Announcing the New 2026 Snail of Approval Cohort!
We’re delighted to announce this year’s Snail of Approval awardees!
The Snail of Approval recognizes businesses that meaningfully pursue good, clean, and fair food for all. It’s awarded through an application and interview process that dives deep into the way each business puts its values into action.
This year’s awardees wowed us with their commitment to local ingredients, deep knowledge of sustainable practices, determination to slash waste, celebration of locally grown and produced goods, and the many ways they embrace and enrich their immediate communities.
We talked with them about their careful sourcing of ingredients and inputs, traditional farming and culinary methods, biodiversity in the field and on the plate, mindfully designed fair labor practices, streamlined food waste systems, customer and staff education efforts—we could go on.
Spend 10 minutes with any one of these business owners and you’ll discover a visionary and local food champion who loves a challenge and a good conversation.
In the coming weeks, we’ll be introducing each of them to you. Today, we unveil the entire list of 19 businesses in western Washington, spanning from Ferndale to Seattle and from Tacoma to Toledo.
A huge congratulations to each of these businesses, who are killing it out there, making our food system more resilient and our communities kinder every day.
🐌 Here is the 2026 Snail of Approval cohort!
A Butter Place, Seattle - Adrian Sanders
Cafe Lolo, Seattle - Leah Engel, Alex Hali, and Brett Bankson
Corbeau, Tacoma - Trevor Hamilton
Fantello Creamery, Enumclaw - Paul Fantello
Ferndale Farmstead Creamery, Ferndale - Nidia and Daniel Wavrin
Garden Path Fermentation, Burlington - Ron Extract and Amber Watts
Greenwood Cider, Seattle - Marshall Petryni
Grist Urban Stone Mill Flour Shoppe and Grainery, Centralia - Jay Ryan
Jones Creek Farm, Sedro-Woolley - Leslie and Lyn Price
Olympia Food Co-op, Olympia - Max Crabapple
Preservation Meat Collective, Seattle - Travis Stanley-Jones and Sean So
Salt Blade, Seattle - Bob Blade
Sasquatch Family Farms, Toledo - Shauna Perez
Shona’s Cafe, Chehalis - Shona Smith
Simple Goodness Sisters, Buckley - Belinda Kelly
SisterLand Farms, Port Angeles - Jenson
Spotted Frog Farm, Olympia - Sarah George
Summit Farms, Olympia - Mitch Lewis
The Skagit Table, Mount Vernon - Courtney Bourasaw
To learn more about our local Snail of Approval process, click here.