Atlantic region.

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On Sept, 21, our newest store in Northern California, Coddingtown in Santa Rosa, officially opened its doors! Along with amazing neighbors, great tacos (for a good cause), and the first drinks at our new Tap Room (16 beers on tap!), we also had a chance to celebrate the two newest Local Producer Loan recipients in Northern California, Grindstone Bakery and Lydia’s Organics.

Each of these long-time vendors creates just the kind of healthy, all-natural food that we are so proud to offer. Grindstone Bakery’s owner and baker Mario Repetto produces artisan wheat-free, whole grain breads and cookies, while Lydia Kindheart of Lydia’s Organics creates dehydrated foods made of raw, organic, vegan ingredients. Both will be using their loans to help expand production.

In fact, not only did Lydia and Mario help us break the bread, Mario baked it! Check out some photos from the opening.

At Whole Foods Market, our local producers – and their products – are truly one-of-a kind. And recipients of our Local Producer Loan Program are no different! From kombucha and raw chocolate to vegan ice cream and sticky toffee pudding, their products reflect the variety that makes our stores such wonderful places to shop. Here are a few of the most unique!

Alaska’s Bakery

Owner: Noreen Naidus

Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Product: Organic dog treats

No, Whole Foods Market hasn’t opened a store in Anchorage or Fairbanks! Alaska’s Bakery is named after owner Noreen Naidus’s dog, Alaska. Noreen started Las Vegas-based Alaska’s Bakery in 2007, after having discovered that the organic treats she baked for her dog were popular with others. She has been selling to our stores for about two years. Noreen is using her loan for marketing, ingredients and packaging, which will help her expand her business.

Gourmè Mist

Owners: Sherene Costanzo and Simona Bunin

Location: Coral Springs, Florida

Product: Oil misters
I know from personal experience that a heavy hand on the oil bottle can totally ruin a meal. So I think that Gourmè Mist is a great idea: eco-friendly misters for oils and vinegars. Some are even organic! And even better: Sherene and Simona are using their loan funds to extend the line into packets of oil and vinegar for food service.

BTTR Ventures

Owners: Alex Velez and Nikhil Arora

Location: Emeryville, California

Product: Mushrooms and mushroom kits

So, two recent college grads growing mushrooms in a warehouse using leftover coffee grounds (some from our Allegro cafés!) is cool. Using the waste product from those ’shrooms for compost is very cool. But grow-your-own-mushroom kits using those same recycled coffee grounds? That’s just awesome! And that’s what BTTR (pronounced “better”) Ventures does. BTTR stands for “Back To The Roots”, and these two Berkeley grads certainly embody that spirit. Their loan will help them purchase equipment and expand into a larger space, so that more of our customers can grow their own.

ImagiPLAY

Owner: Barbera Aimes

Location: Boulder, Colorado

Product: Earth-friendly toys

Ever needed an eco-yo-yo, a wooden fruit cutting set, or a hedgehog rattle? ImagiPLAY has you covered! Not only are Barbera’s wooden toys environmentally responsible, but they will also stimulate your child’s mind while they are having fun. ImagiPLAY’s loan has helped them expand their inventory to serve even more of our stores. Which is a good thing, because, really, what kid doesn’t want Counting Penguins or a Puff the Alphabet Dragon?

Matt O’Hayer’s interest in chicken-raising started as a child delivering eggs door-to-door. Folks call him the Egg Man! Fast-forward to 2007, when he started Vital Farms, an organic pastured egg farm located on 27 acres along Onion Creek in South Austin. We visited Matt at the farm and, as you’ll see, learned that his chickens have an enviable life, with lots of green grass and plenty of space to roam.

Vital Farms is a recipient of a Whole Foods Market Local Producer Loan, which they have used to purchase equipment to help them expand their production.

The local producers we work with sometimes get national recognition! We wanted to share with you the press that a few of our Local Producer Loan recipients have received lately.

Revolution Foods Featured in the New York Times

Revolution Foods founders Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey have set the bar for healthy school lunches really high – and this article in the New York Times explains how and why. We are proud to have provided them with Local Producer Loan Program funds to help their expansion! The Revolution Foods products you buy in our stores help support this valuable work. (Now available in 160 of our stores.)

Progress Coffee: One of America’s Ten Best Boutique Coffee Shops!

Congratulations to Local Producer Loan recipient Progress Coffee! In its January issue, Bon Appétit magazine named them one of the ten best boutique coffee shops in the U.S. Here’s what the magazine had to say:

Favorite coffee shops don’t just serve terrific joe; they also act as a modern-day meeting place. This Eastside spot with Owl Tree coffee and fresh biscuits is the best hangout in town.

