On a trip to Korea in 2017, Carol Pak re-discovered makgeolli, a traditional Korean alcohol made with rice. She learned that makgeolli was Korea’s oldest alcoholic beverage and that there were hundreds of different makgeolli breweries. With just three ingredients, she was fascinated that makgeolli could taste so delicious and diverse, and she was disappointed by […]
Perishables
You & Me
Stefanie Garcia Turner has worked in the natural products industry for years. She has seen and helped hundreds of brands grow, but as she walked through her local tienda one day, a realization occurred to her. The same brands she saw as a kid were still there, but there were hardly any new products to […]
Seeding the Future: Sourced For Good Coffee
By collaborating directly with farms, suppliers, and international third-party suppliers like Fairtrade USA, Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade America, Fair Food Program, Equitable Food Initiative, and Regenerative Organic Certified, we help to provide things like improved wages, health care, student scholarships, planting trees to prevent erosion and more. By working together, we can change the global food […]
A Love Letter to Ruby Jean
Ruby Jean is the late grandmother of Chris Goode, founder and CEO of Ruby Jean’s Juicery. Ruby Jean was raised on a soul food diet and lived on very meager means, never in her life learning how to drive a car. She eventually moved to Kansas City, Mo.,in the late 1950s with several other family […]
Fueling Small-Scale Beekeeper Incomes
As an extension of Whole Foods Market’s commitment to nourishing people and the planet, Whole Foods Market Foundation provides funding to innovative collaborators who are transforming lives across the globe. One tangible way the Foundation accomplishes this mission is through the work of Whole Planet, a pillar dedicated to helping micro-entrepreneurs and smallholder farmers living […]
A Noble Plant: Coffee Sourcing at Whole Foods Market
As a 20-year veteran of the coffee industry, Kelly Amoroso brings an incredible depth and breadth of knowledge about the coffee and tea industries to her role as Senior Buyer. But it’s her passion for coffee and tea producers that drew her to Whole Foods Market. Our sourcing philosophy pushes us to use coffee and […]