Once Again Nut Butter: Doing What’s Right for a Better Future

Once Again Nut Butter is a 100% employee-owned company that has been paving the way in ethical and sustainable business practices for over 40 years. What started as a husband-and-wife team creating simple, healthy nut butters has evolved into a close-knit team of 86 that is passionate about producing quality products that truly make a difference in the world. 

For example, Once Again was the first company in the nation to introduce organic Valencia peanut butter, which they did by subsidizing farmers’ crops for five years to ensure their stability and fair pricing. In addition, Once Again works with the Jubilee House, a charity located outside Managua, Nicaragua that helps communities become self-sufficient, sustainable, and democratic. About 25 years ago with Jubilee’s help, Once Again planted a few acres of sesame as a test plot in Nicaragua. In just 12 years, these few acres successfully turned into the development of 13 cooperatives representing 2,000 farmers. Once Again buys these sesame seeds at world market prices, greatly enhancing the living conditions of the farmers and their families. 

Driven to take their efforts to the next level and define all they had done to date, Once Again Nut Butter founded its Honest in Trade program. This looks at three aspects of sustainability: 

• People: Once Again utilizes a flatter supply chain that is streamlined in the way that commodities are grown, purchased, and distributed. Farm workers are negotiated with directly and receive above fair-trade market prices. The company starts co-ops in developing countries, helping to address issues of economic crisis and poverty. On the home front, Once Again’s employee owners are compensated fairly and treated like family, and the company actively supports its community with social projects and donates to over 150 non-profit organizations a year. 

• Products: Once Again was the first peanut company in the world to get SQF (Safe Quality Foods) certified. This program is a leading global food safety and quality certification and management system. In addition to undergoing constant external audits, Once Again has a robust quality assurance program and state-of-the-art laboratories to monitor internal practices, food safety, and food quality. The plant protocols they have in place for cleanliness are unprecedented, and the team has built a database to track commodities back to the supply chain and eventually the farmer. In 2016, Once Again expanded operations to include another SQF Certified facility just down the street where it produces its peanut butters. The company’s tree nut and seed butters are produced in a separate facility nearby, helping to eliminate cross contamination and keep the products allergy-friendly.

• Planet: Winners of the How Good Award in 2016 and 2017 for being one of the most sustainable companies in the world, Once Again has a dedicated Green Team that monitors environmental impact and provides recommendations and solutions to help the company be more eco-friendly and reduce its carbon footprint. Once Again uses solar electricity, has an internal recycling program, makes its containers from more than 50% recycled materials, and donates its food waste. 

While the Once Again business has come a long way over the last 40 years, and is proudly behind a flourishing product lineup sold across the country, it’s almost incidental that they make delicious nut butters. The team’s real purpose, and what drives them every day, is the impact they can make on the planet and everyone they interact with. Once Again Nut Butter is as passionate as ever about improving quality of life through sustaining environmentally, economically, and socially fulfilling partnerships from farm to jar. Visit OnceAgainNutButter.com to learn more and follow @OnceAgainNutButter on social media.