Check out the rest of the piece here, as well as a great video on Progress Coffee. And if you live in Austin, go visit the shop itself or pick up some of their coffee at our Austin or San Antonio stores!

Edible Radio Interviews Will Harris of White Oak Pastures

We love being able to offer Will Harris’s grass-fed beef to our customers in our South Region stores. And we also love listening to him talk about his family’s fifth-generation Georgia ranch, White Oak Pastures! Edible Radio just did an interview with him about the history of the ranch, his transition from industrial beef to artisanal grass-fed beef, and the state of sustainable agriculture. He also talks about his on-farm processing plant, financed in part by Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program. Will is knowledgeable and engaging; if you eat White Oak Pastures beef and want to know more about where your food comes from, you should definitely check out the interview here. We’ve featured Will in our own slide show interview too.

It’s great to work with such special local producers and it’s great to see others noticing them too.

One of the things that our customers love about Whole Foods Market is that they can find products from all over the world. They also love the extensive selection of local products that each of our stores offers. Sometimes that global mindset even finds its way into local products, especially when the producers themselves are originally from other countries.

Here are a few examples of Local Producer Loan recipients who are bringing unique products from their homelands to our customers in the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »

Just a month after providing our first loan in Oregon, Whole Foods Market is happy to announce that Ruby Jewel Treats, yet another Oregon producer, has received a loan through our Local Producer Loan Program! Like our first Oregon loan recipient, Townshend’s Tea Company, Ruby Jewel Treats was recently featured in The Oregonian.

Ruby Jewel was founded by Lisa Herlinger Esco in April 2004 when she started selling her ice cream sandwiches, handmade from locally-sourced ingredients, at the local farmers market in Portland. With her success there, she quickly realized the potential of the product, and later that year she even beat almost 100 fellow competitors to win the American Food Fight Portland Style competition sponsored by Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Agriculture. Since then the company’s success has continued to grow: after just five years, Ruby Jewel has retail distribution throughout the West Coast and many other parts of the country. Lisa will be using her loan to build a larger, more energy-efficient freezer for ice cream sandwich storage.

So if you’re near a Whole Foods Market that carries Ruby Jewel, go check out Lisa’s ice cream sandwiches. Ice cream in the winter, you say? Definitely! Check out some of the flavors: lemon cookie with honey lavender ice cream; double chocolate cookie with peanut butter ice cream; dark chocolate cookie with fresh, locally-grown mint ice cream; cinnamon chocolate cookie with espresso ice cream; and – seasonal and perfect for winter – ginger cookie with pumpkin! Not all flavors are available everywhere, but trust me, no matter which one you pick up, you’ll go home happy.

We are so proud to support these great products and their producer!

We are excited to announce the latest recipient of a loan through our Local Producer Loan Program: Townshend’s Tea Company ! Townshend’s is the first loan recipient in Oregon, where they were recently featured in The Oregonian.

Matt Thomas is the owner of Townshend’s, which has two teahouses, one in Portland and one in Bend. In addition to his sales at the teahouses, he has been selling tea at our area stores since 2008. The Local Producer Loan will help Townshend’s with its expansion plans, providing funding for new equipment, a larger production facility, and additional warehouse space in Portland. For those of you who love kombucha, you’ll be happy to know that the loan is specifically going to support the expansion of Townshend’s line of Brew Dr. Kombucha. Handcrafted in small batches with organic ingredients, Brew Dr. is available in four flavors: Nutritonic, Superberry, White Rose and Clear Mind. Brew Dr. is even available on tap at our Fremont and Pearl District stores in Portland! Wow!!!

A terrific example of a local producer, Matt started selling his tea in the Bend Whole Foods Market store and now has his product in all of our Oregon stores. We are proud to support this great producer!

Podcast: Download

Mark and Brian Nicholson are third-generation operators of Red Jacket Orchards in Geneva, New York, which grows apples and summer fruits. Red Jacket is a recipient of Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program, which provides low-interest loans to local producers.

The Nicholson brothers spoke with us about their farm and how their Local Producer Loan is helping both production and the environment.

Okay, so we all know that local products are cool – but they can cool you off, too! A yummy locally-produced frozen dessert is just the thing during the hottest parts of summer, and the products made by recipients of our Local Producer Loan Program don’t disappoint. Organic ice cream, non-dairy ice cream, sorbet… you name it, our loan recipients make it. From California to Colorado to New York, these local icy treats are a hit. So go grab a pint and support your local producers! Read the rest of this entry »