Who We Are

Our Story

We are a small BIPOC owned and operated company based in East Cleveland, OH. We strive to make delicious, healthy food; support local sustainable agriculture; and to minimize the environmental impact of doing so.Wake Robin processes more than 30,000 pounds of local vegetables from family farms each year, and remains committed to responsibly growing food for our communities for a more sustainable local food system.Our long term solution is to model a scalable solution by expanding local farming opportunities empowering people to start farming in their own back yard. Learn more about our community wealth plan at loiter.us.

Our Values

We believe high quality comes from the care and attention to detail that we put into each jar, so we make our products in small batches using the traditional preservation method of lacto-fermentation.

We work closely with family farms to help strengthen our regional economy. We are actively involved in the local food economy and purchase the vast majority of our vegetables and other service inputs locally.

We tread lightly on the earth. To minimize our environmental footprint we strive to be a near-zero waste company. We source 90% of our vegetables from Northeast Ohio, reducing fossil-fuel use for transport. We reuse or recycle all of our waste paper, unwaxed cardboard, and metal; and all vegetable waste goes to compost. Our products are packaged in reusable glass jars. We hope that you can reuse your jar for your own kitchen storage needs, but, if not, you can return your Wake Robin jars to Ohio City Provisions or to our production facility at the Hildebrandt Building. Contact us and we’ll let you know when we will be available to take them.

We are glad to be part of a community that is conscious of the importance of eating healthy, supporting local farmers, strengthening our region’s food security, and minimizing environmental impacts.

Meet our Production Crew

Francis Ortiz Ronald Mosley Mark Stevenson Kash-den Gordon Mike Walton

Enterprise-Based Activism

Wake Robin Fermented foods is owned and operated by Loiter and Food Depot to Health. As a small BIPOC led joint venture company, our aim is to establish a closed loop, community-owned supply chain in order to address the devaluation of African American neighborhoods, community assets, and gathering places. Both companies have aligned values for sustainability as well as supporting local farmers and the local economy.

Our procurement strategy includes small micro farms, side lots, and resident owned backyard gardens working as suppliers of Wake Robin Foods.

In turn, residents can capture some of the growing market share that Wake Robin Foods will realize, which will increase cash flow for home owner farmers and provide solid market appreciation to them over time. This will also lead to an expansion of the local farms in the Cleveland/East Cleveland area.

Loiter, based in East Cleveland, Ohio, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to reconsidering and reimagining a different future for Black communities centered on spatial and economic justice. Loiter focuses on radical community ownership and plans to provide critical wrap-around services through all stages of business development to the habitually excluded, to ignite industry in culture, agritourism, sports, recreation, and business incubation.

Wake Robin Foods supports our effort to address the devaluation of African American neighborhoods, community assets and gathering places. By purchasing Wake Robin products you will be helping to bring jobs, training and investment opportunities back to East Cleveland homeowners. Residents will be working as suppliers of Wake Robin Foods by farming cabbage, mint and, collard greens from their back yard micro farms.

In this way, we can demonstrate what hyper-local, fresh, and delicious produce sourced from East Clevelanders' own home town can do to design a sustainable food system in their city. This strategy is designed to increase cash flow for home owner farmers, provide solid appreciation over time and, become a source of potential black wealth creation for East Clevelanders.Loiter’s mission is to confront the effects of systemic racism and encourage the intentional re-investment of capital needed to build successful community-owned enterprises that will result in spatial and economic justice. For more information visit Loiter.us.

Our Home

Wake Robin is happy to be a tenant at the Hildebrandt Co. Building, located in the historic Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

A former meat processing plant, the building is still owned and maintained by the original Hildebrandt family. It was in operation from the late 1800’s through the 1970’s, and is now finding a new identity as a hub for local artists, crafts people and food entrepreneurs.

For more information about the Hildebrandt Provisions Company, visit hildebrandtco.com.

The historic Hildebrand Provisions Building in Cleveland's Clark-Fulton neighborhood.

Some of our vegetables grow with a view of downtown Cleveland.

Our Mission

At Wake Robin we produce high quality fermented foods that support a healthy diet, the local food economy, and the environment.

We are committed to producing delicious, nourishing food using locally- and regionally-sourced ingredients. We support our region’s vegetable farms through local markets and direct sourcing. Our year-round production plan focuses on making the majority of our products during the local harvest season, so all that local produce can be preserved through the winter and enjoyed year-round!

Our Name

Wake Robin is another name for the trillium, a wildflower of Ohio, which is pictured on our labels. It is a tide of spring, a sign that the earth is warming, that the long winter is coming to a close and that a new season of growing has arrived.

We love the flower, the metaphor and the name!