KANSAS CITY, MO — McLain’s Bakery + Market, a Kansas City, MO, staple for scratch-made pastries, breads and cakes, is getting even more ingrained in its community through a local partnership with Farmer Direct Foods (FDF).
“We love McLain’s as long-term consumers of their products, and we love that our flour is now central to what they create,” said Tim Webster, CEO of Farmer Direct Foods. “The family is entrepreneurial, passionate, growth-minded and fun-loving! Our mantra is ‘flour you can trace from farmers you can trust’
and we love that McLain’s is out front about that mattering to them. That will open doors for us to other discerning bakers who care deeply about their ingredients.”
For the flour supplier, this connection places the FDF name in front of not only other bakers and bakery owners through the McLain’s network, but also in front of customers and community members who want to support locally grown, traceable ingredients.
“It starts with a farmer who wakes up before sunrise, tends to crops with care, and makes decisions every season that ripple forward into the grain, into the mill, into the dough, and eventually into the hands of someone who just wanted something good to eat,” FDF said in a statement announcing the partnership. “We’ve built our entire company around honoring that chain. Every bag of flour we produce is traceable back to the farm it came from, because we believe the people who grow your food deserve to be known, not anonymous.”
With flour sourced from FDF, McLain’s can guarantee that every bag it uses can be easily traced back to the farm that grew the wheat. The partnership will not only provide McLain’s customers with transparency and authenticity but also open the door to more local partnerships with farmers and growers.
“We are honored to partner with Farmer Direct to use some of the very best Kansas regenerative flour for our pastries, cookies, and breads we make fresh daily,” said Mollie Lothman, co-owner of McLain’s.
For the bakery, the collaboration is also rooted, with familial ties to the wheat itself.
“Our ancestors were among the first immigrants to Kansas who brought, planted, and harvested the red turkey wheat widely used in Farmer Direct flours today, creating a very full-circle moment for us at McLain’s Bakery + Market,” Mollie said.
For more information on McLain’s Bakery, read the June | Q2 2025 Craft to Crumb mini-mag.
