Onesto Foods

Onesto means honest in Italian. My husband and I wanted to continue the same Italian tradition that we both grew up with: gathering in the kitchen as a family around 5 oclock and sharing an antipasti platter before dinner. This was a time we could connect with our kids and hear about their days, their interests, their lives! However, after a few years of honoring this tradition, our daughter seemed to have developed an allergy to gluten. We were not willing to give up our favorite part of the day. So, I began looking for crackers that our daughter, Josephine, could eat. All I could find were overly processed and preservative-filled options, so I began tinkering with my own recipes and promised to never use less than **honest** ingredients. After A LOT of trial and error, I created my own recipe that Josephine could eat, and the seeds of Onesto were planted! I started my business in our church kitchen, I hired fellow moms who helped me bake while our kids were at school! I would go home to have dinner with my family, put my kids to bed and then go back to the kitchen to bake (sometimes until 1 or 2 am). Thankfully, we outgrew the church kitchen within a year and moved our operation up to Vermont and we havent looked back! We have grown every year we have been in business. I am VERY proud to be a certified woman-owned business and our crackers are certified non-GMO, gluten-free, vegan and kosher. Our packaging is produced with only hydro and wind engergy, our boxes are printed with sustainable vegetable dyes (no harsh chemicals), they are 100% recyclable and made from recycled paperboard. Our bakery is run on solar power. And, in 2021, we reduced our use of plastic by 50%, winning the 2021 and 2022 Mindful Award for consumer packaged goods. Lastly, in 2023 alone, we donated over 4000 units to our local food banks. I am extremely proud that my business became profitable after our second year and we remain so today, after nearly 11 years in business. Before I started Onesto, I created some promises that would help guide me and remind me what is important on those really stressful days: Five Onesto Promises: 1. Have fun and smile at least 5 times a day. 2. Be honest in every way with everyone. 3. Only create food that I would want to eat, free from junk. 4. Do good things for other people. 5. Be kind to the planet.