Whole30 Approved!

As most of you know, our little shop began as a Paleo bakery. Six months into our business journey, at the request of our customers, we began to offer prepared meals.  We have always worked hard to make sure that our ingredients and finished products were Paleo compliant. As time went on, we began working to transition to using clean and pastured proteins. We began with free-range eggs, then added  grass-fed and finished beef, followed by organic chicken and finally pastured pork. We began to notice that throughout the year, we always had a number of customers doing the Whole30 program. We thought this was awesome because we strongly believe that Whole30 is not only invaluable for determining food intolerances, but it encourages a healthy relationship with food. Because so many of our customers have found success by following the Whole30 program and because Whole30 compliant meals take so much time to make at home, we began to hone our meal ingredients so that they were not just Paleo, but they also followed the Whole30 template.

As someone who has seen firsthand the difference Whole30 can make in someone’s life, it is such an honor for me to tell you that we are now partnering with Whole30!

What does this partnership mean?

We submitted our menus, along with ingredients (and ingredients of ingredients) to Whole30. They checked everything out with a fine-tooth comb and have approved our meals (with the exception of chicken pot pie, but we couldn’t remove that—there would be rioting in the streets!).

Is anything going to be changing?

Some subtle changes will be coming to the menu next week as we begin to roll this initiative out—for instance, plantain chips have become a “slippery slope” of compliance, therefore our Whole30-approved Bento will now contain a different option. Plantain chips will still be available as a choice, but will not be labeled as Whole30 approved. We will also be removing peas from our shepherd’s pie and tweaking our ranch formula a bit (one of our suppliers began adding sugar to a spice blend we were using), but you will not even notice the difference. Those are literally the only changes we’ll be making. Since we have always put forth the effort to stay within Whole30 guidelines, this will be a fairly easy transition.

Is this a big deal?

This is a HUGE deal! I can’t even pretend I’m not completely awestruck, because Whole30 is such a big deal to me and I have admired Melissa Hartwig so much since reading “It Starts With Food”. It’s kind of like having one of your favorite celebrities notice you and tell you you’re doing a good job! Whole30 standards for retailers and restaurants are as high as you’d expect. They do not put their name on products they don’t believe in. Not to mention, we are the only Alabama-based business selling pre-made meals that are stamped with the Whole30 seal of approval. So yes—this is a BIG DEAL!

We are so excited to continue providing delicious and Whole30 compliant and APPROVED meals to our customers—we love seeing the positive changes in your health and your lives!