Manitowoc, WI – July 2026
Ask most shoppers to name the company behind the vegetables of their favorite store-brand, chances are they won’t know it’s Lakeside Foods. That’s by design. As one of the country’s largest private-label food manufacturers, Lakeside Foods has spent nearly 140 years making other brands look good on the shelf and kitchen tables across the country. But ask why a company that rarely puts its own name on a package keeps showing up at community events across Wisconsin and beyond, and a different picture starts to emerge.
That picture was the focus of a recent feature in The Business News, which caught up with Director of Brand Marketing Matt Voltoline on what it means for a “behind-the-scenes” manufacturer
to step into the spotlight, not for recognition, but for a relationship.
Lakeside Foods Shows Up
Voltoline was candid about Lakeside Foods’ low-key reputation: the company supplies the vegetables, meat snacks and frozen staples that stock other brands’ shelves and has never needed the spotlight to prove its staying power. What’s changed isn’t the company’s humility; it’s the recognition that showing up locally, in ways people can actually feel, matters just as much as showing up on a label.
That philosophy has played out in a couple of meaningful ways already in 2026. At the Ice Age Trail 50 (one of the nation’s oldest continuously run ultramarathons), held each May on Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail, Lakeside Foods fueled runners with boiled potatoes and meat sticks at aid stations and vegetable blends at the finish line, turning a race through the very regions where its crops grow into a hands-on introduction to the brand. Read more about Lakeside Foods role in the Ice Age Trail 50 →
That same instinct traveled west earlier in the spring, when Lakeside Foods supported Real West Gravel, a cycling event winding through the fields surrounding its new Pacific Northwest growing footprint, proof that the community-first approach isn’t confined to Manitowoc. Read more about Real West Gravel →
A Culture That Starts Internally
Lakeside Foods community involvement isn’t a marketing campaign bolted onto the business; it’s an extension of a workforce culture built on longevity, with many of its roughly 1,200 year-round and up to 1,200 seasonal employees working their way up through the ranks alongside colleagues they’ve known for years. That internal culture is a big reason the company was recently named United Way Manitowoc County’s 2025 Workplace Partner of the Year, capping a campaign that helped distribute thousands of books to local children, engage hundreds of volunteers and direct thousands of dollars toward anti-hunger efforts. Read more about the Workplace Partner of the Year recognition →
More Milestones From a Big Year
The Ice Age Trail 50 and the United Way honor are just two entries in what’s shaping up to be a full year for Lakeside Foods. Also on the 2026 timeline so far:
- New Frozen Dips launch — a veggie-forward lineup aimed at the growing refrigerated dip category, built for operators and retailers looking for shareable, snacking solutions.
- Green Bay Packers partnership — bringing Lakeside Foods Breaded Pickle Chips and other items to fans at Lambeau Field, a hometown-team collaboration that mirrors the same community-first thinking driving its other community involvement..
- National Provisioner feature — spotlighting Lakeside Foods investment in expanded meat snack packaging technology to meet rising demand for protein-forward, convenient snacking.
- Joe Yanda — Lakeside Foods President and CEO was named to BizTimes Media’s Wisconsin 275 list, adding to a growing list of industry accolades for his leadership.
Staying Grounded While Growing
As Lakeside Foods approaches its 140th anniversary, the company continues to expand geographically through its 2024 acquisition of Oregon-based Smith Frozen Foods and across product lines with innovations such as its new frozen dips. But the throughline, according to Voltoline, is that growth and community investment aren’t competing priorities. A company built to last another 140 years has to take care of the land, the growers and the relationships that got it here, and that means the communities it operates in have to thrive right alongside it.
It’s a simple enough equation: a rising tide lifts all ships. For Lakeside Foods, that tide includes its neighbors, its employees and the people fueling up at aid stations who might, for the first time, connect a familiar taste to the name behind it.