Petaluma-Based Amy's Kitchen Helps Send Over 100 Students To College

PETALUMA, CA — Organic and non-GMO convenience and frozen food manufacturer Amy's Kitchen this week announced the recipients of its 2022 scholarship awards.

Each year, the company headquartered in Petaluma invites the children of its employees to apply for college scholarships based on merit. This year the company awarded $150,000 in scholarships for students to attend various colleges and universities across the country, including Boise State University; University of California, Los Angeles; Oregon State University; Rutgers University; and the University of Pennsylvania.

To celebrate the 2022 scholarship recipients, Amy’s Kitchen hosted its 22nd Annual Scholarship Ceremonies Aug. 9 at the Amy's Kitchen plant in Santa Rosa and Aug. 16 at the company's plants in Pocatello, Idaho, and Medford, Oregon. During the Santa Rosa ceremony, founder Andy Berliner handed out certificates to each scholarship recipient.

In Sonoma County, 16 Petaluma students and 26 Santa Rosa students were awarded 2022 scholarships from Amy's Kitchen.

The company will continue to support their college journeys, offering scholarships to the recipients for up to five years.

Since the start of the scholarship program in 2000, Amy's Kitchen has awarded nearly 1,500 scholarships totaling over $1.5 million to students in the communities that Amy’s Kitchen calls home. Understanding that the cost of a college education is often a barrier keeping students from attending school, the founders of Amy’s Kitchen saw an opportunity to increase college access through the scholarship program.

"Amy's Kitchen began with our desire to provide nutritious, delicious, and sustainable food to families," said Andy and Rachel Berliner, founders of Amy's Kitchen. "As the company grew, we hoped to be able to earn enough to send our daughter to college. Now through the Amy's Kitchen scholarship program, we've spent the last two decades supporting our employees' families in their pursuit of higher education."

Students like four-time Amy's Kitchen scholarship recipient Jamie Castrellon, who currently attends UC Davis.

"In a lot of ways Amy's Kitchen has supported my college journey. It has given me financial stability in general," Castrellon said. "It is great to have the scholarship to rely on to release the anxiety. I use the scholarship to mostly buy textbooks and case files for my economics classes."

Former scholarship recipient Hana Feiter, who now works for Amy's Kitchen as a digital designer after graduating from college in 2017, expressed her gratitude for the scholarship program.

"It's incredible that Amy's helped get two of my family members through college," Feiter said.

Because her mother worked for the company for more than 15 years, Feiter's family grew up eating Amy's Kitchen. Both she and her brother received scholarships from Amy's Kitchen all four years they attended college.

"Being a first-generation college student, I love that I can say I have a college degree," Feiter said. "I'm really prideful of that."