Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Amy’s Kitchen Tries Organic Fast Food

Frozen food is just the beginning: Amy’s Kitchen will be serving up fresh fare at a new fast food joint.

When I reach the frozen food aisle at the supermarket, I immediately look for Amy’s Kitchen products. So I was ecstatic to hear the good news: The food producer famous for its homemade, organic, and (mostly) kosher products will be opening Amy’s Drive Thru, a fast food restaurant.

Fast food is universally recognized as being artificial and unhealthy. But Amy’s Kitchen is trying something different: All at the new fast food joint will be vegetarian and GMO-free, and 95% of ingredients will be certified organic. And, if you desire, each item can be made gluten-free, dairy-free or vegan.

The company earned kosher certification in 2003 and has since become a favorite with Jews looking for a yummy, easy-to-make meal. Perhaps future Amy’s restaurants will be kosher too?

All meals will be fresh and made-to-order, but Amy’s expects to produce the food at the speedy rate typical of fast food restaurants. This labor-intensive challenge means slightly higher prices — a typical meal will be $9 and under, according to the Civil Eats blog.

The restaurant will open in Rohnert Park, California (50 miles north of San Francisco), in late June.

Amy’s plans for the restaurant’s construction show that the company’s sustainable sourcing extends beyond food ingredients. The furniture will be made from discarded wood and scrap metal, and any new wood purchased will be certified as sustainable by the Forest Stewardship Council. The restaurant will collect and reuse rainwater, and solar panels will cover its roof. Not bad for a fast food spot, huh?

Amy’s is setting the bar high for fast food industry practices. Hopefully other chains will follow its lead.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Amy’s sets up shop on the East Coast so I can taste an organic, vegan, fast-food burrito sometime soon!

Ali Golden is a climate activist, an intern at Hazon and a former trail worker in Yellowstone National Park.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.