How the Food Gets Made
We’re uncompromising on food safety and quality, which is why we’re excited to share more from our kitchen facility. From our early days producing food in a rented test kitchen where our founder Luke chopped all the food himself to today’s industrial, commercial space, we’ve never wavered from our commitment to producing the highest quality food at the lowest possible price for consumers.
Meet the Kitchen
Each item on the Farmer’s Fridge menu starts as an idea from our menu innovation team. They tinker with ideas in our test kitchen, sharing concepts with our office staff until we find a winner. From there, we commercialize the meals, including rigorous shelf life testing. Once a product is finalized, we begin producing it in our kitchen facility.
The magic happens right here in our hometown of Chicago, IL. We source ingredients from suppliers we know and trust and bring in fresh, whole, clean-label raw materials to our facility – nothing processed or packaged. From our rotating menu of over 20 items, our ingredients can come from a number of different farms, across several regions.
Our kitchen team handles all of the cleaning, prepping, chopping, slicing, and dicing. We are proud to employ 120+ hourly employees on the Southwest side of Chicago who, on average, make 2.6 times the US minimum wage and receive benefits, 401k match, and free, healthy meals.
We produce meals 5 days a week on 4 assembly lines, where the staff expertly portions ingredients into our signature jars. We produce tens of thousands of meals a day, which are then shipped out to our Fridges and wholesale partners across the country. All meals are produced in a temperature-controlled environment to ensure freshness.
Our kitchen is up to snuff – we’re regularly inspected by a highly regarded external food safety company and have consistently passed with extremely high scores. We’re extremely proud of what we’re doing in the kitchen and truly believe the processes & team there is the “secret sauce” that makes our food so tasty and our business successful. Many of the team members in the kitchen have been with us from the beginning, and we are proud to share that we focus on promoting internally as much as possible.
Prepped with Care
![A Farmer's Fridge worker prepping bell peppers for our jars.]()
Quality is important. We inspect everything that passes through our kitchen.
![A Farmer's Fridge salad being made in our facility.]()
Putting special care into every chop, slice, and dice.
![A Farmer's Fridge worker holding a salad in a jar, ready to be shipped off to customers.]()
One final check from the line before sending it off to you.
Intrigued?
Farmer’s Fridge started in 2013 selling fresh, healthy meals from refrigerated vending machines in places like airports and hospitals. Now, we’re bringing our individually packaged meals and snacks straight to retail locations, offices, universities and more through our Fridges and wholesale options. Want to see Farmer’s Fridge on your shelf or use our products to feed your organization?
Learn moreInterested in more behind-the-scenes footage? Check us out on CBS here.