Feast

Feast was opened ten years ago with the mission to offer Feast! customers the best in service and quality. To be a vital and responsible business - independently owned and operated - that is a viable alternative to huge, corporate groceries and that develops the unique character and economic advantages that independently owned businesses offer to the community. Below are some metrics are the result of our mission driven business: Pounds of artisan cheese sold - over 100,000 Legs of prosciutto sliced to perfection - 1,000 ( this is over 15,000 pounds) Number of customers serviced - 750,000 Gift boxes delivered - 10,000 Bottles of wine sold - 65,000 (20,000 produced in Virginia) Party platters served - 5,000 Food lovers employed - 126 Money to Virginia based businesses through purtchasing - over 5 million dollars Donated to area schools and non-profit organizations - over $50,000 dollars worth of food and cash THE PEOPLE OF FEAST: Over ten years, Feast has employed 126 food lovers, many of whom have taken what they learned at the shop and have gone on to make positive impacts in the greater food world. Feast alumni are spread across the US. They are recipe testers for national magazines. They are nutritionists at schools, chefs, restaurant owners, cheese makers and wine brokers. They are non-profit local food system developers and artists inspired by the beauty of food. "The two years I spent working at Feast changed my relationship with food. I had always loved/been obsessed with it. But at Feast, under the tutelage of passionate bosses who soon became dear friends, Kate and Eric, I learned that food was more than just delicious to eat. It had stories, histories even. I learned to love and passionately advocate for local ingredients where they are available. The growers and producers of these products became real people, who cared about what they were producing. I've been away from Charlottesville for 5 years now and I still miss it, but I carry what I learned from feast with me every time I pick up my CSA share or explain to one of my wine clients why small production wines are far superior to mass produced ones. Thanks, Feast family and congratulations!