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.
On the Ground
It’s hard to overstate the effect that Denise Breyley has had on the food scene in the Pacific Northwest; from mentoring emerging brands to chasing down all the latest trends, Denise has been an unwavering champion of artisanal, local food. After an illustrious 28-year career at Whole Foods Market, Denise recently retired from her role as a Principal Forager. Watch on to learn what it means to be a Forager!
Our lamb from Chilean Patagonia comes from animals raised without antibiotics and added hormones. They’re Animal Welfare Certified to Global Animal Partnership’s Level 4, which includes being raised on pasture with no feedlots allowed.
Bloomia is nestled in the community of King George, VA. The company has been growing change through hydroponic flowers and a unique relationship with Whole Foods Market that supports worker voices and wages.
We’re serious about better body care for you and your family — because what goes on your body is just as important as what goes in it! Excellent sourcing means knowing where our products come from, how they’re grown and what ingredients they contain.
What causes a couple to give up six-figure jobs, a comfortable hip and urban home, and their neighborhood friends to dive headfirst into agriculture, an industry plagued with uncertainties and instability?
For the family behind Jones Farm Organics in Hooper, CO, it is with the hopes of changing the system of how we produce food, one potato at a time.
How far have we strayed from where milk started? It just comes from a cow, after all. Right? Well, it’s much more complicated than that, but the Alexandre Family Farm is turning the clock back to focus on farm practices and a type of milk from the beginning days of dairy production. Over time, selective breeding for greater milk production has resulted in unsought changes in composition. To avoid that, the Alexandres only breed cows and bulls that both carry the A2 gene, a specific gene that is used to define all milk. With this dairy restart, they hope to bring dairy back into homes across the country.
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.
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.
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!
