How Made with Local transitioned from side hustle to national snack brand
Born and raised on Prince Edward Island, Sheena Russell was surrounded by agriculture, with her grandparents’ farm just a kilometre down the road. “My mom was one of 13 kids, so I have a huge family and most of them are still on the island in that same farming community,” says Russell, whose upbringing sparked an early interest in sustainability. “As a little kid, I just knew that I wanted to save the Earth,” she recalls. “I didn’t know what that looked like yet, but I knew it was important to me.”
That interest led her to pursue a bachelor’s degree in environmental science at Dalhousie University in Halifax. While her career ambition was to do hands-on research in the field, Russell says she took “more of an office job” with the City of Halifax. She soon found herself looking for a creative outlet.
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Russell had always loved cooking and was running a food blog, developing recipes and photographing her creations. “It was a very early precursor to building a food brand,” she says.
In 2012, she started making granola bars with ingredients sourced from the local farmers’ market, including honey from a nearby apiary and locally produced peanut butter and almond butter. She became a vendor at the market, where customers lined up to buy the bars under the Made with Local name. “Sourcing the ingredients from the farmers’ market and bringing the bars back there to sell was the beginning of knowing that we were onto something special,” she says.
Still, the side gig was all-encompassing, with Russell holding a full-time job while making and packaging the bars, handling the marketing and accounting, and selling the products at the market every weekend. “It was a lot of fun and a ton of work,” she recalls.
As Made with Local gained traction, Russell decided to pursue the business full-time in 2015 and take it beyond the farmers’ market. She partnered with a co-packer to scale production, gradually expanding into grocery stores—first through the Sobeys Local Program in Atlantic Canada, then nationally with Sobeys and Loblaw in 2019. “That was a big turning point for us, when we started to become known as a Canadian brand playing alongside some of the biggest brands in a very competitive category,” says Russell.
Today, Made with Local is also sold at Walmart, Healthy Planet, Fresh St. Market, Calgary Co-op and smaller, independent health food stores. It also has a robust direct-to-consumer e-commerce business.
Another significant turning point came in 2021, when an opportunity arose to buy a manufacturing facility from one of Made with Local’s suppliers. The owners were retiring and offered to sell it to Russell, who took the opportunity to bring manufacturing in-house.
“We were actively considering it at the time because with our co-packer, we consistently hit capacity constraints,” she says. “When we had the opportunity to buy this building from one of our suppliers, it felt very serendipitous.”
After a complete overhaul of the facility in Windsor, N.S., Made with Local began production there in 2022. While its co-packer could produce about 8,000 to 10,000 units per week, Made with Local can now produce 20,000 units in a single day, with capacity for more. “It has significantly improved our output, and the quality of our product has never been better,” Russell says. “It has also allowed us to have a lot of fun with innovation, and the space allows us to be agile. It’s quite literally been a full game-changer for us.”
Made with Local’s Real Food bars remain the brand’s best-known products. Flavours include Peanut Butter Blondie, Lemon, Mint Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter Brownie and Blueberry Almond Butter. “They are largely the same recipes that I’ve been making since the farmers’ market days—really delicious and wholesome,” Russell says.
In 2024, Made with Local expanded its lineup with protein cookies, each containing 16 grams of protein. Like the bars, the cookies are gluten free and provide a source of fibre. Flavours include Peanut Chocolate Chip, Double Chocolate and Peanut Butter Chocolate. “We knew we could innovate within the protein movement without compromising the values of the brand,” says Russell.
Those values centre on simple ingredients sourced from Canadian farmers and producers, including organic oats from a Saskatchewan farmers’ co-operative, honey from the family-owned Dutchman’s Gold in Carlisle, Ont., and wild blueberries from Van Dyk’s By Nature, a three-generation family farm and processing business in Caledonia, N.S.
From the beginning, sourcing Canadian ingredients was about more than making a great-tasting product. “I didn’t have the words for this at the time, but I knew we needed a value proposition,” Russell says. “It couldn’t just be yummy granola bars at the farmers’ market. There had to be a bigger ‘why’ underneath it.”
That thinking, she adds, was anchored in her passion for sustainability, conservation and farming communities. “From the get-go, that informed our decision to prioritize the Canadian supply chain, and now we source ingredients from almost every Canadian province,” Russell says.
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For Russell, it’s validating to see more Canadians recognize the importance of being mindful of their food choices. “Prior to the last couple of years, the notion of supporting farmers felt altruistic, in some cases, versus understanding how important it is to Canada’s economy,” she says. “It’s important to our food sovereignty and it’s important to food security. And I think that wasn’t as fully known by the average Canadian consumer as it is today.”
Made with Local’s latest innovation is Little Treats, a 40-gram square containing 10 grams of protein and six grams of fibre. “They’re super decadent and made with many of the same ingredients that we are known and loved for, like Canadian-grown and produced pea protein, Canadian honey, oats and wild blueberries.”
Russell is particularly fond of the name of the new product, which she says speaks to a moment in time. “There are lots of moments where you’re looking for a little treat,” she says. “I’m really excited to get them out in the world.”
