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Bob and Charlee’s interest in whole grains started in the 1960s when
the couple joined a church group in Redding, California. Charlee’s
friends in the group enjoyed canning, baking bread and cooking with
whole grains, so Charlee picked up the interest and committed to
healthier eating—which appealed to Bob. It wasn’t until Bob stumbled
upon the book “John Goffe’s Mill” by George Woodbury—a book about an
archaeologist who revived an old mill to grind flour—that he became
interested in the idea of a mill. At the time Bob was managing a JC
Penny Auto Center in Redding.
“When I got done reading it I thought, ‘why couldn’t I do this?’ ”
says Bob.
In the book, George Woodbury didn’t know a thing about milling when
he started, but when he did it, people beat a path to his door.
“It gave me a sense that I could do that, change directions in my
life,” says Bob. “Once I read John Goffee’s book, I was locked into
this whole thing as a way of life,” he says.
So he immediately started to do research. He went to the library to
compile a list of flour companies and mills around the country,
writing each a letter asking for help to acquire stone grinding mill
equipment. He received just one response—from a mill that had not
used stone grinding equipment in over 100 years. But they did know a
man who had previously owned a mill in Indiana and who was
knowledgeable about where to find them. Bob made a phone call, and
he acquired his first stone grinding mill from Fayettesville, North
Carolina.
He started a mill in a quonset hut, Moore’s Flour Mill, partnering
with his sons in the business. Although the mill was successful, the
town of Redding was not big enough to grow the business and support
three families.
As a spiritual couple, Bob and Charlee always wanted to learn the
Bible in its original languages. They sold their portion of the mill
to their son and moved to Oregon to attend a few seminaries. Bob and
Charlee frequently practiced learning biblical words while on a
walk. They made vocabulary cards and took turns testing each other
while they strolled near their home in Oregon City. One of these
jaunts on Rothe Road changed their lives forever, as they passed
what looked like an old mill with a big “For Sale” sign.
“I told Charlee, ‘you know, it’s crazy, but I think that’s an old
mill.’ I could see the grinders and mixers; it had been closed for
years,” says Bob. He later learned that a rail line used to carry
grains to the mill, and when it was pulled out in 1957, there was no
longer an easy way to deliver grains there, so it closed. Bob and
Charlee made a decision to purchase the mill, and Bob’s Red Mill was
born. They started with 11 employees, making 100 different products,
including 10-grain cereal and cornmeal.
“From the moment we opened that mill we were busy. It was amazing
how people beat a path to the door,” says Bob. “People were
interested in eating better, and of course we kept hounding the
whole grain idea and stone grounding,” he says.
Though business was thriving, Bob’s Red Mill experienced a major
setback. On June 15, 1988, an arsonist set fire to the mill,
devastating the whole building. Starting over seemed like such a big
feat that Bob considered leaving the business behind. He went as far
as talking to a manager at Les Schwab to discuss the possibility of
employment there.
But Bob had such a strong support system of people telling him to
stay in business. Even Fred Meyer stores, Bob’s Red Mill’s largest
customer at the time, kept his shelf space open with a sign
announcing the mill’s tragedy. His employees stuck with him, helping
to salvage equipment from the burned building. Bob had insurance to
cover a loan from the bank, and when he received a check from the
insurance company after the fire, Bob’s banker told him to keep the
money. “He was one of the forces that kept us in business,” says
Bob.
For a few months after the fire, Bob’s Red Mill was able to keep
product going. One of his employees traveled to Redding in order to
continue milling product at Moore’s Flour Mill, shipping it back to
Oregon. Within six months they were back on their feet, renting out
several properties in Milwaukie, and in 1989 they found a permanent
facility in the same part of town.
Bob’s Red Mill continued to grow, and five years ago the
headquarters was moved a mile and a half down the road in order to
house 250 employees and keep up with the demand of production. Today
the mill runs 24 hours a day, six days a week to make 400 different
products—everything from old-fashioned rolled oats to garbanzo bean
flour to gluten-free pancake mix—with grains that are sourced from
all over the world, including Oregon farms. Products are sold in 71
countries around the world, in countries as far as Mongolia, Saudia
Arabia and Iceland. Bob’s Red Mill is well on its way to achieve its
mission to be a major source of whole grains to the world.
“I really believe in whole grains. From a biblical standpoint the
Bible tells us to eat whole grains,” says Bob. “Whole grains were
given to us by God, to eat by God. It gives me inner strength to say
I would like to take these grains and make them available to the
world. And it’s not my idea,” he says.
Not only is he concerned with feeding the world healthy food, but
also the well-being of the Bob’s Red Mill “family,” and the
community. On Bob’s 81st birthday in 2010, instead of receiving a
gift, he gave his employees a tremendous one—his company—through an
employee stock ownership program (ESOP). Bob says that the people at
Bob’s Red Mill are just as important as the products, and he was
determined to do with the company what he thought was right. He
spent nine years researching the program and decided it was the
right way to go. “You can’t take it with you,” says Bob. This
decision received so much media attention that he appeared in a
televised interview with Diane Sawyer, and was a contributing factor
to a book just written about his life—“People Before Profit: The
Inspiring Story of the Founder of Bob’s Red Mill” by Ken Koopman.
He decided to use the profits from the ESOP for philanthropic
efforts, donating $1 million to the National College of Natural
Medicine to fund the Ending Childhood Obesity Project as well as
build a test kitchen so students can develop healthy recipes. He
gave $5 million to Oregon State University to develop an academic
center to research nutrition and child obesity issues, and he
committed $25 million to OHSU for a new research and development
department to promote science-based changes in diet, nutrition and
healthcare with a focus on whole grains.
Bob wants people to know that Bob’s Red Mill is all about
“complete,” healthy, food, and stands by whole grains as the healthy
way to eat. “No one else was doing this—somebody needed to do this,”
he says. “And from when we tried it, people liked our stuff. It’s
hard to shy away from that. I think there’s some energy in just
supplying people good food.”
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