Images on the wall of The Honest Kitchen office
Images on the wall of The Honest Kitchen office|||

State of the Kitchen 2014

It’s been another super year for the crew at THK, and I wanted to take a moment to do a quick roundup to share a few of our highlights!

A Little Customer Love

Something that’s incredibly humbling for all of us at The Honest Kitchen is receiving heartfelt, joyful feedback! Believe it or not, as I was in the midst of writing this note about our year, an email came directly to me from a customer and I wanted to share just a little of it. She stated, “I am writing to thank you for all the gifts of good health that you have brought to our two dogs through the consistent quality and nutrition of your foods. As a devoted dogmom, I’m quite attentive to our guys’ wellbeing, and you and your staff have made overseeing their health so much easier. Thank you for continuing to produce what I consider the very best quality and variety of foods available.” What a delight to read, as the year draws to a close! Thank you to each and every one of our customers who’s taken the time to write, email, or call us this year, to ask a question because they’ve decided to take the time to learn and be proactive about their pet’s health, or provide us with feedback (we appreciate both the good and the bad, because it all helps us focus on what matters).

Honest Kitchen office dogs

Living our Values

We really worked hard to re-imagine our Core Values in 2014 and I’d love to share those with you, to give a sense of what makes us tick. Cleverly, our Values are made up of the acronym, HONEST! Healthy in the way we think and live our lives. Owning our work, grasping the big picture and finding solutions, because we're drivers, not passengers, on our company’s journey. Nurturing employees with a welcoming workplace that encourages creativity, individuality and freedom to fail. Efficient in the way we make decisions quickly and work through challenges. Sincere in the way we communicate with customers, stakeholders and each other. Trustworthy because we always do what we say, and say what we do.

Giving Back

Did you know that every month we give a portion of our online profits away to charity? We call it Pawlanthrophy and it is an important way for us to give back and support organizations doing great work! This year we gave to 12 wonderful organizations that support everything from abandoned cocker spaniels to rescued ponies to doctors fighting ebola. See the full list of organizations here.

FDA Human Grade!

A huge highlight for me this year was the successful renewal of our approval with FDA to use the term Human Grade on our product labels! After a huge amount of hard work documenting our supply chain, manufacturing and undergoing pre-market approval of our labeling, we obtained the very special letter in June. It’s something I think of as a true line in the sand around the quality and integrity of our products. Yay! FDA human grade letter We’ve done a lot of work in 2014 to place even more focus on the provenance and safety of our supply chain this year and we’re in the midst of a really exciting project that will place even more stringent demands on our ingredient suppliers, including more independent audits and rigor around what we expect and demand from every company that sells us the stuff that goes into our food.

New Foods

We launched three new diets in 2014 (two lovely base mixes and a whole grain recipe with duck) and we’ve got some really exciting new product innovations scheduled for next year, too – stay tuned to be among the first to hear all about them!

It Wouldn’t Be Possible Without These Guys

Finally, a big cheer to my whole team of brilliant staff for their hard work, great humor, dedication and the genuine passion for good food and pet heath that infuse our company every day - and an intro to our new team members – Sara, our marketing coordinator extraordinaire; Chris, our thoughtful and insightful Product Development Director; Roxy our bubbly customer service specialist; Mike, our brand new and uber-creative Chief Marketing Officer; and Steve our fantastic VP of sales. Out in the field, we added some fabulous new firepower in the form of Marilyn (Key Accounts); Cara (Natural Specialty); Demetria (Midwest), Shreya (Southeast), Stephanie (Texas), Ashley (Southern California) and Krista (Colorado). Patchy, Kona and Ernie are our four-footed additions to the in-office crew, and many other pups and kitties joined our ranks in a ‘work-from-home’ capacity! I wish you and your family much happiness, peace and good health for 2015 and thank you for your dedication to feeding your animal family a menu of Proper Food that’s real, healthy, honest, natural and tasty! Lucy Postins Lucy Postins, Founder & CEO

Lucy Postins

Lucy Postins is founder and Chief Integrity Officer at The Honest Kitchen. She is a companion animal nutritionist who started The Honest Kitchen in her kitchen in 2002. She is passionate about advanced nutrition and holistic health including complementary modalities such as herbalism and homeopathy. Considered an expert in her field, Lucy frequently writes articles for local and national media, conducts radio interviews and educational spots, and occasionally holds educational seminars for pet owners on the importance of good nutrition. She also recently authored Dog Obsessed, a guide to a happier, healthier life for the pup you love.
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