Producer: Pip’s Heirloom Snacks
Location: Bethlehem, PA
Found at the Littleton Co-op: corn dippers and fries
Website: pipsnacks.com
Pride Month is an annual month-long celebration to recognize and uplift the cultural contributions made by those who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, and other marginalized gender and sexual identities (LGBTQ+). Pride is celebrated in June to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a 1969 anit-LGBTQ police raid of a New York bar recognized as a major turning point in the fight for gay rights. The phrase “gay pride” is said to come from activist Craig Schoonmaker, saying “I authored the word ‘pride’ for gay pride … [my] first thought was ‘Gay Power.’ I didn’t like that, so proposed gay pride. There’s very little chance for people in the world to have power. People did not have power then; even now, we only have some. But anyone can have pride in themselves, and that would make them happier as people, and produce the movement likely to produce change.” As a community-owned co-op championing an ethos of “Everyone Welcome,” the Littleton Food Co-op supports our local LGBTQ+ populations and is happy to recognize relevant producers from our store during Pride Month. Read more about Littleton Co-op’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work here.
Pip’s (formerly Pipcorn) was founded by trio Jen, Jeff, and Teresa with just $3,000 in capital and a restrictive diet. Cofounder Jen was living with many dietary restrictions which made popcorn inaccessible to her. While working at a health food store in Chicago she was introduced by a farmer to an heirloom corn kernel with a thinner shell – and a better, in her opinion, taste. Heirloom corn has no genetic modification or hybridization and gets its flavor through open pollination. She recruited her brother Jeff and his wife Teresa, both in the CPG field, through a simple taste test. With very little start-up money, Pipcorn began as a direct to consumer product packaged in brown paper bags and handstamped with an ink logo by the founders themselves. Their business catapulted when it made Oprah Winfrey’s list of Favorite Things in 2012, followed by an appearance on the tv show Shark Tank in 2014. They signed a deal with “shark” Barbara Corcoran; the day of the airing brought them more sales than the previous 12 months.
In the founders’ words: “We are Black, we are White, we are Chinese and we are Queer. The world we operate in isn’t made for us. We don’t look like most of the people we sit in meetings with. Frankly, we weren’t supposed to make it this far, yet we are here—primarily due to extraordinarily hard work. We aren’t talking about the hard work we’ve put in, but the hard work of our parents and their parents and their communities and the generations who came before us. People who, in the face of adversity and discrimination, kept going in the hopes of equality and a better future..”
Status of product availability at the Littleton Co-op, and labeling of producers (such as local, Black-Owned Business, NH-made, etc) and product status or ingredients (gluten-free, vegan, etc) is based on available information at time of publication. The food world is an ever-changing landscape and information presented here may not reflect the most up-to-date information available.
