2022 In Review: A Look Back at “Where Good Grows”

In these last few weeks of the year, we’re taking a moment to reflect on all we were able to accomplish this year. Looking back on 2022, we have so many things to be thankful for thanks to our valued guests, employees, partners, and communities.

Read below to see how we made Bob Evans the place Where Good Grows throughout the year.

1. Supporting future farmers

Bob Evans is proud to further the agricultural education of deserving students through its partnership with the National FFA Organization. We sponsored 12 Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) Grant recipients this year to help them pursue their entrepreneurial agriculture projects, such as growing and selling fresh produce utilizing innovative technologies and tending to beehives in order to extract and sell fresh honey and honeycomb goods.

We also held our third annual “Egg Crack, Give Back” fundraiser during FFA Week in February. Thanks to the guests who ordered a Farmer’s Choice Breakfast on February 24th in our participating restaurants, we were able to raise $15,000 together to fund SAE projects for 2023. Learn more about Ohio student, Alex Kellersmith, and how his SAE projects produce goods he can sell seasonally throughout the year.

2. A community garden for good

This was the second year of the Bob Evans Garden Project at the original Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande, Ohio. Our Farm Manager, Chris Williams, and local students from Vinton Elementary School planted the community garden in May and harvested the produce in the Fall. In total we harvested over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce from the garden, which was donated to local organizations in the Rio Grande and Gallipolis communities, such as The Grace United Methodist Church’s food pantry, to help feed those in need. We shared a little about this program with our Bob Evans Farm Festival attendees through a life-size garden display.

Bob Evans Garden

3. New farm-fresh flavors

As the home of America’s Farm Fresh, we pride ourselves on serving delicious, in-season, farm-fresh food to our guests. Thanks to our innovative culinary team members and wonderful suppliers, we were able to bring several new menu items to our restaurants this year, like our nutrient-rich Farm Fresh Protein Bowls, Fresh Berry Hotcakes, Banana Nut Hotcakes, and craveable Holy Cow Chocolate Cake featuring a local Ohio favorite, Velvet Ice Cream.

Protein Bowl

We also launched our Bob Evans American Values platform as part of our commitment to providing our guests with farm-fresh food at a great value for breakfast, lunch and dinner – allowing guests to put more on their table for less during a time of rising costs and inflation.

American Values Flag

4. Celebrating the farming community

Harvest season is marked every year by our signature Bob Evans Farm Festival, held at the Bob Evans Farm in Rio Grande, Ohio, the birthplace of the brand. For more than 50 years, this festival has been a tribute to our founder, Bob Evans, and all of America’s farmers by bringing the community together to celebrate the spirit of the farm with delicious food, live entertainment, farm demonstrations and much more. To extend our support of the Ohio farming community beyond this weekend, we also made a $5,000 donation to each of the following Ohio Farming organizations: the Ohio FFA Foundation, Ohio 4-H and the Ohio Farm Bureau Foundation.

Farm Fest

5. Cream-of-the crop employees

We would be remiss not to take a moment to thank our employees who helped us give back to our communities this year, and who continue to give outstanding service to our guests and make Bob Evans the place Where Good Grows. Whether you’re a veteran server, a corporate team member, or a host who just joined us this month — thank you! We couldn’t have done it without you. If you’d like to join our Bob Evans family, please visit bobevans.com/careers to learn more.

Employees

Thank you again for all of the continued support this year. We look forward to the exciting things to come in 2023!