Our Story

We believe that food matters.  It should be good for the people who eat it, good for the people who grow it, and good for the planet. When our Co-Founders Mark and Megan met in 2010, they immediately bonded over this shared belief, as well as their passions for making food for others. They dreamed of starting a food business together that celebrated the craft of great food, delivered incredible taste and wholesome nutrition equally, and operated with kindness and integrity as its guiding principles.

At the turn of the millennium, Mark was serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zimbabwe, where he learned to make his favorite food – peanut butter – by roasting the nuts and grinding them with stones.  Rather than stopping at the traditional coarse peanut paste that was most often added to stew in his community, Mark added honey, sea salt, and coconut oil and made one of the best things he’d ever tasted. The experience was also a revelation that the best foods are often the simplest—made with fresh ingredients, care, and craft. 

10 years later, in the midst of an American culinary renaissance that included everything from artisan bread, coffee, and craft beer, Mark realized that his favorite food was still stuck in a mass-produced state of bland inertia. Newer peanut butter brands had popped up during this time, of course, but none took the care in ingredient sourcing, freshness, and small-batch production that Mark and Megan sought in the foods they purchased. Inspired by the memory of the unforgettably fresh peanut butter he had made in Africa, Mark thought that other peanut butter lovers might be excited to try something similar and that small-batch, handcrafted nut butters could be the foundation of a new business.  

Likewise, as a pescatarian athlete with a dairy intolerance, Megan had long loved nut butter as a source of nutrition. Years earlier, she started making her own nut butter-based energy bars, because she couldn’t find anything on the market that provided the energy she needed, was easy to digest, and tasted good.  From the first batches of nut butter Mark made their kitchen, she made fresh batches of energy bars that were suddenly even more coveted by their friends and family.   

Mark and Megan’s dream of a business that would use food as a force for good now had two product lines. After working on recipes and packaging for a few months, they sold their first jars and bars as Big Spoon Roasters at a bicycle race in January 2011. 

After more than a decade of steady bootstrapped growth from a single farmers’ market to distribution in every state, we are proud to have stayed unflinchingly true to our mission and values.From supporting like-minded farmers and artisans to promoting sustainability and environmental stewardship, every decision is guided by a deep sense of integrity and social responsibility. That’s why we’re so selective about our ingredients, prioritize an ethical and environmentally conscious supply chain, strive for zero waste, make our nut butters and bars in-house, pay certified living wages, and offer robust employee benefits, including subsidized health insurance, a monthly wellness stipend, and local farm CSA reimbursement. By staying true to our founding principles, we’re not only changing the way people think about nut butter and energy bars, but also proving that a business can carve its own path without sacrificing integrity or authenticity.

By simply doing what we love, we push the boundaries of what nut butters and energy bars can be, embracing innovation as part of every day’s work. We constantly experiment with new ingredients, culinary inspirations, and recipes, staying ahead of trends and offering unique creations that set us apart. To name a few, we were the first business to include chai spices, cocoa nibs, crystallized ginger, freshly toasted coconut, and citrus into nut butters. We were also the first nut butter maker to offer a curated Featured Jam series and are the only business in our category with a fully transparent supply chain. We take great pride in these innovations but strive to be the best (not just the first) at what we do. Believe it or not, it’s also innovative for a food business to source ingredients from only trusted, regenerative farms and producers who share their values. We are honored to work with a family of like-minded growers and food producers who are collectively motivated by growing the demand for higher quality, sustainable agriculture. As a few examples, we proudly work with Bee-Friendly Certified almond growers in California; organic pecan farmers in Texas; regenerative ginger farmers in Fiji; third-generation sorghum farmers in Tennessee; and many more talented food producers we consider partners in a mission to set new standards for ingredient integrity, flavor, and freshness. 

Our name is a tribute to Mark’s dad, Gary, who is known to eat big spoons full of peanut butter straight from the jar, a habit that long ago earned him the nickname “Big Spoon” among family and friends. Keeping it in the family, Mark and Megan’s beloved dogs – Riley, Rioja, and Grüner - have pitched in countless hours of taste testing, jar cleaning, and support over the years. A deep love for our furry family members inspired the launch of our Wag Butter line of peanut butters specifically designed for dogs’ unique nutritional needs.