Thanks to Aimee from Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods, Inc. for this blog post.
Each morning, as I walk into the Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods, Inc.’s corporate headquarters in Ward Hill, MA, the distinct scent of steamed chickpeas greets me. This morning, as walking up the granite slated stairs of the Mediterranean-esque lobby up to the second floor, I reminisced of Cedar’s “old days,” and how our thirty two year old family business became a nationally recognized brand name of Hommus and other Mediterranean Food products within a span of three generations.
The Cedar’s story truly began with a passion and idea of Abe Hanna, the founder of the
company. He embarked on a mission of introducing healthy, Mediterranean cuisine to the American consumer base. Soon thereafter, his son Charlie Hanna and childhood best friend Steve Tsakirellis implemented this idea by delivering trucks full of Hommus to neighboring supermarkets across New England. Flash forward twenty five years, and present day Cedar’s consists of 15 Hommus flavors and various product lines such as Mediterranean Salads, Tzatziki, Wraps, & more all produced in a 6 year old state of the art SQF Level 3 certified 100,000 sq. ft. facility. The Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods family believes in creating extraordinary Mediterranean food products, and searches the world for only the finest ingredients in order to provide world class taste (while keeping it local as often as possible.) Each product is hand crafted with the same passion as the first product ever produced by founder.
Being immigrants to the United States from Lebanon and Greece, Abe, Charlie, and Steve were afforded many opportunities to be able to build a foundation for their family business. These opportunities were never forgotten in all the years Cedar’s has been in operation. In the earlier years, as Cedar’s grew, job opportunities were continually given to family and friends, passing the buck forward and creating life changing opportunities for many. Today, Cedar’s is greatly involved in its local community by giving back to local fundraisers, groups, and events- supporting the community and creating opportunities for a community that did so for the Cedar’s family throughout its successes.
Cedar’s takes great pride in being a top national Hommus supplier for Whole Foods Market strongly stands by many of the Whole Foods Market missions and values. Cedar’s recently became the only Hommus manufacturer in the country to become Non-GMO Project Verified and Gluten Free Certified. The company strongly believes in transparency in ingredients, and values the ability to communicate that to the consumers via the platforms of these two certifications. The Cedar’s family strives to make positive impacts on the welfare of the planet and actively invests in the community that helped it grow to a national brand. Because of the synergies in values, Cedar’s is proud to partner with Whole Planet Foundation to provide life-changing opportunities for others, just as they were provided to the founders of our company by our community.