Local Flour Company Rolls Out COVID Relief and Expands Business

When like hands you lemons... Knappen Milling was able to restock empty store shelves with flour and grow their business in a whole new way.

This family-owned business has been milling soft wheat flour in their Augusta facility since 1929, but they are far from a household name. Most of the flour Knappen Milling produces goes to large food manufacturers and is used in snack foods and other products- they are not a retailer. When the Coronavirus disrupted food distribution and panic-buying emptied store shelves, friends and family looked to Knappen. They stepped up and answered the call. Many things had to be done quickly to get the flour to the stores, including improvising packaging, labeling, and distribution. For the first time in 90 years, they would be selling direct to the public.

During wartime and epidemics, people are forced to stay home and cook and bake more than ever. While there are many aspects of these trying times that are uncertain and difficult, we are overjoyed to hear about the bread, desserts, and baking experiments you are creating. It means everything to us that we can play a small part in the new memories and traditions that are being created in kitchens across America.

-Knappen Milling President Emily Knappen Likens

In a time when we are reading more and more stories of businesses struggling and some planing not to reopen when the state does, it is nice to read a good news story of a local business that has filled a need and been rewarded for doing so.