Video credit: Marc Hamel and Ha Lam

Since Whole Foods Market has stores all over the U.S., as well as in Canada and the U.K., I rarely get the chance to meet the individuals that receive loans through our Local Producer Loan Program. They meet with representatives from their respective regions who visit their businesses, check out their products, and help them through the loan process. Every once in a while, though, I have the opportunity to meet face-to-face with a loan recipient, and it’s always something that reminds me what a great program it is.

So when we recently gave a loan to Progress Coffee, a café and coffee roaster located right here in Austin, Texas, of course I took the opportunity to go visit. Joshua Bingaman started the café in 2004, and Progress started selling their fair-trade, organic coffee beans to our flagship store late last year. In line with their green values, the hand-roasted coffee beans are delivered to our store on bicycle! Joshua’s going to use the loan to purchase equipment which will help them increase their volume and sell to additional customers.

I am so proud to announce that Whole Foods Market has recently hit a total of $2.5 million in loans through our Local Producer Loan Program! That’s over a million dollars a year for the past two years in financing to help local farmers and food artisans expand their businesses. That’s a lot of change!

When we launched the program in 2007, the state of the economy was very different. Yet despite the nationwide tightening of credit from banks and credit cards, Whole Foods Market has continued to make low-interest loans to help producers grow their businesses. The numbers speak for themselves:

Number of loan recipients: 41
Number of states with loan recipients: 18
Average loan: $52,292

We’ve also been able to work with a wide variety of producers. Products include kombucha, potting soil, ice cream (regular & non-dairy), organic produce, wine sorbet, raw chocolate, grassfed beef, and raw, vegan, gluten-free granola.

Here’s a breakdown:

Agricultural products: 17
Artisan/processed food: 23
Body care products: 1

We’re also pleased to have worked with many women business owners! Eight of the businesses that have received loans are owned by women, with an additional nine co-owned by women.

One of the more interesting aspects of Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program is the ability to apply for additional financing at a later date. If a loan recipient continues to grow after receipt of a loan, they can apply for a second loan to help them with their business activities. Five of our producers have taken advantage of this aspect of the program, with great results. Two have even received third loans!

We are excited to have hit this milestone, and we want to hit even more – we plan to provide up to $10 million in loans through the program. Think you or someone you know might help us hit $3 million? Check out our website to learn more about the program and to find out how to apply.

One of my favorite aspects of running Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program is getting to learn about interesting new products. Gluten-free, organic, vegan granola? Check. Wine sorbet? Check. Dairy-free coconut milk ice cream? Check!

One of our most recent loan recipients definitely fits in the “unique product” category: Coracao Confections. Daniel Korson and Matthew Rogers make incredible chocolate… raw chocolate! These two young chefs have been perfecting their chocolate-making skills for several years, and they have managed to turn raw cacao into smooth, yummy vegan chocolates in flavors like Coconut Dream, Caramel Cup, and Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cup.

Check out the video to see Matt making some Coracao Confections chocolates and let us know what you think!

Since you meet them in the aisles of our stores, you probably know that our Whole Foods Market Team Members are passionate about food. What you may not know is that our local vendors are some of the most zealous food people you’ll ever find! These folks have devoted their lives – often at great financial risk and always with great personal dedication – to making high-quality, natural food. Pretty incredible!

One inspiration for some of our producers’ love for food is their family history. Italians are well-known for great food and enthusiastic eaters, and our Local Producer Loan recipients are no exception. Elisa Gambino, Philomena Aceto and Jim Blumetti were all inspired by their Italian roots and took some time to talk about their products and their passions. Read the rest of this entry »

Laughing Giraffe Organics of Phoenix, Arizona, is one of the best examples of what our Local Producer Loan Program can do for a producer’s business. Justin Baumgartner took his product from a farmer’s market to a few stores to almost half of the country in about a year and a half! We’re proud to have been a part of this remarkable achievement.

Justin spoke with us about his product and what his relationship with Whole Foods Market has meant to his business.

Boulder Ice Cream has been selling ice cream to Whole Foods Market for about ten years! This long-time partner has used its Local Producer Loan Program funds to finance the expansion of an organic line.

