YEAR 6
September 6, 2024 marks the 6th anniversary of our first mill in downtown Lynn, MA opening and starting to stone mill organic wheat. Since then, we’ve built mills along both coasts, sourced from a growing number of dedicated organic farms and made great tasting, healthy stone milled breads bagels and tortillas to customers in almost every state.
Our team remains small, but mighty. We are empowered every day to furthering our mission: To stand up to the industrialization of food by building our own healthy stone-milled food systems.
300,000
6 years of experience has taught us that the food industry is broken. The bread aisle is filled with brands purporting to be “healthy” but in reality, are filled with refined grains, excess sugar, preservatives and other ingredients designed more for profit than nutrition. Thankfully, consumers are starting to pay attention and making more informed decisions for their families. And more retailers are opening their doors to brands that are deviating from big food’s playbook.
In year 6, we are extremely proud of our ability to challenge Big Food at scale. We launched at the most successful club retailer in the US – Costco - in February 2023 across 52 of their warehouses in LA. Since launch, we’ve sold ~300,000 loaves of stone-milled bread at an affordable cost to an economically and racially diverse Costco customer base. We wouldn’t have made it to Costco without the partnership and support from the legendary retailer in our home region, Market Basket, that serves a similarly diverse customer base. And we wouldn’t have built the mills in CA without an initial commitment from our very first retail partner, Whole Foods, to carry our products in California.
The reason we can compete with Big Food is because we established a local supply chain in California. We source all the wheat from the Central and Sacramento valleys, mill in Sebastopol and bake nearby in Petaluma at our partner, Alvarado Street Bakery. This growth has accelerated our local sourcing. We recently contracted to buy 20,000 Bushels (1.2M lbs) of organic California growth wheat from the ’24 harvest, up three-fold from 7,000 BU (420,000 lbs) last year.
Loaves of stone-milled organic wheat bread sold in Costco, making high-quality, nutritious bread more accessible at an affordable price
1,000,ooo
Lbs of local organic wheat milled in year 6, up 66% vs. year 5
10 Stone mills operational in 3 states: Massachusetts, New York, and California
6
Partner school systems in historically underinvested communities across MA and RI
75,000 students served our stone-milled bagels and pizza crusts in year 6
15
Employee owners of One Mighty Mill, we remain committed to provide shares to all our full time employees, with 4 new owners coming in year 7
4,000,000
Lbs of wheat under contract with organic farmers in California, New York and Montana, up 33% over year 5
Support Mighty Farms
Goal 1
We seek to build our mills near local bakeries that ideally are within 300 miles of organic wheat sources. We want to support local farmers and reduce the environmental impact and cost of long-haul grain transport. In year 6, we reached our goal of sourcing and milling 1M lbs of local wheat, up 66% over last year.
Our growth in California has rapidly expanded our purchases of CA grown wheat. To meet this demand, we have partnered with new farm partners such as Bowles Farming Company, a 6-generation family farm in Los Banos, California with a deep commitment to sustainable agriculture. Hearing about our growth in the region, Derek Azevedo of Bowles reached out to see if they could incorporate organic wheat into their crop rotation that met our specifications. After a successful harvest, we’re happy to report that Bowles will represent approximately 20% of our California-sourced wheat supply. Through our contracts with farm partners including Bowles and Peter & Hannah Martens farm in Penn Yan, New York, we are sourcing even more wheat from the communities we serve.
Not only do we source organic wheat direct from organic farms, but we also buy specialty ingredients direct from high-quality, independent suppliers. In year 6, we partnered with Target to introduce the Mighty Wild Blueberry Bagel across all Midwest locations. We were excited to source organic dried blueberries direct from Meduri Farms, a family run organic fruit grower and specialty dried fruit producer in Dallas, Oregon. Meduri was able to reformulate its organic dried blueberries to remove all seed oils, which we are now sourcing in year 7.
Mighty Wild Blueberry Bagel
LOCALLY SOURCED WHEAT
Profile: Bowles Farming Company
Bowles Farming Company is a 6th generation farm operation in California’s Central Valley that has a deep-rooted commitment to sustainable farming practices and environmental conservation. Over the years, it has grown into one of the region’s largest diversified farms, producing crops like cotton, tomatoes, and melons. In early 2024, Bowles’ Executive VP Derek Azevedo, reached out to us to see if they could plant an organic wheat varietal as one of their rotational crops that met our specifications, which call for a high protein level. Bowles will now be supplying about 20% of our sourcing in California for the 2024-25 crop year. Bowles Farming Company is a clear leader in sustainable agricultural practices that align with our supply chain standards. Specifically, Bowles works to preserve and restore wildlife habitats and promotes biodiversity on its lands, takes steps to increase organic matter in their soil, and utilize solar energy to power their drip irrigation systems designed to conserve water and improve crop yield. We are excited to bring on Bowles as a farm partner and hope to further increase our purchases with them in the years ahead.
Partner Organic Farm, Los Banos, CA
Build Local Stone-Milling Infrastructure
We fulfill our mission by placing our stone mills close to the communities we feed. In year 5, we opened our third milling center in Sebastopol CA, and now have mills in Massachusetts, New York, and California, near our largest concentration of customers. Together, our 3 milling systems (which spin a total of 9 stone mills, 3 in each location), can produce 5M lbs of stone-milled flour per year. That’s enough to produce 6M loaves of bread or 36M bagels.
