The Whole Story
These are the stories of the dreamers and the doers, the farmers, the bakers, the organic soy candlemakers. Whole Foods Market is the sum of our suppliers, our Team Members, and our customers. They are our inspiration.
We’re on a mission: to nourish people and the planet. What does that really mean? Scroll down, and we won’t just tell you, we’ll show you. These are the real people behind the products – a community of some of the smartest, most passionate, hardest-working folks you’ll ever meet.
Welcome to the Whole Story.
The Communal Seeds
Claudia Bouvier was always surrounded by incredible artisanal foods—and her large Italian family. While working in NYC, she met Ted Steen, owner/brewer at one of the first brewpubs in Connecticut. They found they shared a love of food grown and made with integrity and a connection to the soil. Pasta-making became a celebrated and regular event. When their family started to grow, the couple and two young daughters relocated to Boulder, Colorado: a city with a deep appreciation for healthy and local food and an engaged population of environmental activists.
When they committed to launching Pastificio Boulder in 2018, they had done enough research about how ingredients grown and processed in a more natural, unadulterated state could potentially counteract both environmental issues and growing health concerns, like gluten sensitivity. Thus, the commitment to using organic heirloom and ancient varieties of wheat, highlighting its benefits, from their digestibility and nutritional superiority to their wide range of earthy, sweet and nutty flavors.
Nourishing Our Backyard
How do we feed ourselves by feeding our communities? As housing prices and the wage gap increase, lower-income residents in Austin, TX are finding it increasingly harder to find their next meal and integrate themselves into a rapidly changing city.
With organizations like Whole Foods Market, Keep Austin Fed, and Foundation Communities, we have people who are working to connect us. Through food, we have engendered empathy and compassion for the people and the issues they face.
The Quest For Quality
What are our Exclusive Brands? We are constantly tasting products, carefully reviewing their ingredients and challenging our food and beverage makers to make them better. Follow Brianna Blanton, our Executive Leader of Product Commercialization as she explains what makes our Exclusive Brand products so unique!
The Next Generation of Butchers
Whole Foods Market is dedicated to keeping the craft of butchery alive! Our Butcher Apprentice Program is recruiting a new generation of butchers.
The Plant-Based Revolution
Gourmet cheese alternatives, barbeque-ready hot dogs and sausages alternatives, mushroom “scallops”; everywhere you look on our shelves you’ll find plant-based alternatives to some of your favorite foods. Read on to learn more about how we source these innovative new products, and hear from some of our favorite plant-based suppliers!
