History

Dean and Syvilla Pence established Wholesome Foods, Inc. as a home delivery service of poultry, meat and egg products in the Washington D.C. area. They got the idea for the business from Dean’s father, Walter, who for many years had made weekly trips to the D.C. Farmers Market to sell local meat. Dean started from scratch, without any customers. On his first route to D.C. he sold only 9 dozen eggs. He won customers by selling his quality products door-to-door and kept them with his great customer service. It was nothing for him to put in 20 hours a day.

Wholesome Foods expanded their delivery area to include parts of Virginia and became the first poultry plant in the area to cut poultry products for local Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. We also became an approved USDA-inspected plant.

Wholesome Foods started distributing meat products, beginning with Smithfield and Kunzler.

A full line of western, grain-fed beef was added, delivered directly from the Midwest. In that same year our outlet store, Wholesome Foods Country Deli and Butcher Shoppe, was opened to offer our full line of deli, poultry, beef and pork cuts to the local community and our wholesale customers. Other fine lines of meat, cheese and deli products items were added.    

We established the Old Dominion Brand, our own private label, to include whole and cooked country ham, turkey breast, roast beef, bacon and cheese.

We celebrated the Grand Opening of our BBQ Pit with Cooter from the Dukes of Hazzard. The pit was built to state-approved specifications to offer clubs and organizations a sanitary facility in which to produce and sell barbeque chicken as a fundraiser.

We began producing Virginia’s Best All-Natural Artesian Water, bottled at the source in the Shenandoah Valley. Custom labels was also started.

Our outlet store expanded to include a full-service kitchen specializing in Old Dominion Fresh Fried Chicken and fresh-ground handmade burgers.

Using our east coast distribution routes, we added a service to collect restaurant cooking oil waste. The used oil is recycled into biofuel and animal feeds.

Mirroring our own needs for reliable fleet maintenance, we opened our Service Department for heavy trucks and trailer repairs.

Wholesome Foods in now producing the Old Dominion Brand Country Ham Sausage. Click the image for more info.