Vermont Bean Crafters

The Vermont Bean Crafters team, Warren, VT

Vermont Bean Crafters produces organic bean burgers, falafel, bean spreads, and gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO cookies and muffin batter. They also broker regionally-grown dry beans and staple crops to food service, food retailers and institutions throughout New England.

VBC got its first Business Builder Loan in 2014 as they were just getting going. They came back to the Vermont Farm Fund in 2019 looking to increase production to fill a growing demand for their products. They expect to continue to produce lower-volume and newer products at their commercial kitchen facility in Warren, while also creating relationships with local co-packers to help move past production bottlenecks for their most in-demand products. They hope to scale from a weekly output of 6,000 bean burgers to 20,000 per week in the near term, and then 40,000 per week with the support of co-packers.

Nearly three-quarters of their product ingredients are sourced from farms in VT and NY. With this expansion in production, they expect to invest approximately $250,000 a year in local ingredients in 2019, more than double their current buying power.

Their $30,000 Business Builder loan will help cover additional ingredient costs, packaging, and processing fees while they ramp up production.

Vermont Bean Crafters black bean burgers