Love Peanut Butter? Try These Organic Healthy Snacks

When Gael Orr was a little girl in the 1970s, her mother came home from the grocery store in the tiny town of Nunda, New York, with something special: a jar of organic almond butter made by the local company Once Again Nut Butter. 

Her mother was thrilled with her find, and Gael ate Once Again’s organic almond and peanut butter for the rest of her childhood. She eventually grew up, left town, and traveled the world before moving back to Nunda in 2009 and looking for a job.  

“I saw the job opening [at Once Again] in my hometown and said, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s my peanut butter company!’” she told The FruitGuys. 

Gael has been working at Once Again ever since. Today, she’s the company’s director of marketing, and she sat down with The FruitGuys to talk about Once Again’s story, its employee ownership model, its sustainability initiatives, and, of course, its organic healthy snacks—which are now in rotation in The FruitGuys’ snack boxes. 

How Once Again Nut Butter Got Started

Husband-wife team Jeremy Thaler and Constance “Connie” Potter started Once Again Nut Butter in 1976 with a secondhand coffee roaster and a bit of business savvy. They were running a baked goods delivery company and using the roaster to make granola when Genesee Country Village & Museum came calling. 

The museum wanted old-fashioned peanut butter (made with skin-on Valencia peanuts) so that it could serve peanut butter sandwiches at its grand opening. Jeremy and Connie repurposed their coffee/granola roaster—and Once Again Nut Butter was born. 

“They were once again living in New York state and once again starting a new employee-owned company—they had started many throughout their career—which is how we got our name, Once Again Nut Butter,” Gael said. 

Graham Sandwiches: Tasty & Innovative

Today, Once Again offers peanut, almond, cashew, and sunflower butters and tahini in jars and squeeze packs. And in 2023, it launched something new: graham sandwiches. 

These organic healthy snacks are made with nut or seed butter sandwiched between delicious organic, gluten-free crackers on the market. It took the Once Again team ten years to develop the product, source equipment, and find the manufacturing partners it needed to make the graham sandwiches, but it paid off.

“Consumers twist them in half like an Oreo cookie, and they love how much nut butter is in these crackers. They’re filled, and they’re dense! You eat one sandwich cracker and you’re full,” Gael said. “…I think it really comes down to taste and texture—you almost don’t know that you’re eating something that’s healthy for you because it tastes so good.”

The Graham Sandwiches come in Peanut Butter, Chocolate & Peanut Butter, and Sunflower Butter flavors. They’re organic, gluten-free, kosher, and non-GMO—an impressive feat, considering there’s honey swirled into the crackers of the Chocolate & Peanut Butter flavor (Gael’s favorite). You can’t tell bees which flowers to pollinate, so Once Again sources its honey from rainforest hives to avoid the possibility of GMO contamination. 

Inside the 100% Employee Ownership Model

Like everything at Once Again, getting the Graham Sandwiches to market (and into office snack boxes at The FruitGuys) was a team effort. The company was partially employee-owned from the start, but in 2006, Jeremy and Connie stepped away, and it became 100% employee-owned. 

“It’s definitely different. I call our company an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP)/worker co-op fusion,” Gael said. 

She explained that at most ESOP companies, employees are given shares of stock in the business, and the longer they work there, the more shares they accumulate. Each employee’s vote is typically weighted based on their shares, so long-term employees have more power over decision-making. But Once Again uses the worker cooperative principle of one worker, one vote and keeps things fair with a governance document. It outlines which employees and teams have authority in which situations, how decisions are ratified, and more. 

This came into play when the sales and marketing departments pitched the idea for Graham Sandwiches. It didn’t just need approval from CEO Bob Gelser—it also went through a research and development process involving representatives from across the company. 

Better for Workers, Farmers, and the Planet

The employee ownership model also plays a role in Once Again’s company culture and benefits. Workers accrue a generous amount of paid time off—as a 16-year veteran, Gael gets seven weeks off per year between PTO, sick time, and holidays. Employee-led committees also handle the company’s charitable donations, monitor employee satisfaction, and host employee appreciation events throughout the year. When facilities heat up in the summer, for example, the Employee Satisfaction Team stocks freezers with popsicles. 

“It’s not just about how much money we’re paying you, but making sure that you’re holistically taken care of,” Gael said. 

The company applies that same ethos to the farmers that grow its nuts and seeds and the workers at every step of its supply chain. Once Again was an early adopter of fair-trade practices, and still works directly with farmers to ensure they’re paid fair wages. As Gael puts it, the team constantly asks the question, “How are we a good human steward to other humans?” 

Sustainability is a key part of Once Again’s mission, too. It looks out for the planet, from subsiding organic farming practices to using only Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO)-certified palm oil for its snacks.

Treat Your Team to Organic Healthy Snacks 

Once Again’s Graham Sandwiches are a fitting Employee Appreciation Day treat: organic healthy snacks made by happy workers, for happy workers. 

That’s why The FruitGuys is thrilled to feature its Peanut Butter and Chocolate & Peanut Butter flavors as our Snacks of the Month for March 2025. You can find them in our Thoughtful Snack Box mixes all month long or order them by the case for your office’s Employee Appreciation Day celebrations.