Knock on wood: Sustainable cutlery maker gets big boost from national retailer

Buoyed by a deal with Target and the movement away from single-use plastics, Foodstiks believes the time is nigh for its brand of disposable wooden utensils — if it can overcome industry issues.

By Brian Hartz
| 2:30 p.m. February 8, 2022
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Mark Wemple. Jim and Ina Henderson are the co-founders and co-owners of Foodstiks, a St. Pete-based maker of disposable wooden cutlery.

Entrepreneurs

With plastic shopping bags and straws becoming frowned upon in many communities across the country, St. Petersburg entrepreneurs Jim and Ina Henderson expect plastic utensils to join them as persona non grata products, so they’ve launched Foodstiks, a company that specializes in disposable cutlery made of 100% birch wood.

Major retailers also expect the trend to catch on, especially now that plastic cutlery has been banned in India, with Canada considering similar action. Target, for one, has struck a deal with Foodstiks that will see the company’s 24-piece utensil sets sold in select U.S. stores — around 300, mainly on the east and west coasts — and via Target.com.

The Minneapolis-based retailer “surprised us with their initial order,” Ina Henderson says. “They were going to order much less, but went with triple what they had projected.”