West Side Rooted: People & Planet
We believe a savory life belongs to everyone.
At Keep It Savory Salt Co, we believe that food tastes better when everyone has a seat at the table. We're growing in the same neighborhood that Dr. Martin Luther King moved into over 50 years ago to raise awareness about racist housing policies and inadequate housing. Since then, similar business practices have continued to extract millions in resources from neighborhoods like North Lawndale, while relocating it in other parts of the Chicago. We see daily how decades of disinvestment affects a community.
At Keep It Savory Salt Co, we intentionally invest in our community. We sink as many dollars as we can into Chicago’s West Side by sourcing our fresh ingredients from hyper-local growers and vendors. Folks such as the Windy City Youth Farm, the Farm on Ogden, and Forty Acres Fresh Market are working tirelessly to create jobs and increase food access in neighborhoods such as ours where grocery stores are scarce.
In turn, this practice provides us with a supply chain of fresh, low-mileage ingredients that not only help build our local economy but also forms the base of our energy-efficient, time-intensive slow cure process. We don't rush our production or use machines to speed things up. Rather, we let time and nature ensure that our salts are holding onto all the savory goodness until our customers are ready to cook with it.
We’ve always believed businesses have an obligation to be good community members, which is why we pay our gig workers 42% above minimum wage and donate 10% of our yearly profits to organizations working to unravel the decades of economic disinvestment on the West Side.
We also have a critical role to play in building a strong and healthy planet. Beyond our commitment to sourcing locally and using as little energy as possible, we redirect or compost all our organic waste from production. We stay geeked for recycling. We've always offered resealable bag options for our refillable glass jars. Our shipping materials and gift boxes are recyclable and compostable. Jo started biking to work before she even started slingin' salt.
At Keep It Savory Salt So we believe we are all the salt of the earth: we can all be a part of changing how resources get used and how they get allocated, with our actions, our dollars, and our vote.
Join our Savory Revolution and let’s be salty together. Here’s to a life that tastes good and does good!
We say YES to A MORE SAVORY way of doing business.
YES to a healthy planet.
YES to buying and hiring locally.
YES to keeping our dollars on the West Side as long as possible.
YES to delicious meals with everyone at the table.