Glennise Humphrey spoke with us about Boulder’s history and future plans.

Buzzn Bee, a local Florida honey producer, was the first recipient of a loan through Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program. Beekeeper David Rukin has been selling to us for years, and he considers his relationship with Whole Foods Market to be a true partnership.

David spoke with us about his experience with beekeeping and his future plans with Whole Foods Market.

Blumetti’s Gourmet Foods of Rockwall, Texas, was one of the first recipients of a loan through Whole Foods Market’s Local Producer Loan Program. They are also one of the program’s biggest success stories. Since receiving the loan, Blumetti’s pasta sauces have expanded to two additional regions. They are also providing the sauce for all store-made pizzas in the Southwest region!

Jim Blumetti spoke with us about his company and its relationship with Whole Foods Market.

It’s not news to anyone (except The New York Times, apparently) that local food has hit grocery stores in a big way, due to ever-increasing consumer demand. Whole Foods Market is no exception. In fact, we were out in front of the curve!  Although we’ve always had a strong commitment to local products, we made a more concerted effort in the past few years and have seen the amount of local product in our stores increase dramatically as a result.

In the fall of 2006, we hired our very first Local Forager, a Team Member whose sole position is to source local product – in this case, in our North Atlantic region. Since then other regional foragers have been hired, numerous store Team Members have added local foraging to their job duties, and throughout the company we’ve seen our renewed focus on local purchasing impact the way we do business. All this while we continue to focus on our Quality Standards and our commitment to bringing our customers the highest quality food available.

Here are some of the things we are doing:

• increasing local product throughout our stores, and improving signage to help our customers find local products
• putting more energy into promoting local products, including bringing local producers in for demonstrations, hosting “Local Days,” and featuring local producers on our website
• hosting farmer’s markets at our stores in certain areas
• holding company-wide workshops which allow Team Members to discuss the challenges local purchasing presents and to share best practices
• bringing together local producers at vendor seminars, where we explain how Whole Foods Market works and give producers the chance to get their products in front of buyers
• increasing communication internally to help our local vendors grow as they see fit
• funding our Local Producer Loan Program, which provides low-interest loans to our local producers

Of course, I’m particularly proud of the last one, since I run the program! The recent New York Times article on local food even featured one of our loan recipients, Red Jacket Orchards. They have supplied our stores for about eight years now, and we are so pleased to have been able to help them purchase high tunnels, which shelter the delicate fruit they grow during inclement weather.

So next time you are in one of our stores, check out the local offerings. And let us know if you have a favorite local product that we need to know about!

The best part of my job as administrator of our Local Producer Loan Program isn’t giving out loans to our small producers – it’s watching loan recipients use those loans to grow their businesses. In the year and a half since we launched the program, Whole Foods Market has provided loans to 29 small producers of products ranging from grassfed beef and honey to wine sorbet and body care products. They are some of the hardest-working, most passionate people I’ve had the pleasure to meet, and it’s always so inspiring to see their plans come to fruition.

One of our most exciting success stories is Laughing Giraffe Organics, a (very!) small company from Phoenix, Arizona that makes raw, vegan, organic, gluten-free granola and macaroons… that taste amazing! Justin Baumgartner started selling his product at a farmers market in 2006, where a local Whole Foods Market team member noticed him and asked about getting the product in our stores. That was the start of a great relationship. Due to its popularity and Justin’s entrepreneurial drive (would YOU call each store individually to make sure your product is in stock?), Laughing Giraffe soon expanded to more stores and then region-wide. After receiving not one, but TWO small loans, the products are now available in our Southern Pacific, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest regions. The products also recently were accepted by United Natural Foods, one of our primary distributors, a move which will allow access to Whole Foods Market stores throughout the western half of the United States. Did I mention that he managed this while he and his wife were caring for a newborn?

Anyone who knows Justin knows what a hard worker he is, and we are so thrilled at his success. He was recently featured on the front page of the business section in the Arizona Republic, a wonderful recognition of his passion and dedication to great food made for people, by people.

As Justin would say, be well.