In year 6, we didn’t need to expand our mills, but we expanded our team and our capacity. In New York, we added three Mighty Millers to our team. These individuals have quickly become expert millers learning how to maintain our mills safely and efficiently. We also added blending capabilities, which now allows us to more easily incorporate new farm partner’s wheat into our blends.
Goal 2
Sharpening our Mighty Mills
Every 3 months, our mighty millers carefully lift the 2,000 lb “runner” stone on each of our mills to sharpen the stones. Our millers then reassemble and get the mills spinning again.
Feeding Mighty Communities
Another key part of our mission is to bring our stone-milled, organic foods to communities beyond the ones with grocery stores that sell our products. 6 years ago, we made our very 1st sale of bagels, at cost, to Boston Public Schools, because we wanted to provide increased access to nutritious whole grain foods. We’re proud to report that in year 6, we expanded our offering for public school students to include stonemilled pizza crusts. We source over 50% of the wheat from a local farm. What’s most exciting is that we are replacing an industrial, processed crust made with hard-to-pronounce ingredients with one that has clean ingredients, more protein, and more fiber.
In year 6, we expanded to serve 6 public school systems and now feed over 75,000 kids in in under-invested communities spanning Springfield, Greenfield, Salem, Reading, Providence, and Lynn. Recently, we earned the opportunity to bring our stone-milled bagels back to Boston Public Schools starting this September. Also, we’ll be serving our stonemilled pizza crusts to students in Syracuse, NY public schools. Those crusts are made with organic wheat that’s grown in New York.
Profile: Jim McCreary
One Mighty Customer
When Jim was diagnosed with hypoglycemia, he had to take a hard look at what he was eating and make significant changes for his health. Jim thought he’d have to give up bread, among other things. But, when he learned about One Mighty Mill, his hopes lifted.
After eating our stone-milled bread and bagels, Jim immediately noticed that he didn’t experience the same slump in energy he usually had after eating most breads. To keep his hypoglycemia in check, Jim regularly tests his blood sugar and noticed that it didn’t spike after eating our stone milled breads.
A One Mighty Mill convert, Jim contacted our co-founder, Jon Olinto. An instant connection was formed. They lamented over the state of the U.S. food industry and Jon made sure he knew we’d be there to support him, sending bread to his home in Idaho, and eventually getting into retail stores in his home state.
We are so grateful to Jim for finding us and letting us know the difference we are making in his life. We feel heartened that we’re making good on our mission to nourish our mighty communities one customer at a time.
GOAL 4
Build a company the right way and create opportunities for all who work here.
We are proud of our ability to attract a diverse team of individuals who all have an opportunity to be equity owners in One Mighty Mill. This means promoting from within and providing equity ownership to all full-time employees after 12 months on the job. We currently have 15 employee owners of One Mighty Mill. A clear highlight of year 7 will be the day we provide equity ownership to our 4 millers we hired in New York and California during year 6.
In year 6, we successfully recertified as a B Corp, achieving a score of 85.8 up from 81.5. We’re proud to continue to be part of a community of leading companies that work hard to have a positive social and environmental impact and commit to balance profit and purpose. For us, this certification formalizes our commitment to our employees, community, and the environment. It also allows us to identify our gaps where we can have a more positive impact on our key stakeholders.
B Corp Impact Score: 85.8
Mighty Mission & Values
In year 6, we simplified and clarified our mission and value statements. Our goal was to simplify our purpose to more effectively guide the decisions our company makes every day.
Mighty Mission:
To stand up to the industrialization of food by building our own healthy stone-milled food systems.
Mighty Values:
At One Mighty Mill, we embody a culture defined by our bravery to stand up to the industrialization of food, authenticity as we adhere to our mission and values, and unwavering resilience as we rebuild stone-milled food systems across the united States.
Doing things with bravery, authenticity, and resilience not only sets us apart on the bread aisle, but also allows us to attract passionate team members, retail partners, investors, suppliers, and customers motivated to effect change at scale. We thank all our stakeholders for their support over the past 6 years and we look forward to driving deeper impact in year 7.
Profile: Andrew Eloi
Brand Activation Manager
It’s 9:00pm and Andrew Eloi has just fired off 5 Teams messages with detailed notes regarding One Mighty Mill’s placement in 5 Whole Foods in Manhattan. Andrew just spent the past 14 hours driving and visiting 8 Whole Foods locations meeting team members, getting feedback and making sure our products are prominently on display. Most weekends, you’ll find Andrew at a Market Basket sharing samples of grilled cheese on our Everything bread and elucidating the benefits of stone-milled nutrition.
We hired Andrew, a Dorchester native, away from General Mills over 4 years ago. Not a week goes by without a positive comment from the customers or team members he meets. Andrew embodies the “anything is possible” mindset at One Mighty Mill. We are proud to call him a fellow owner of our company.
Andrew’s charm and effectiveness comes from real experience – his daughter has a gluten sensitivity but has been enjoying One Mighty Mill bagels and bread for years.
