Made in Charlotte: Lance Crackers was built on ingenuity and hard work
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – A familiar lunchbox and vending machine staple goes down as one of the greatest success stories in the history of the Carolinas. Did you know Lance Sandwich Crackers are made in the Queen City?
Oh, you might think this is cheesy, but one can imagine that this bit of trivia has been shared before over a crunchy, creamy snack.
“I’ve always wanted to work here,” says process manager Jacob Martin.
Let’s just say as a kid Martin had Lance a lot.
“Ah, just growing up my lunch was always a peanut butter sandwich and a pack of ToastChee peanut butter crackers,” he remembers.
Every day with the help of manufacturing equipment, employees roll out the orange cracker carpet at the Crump Road facility now owned by Campbell’s. The site churns out 215 million pounds of all sorts of good eats, sold under well-known brand names. The manufacturing process is kind of mesmerizing, really.
Follow the edible orange brick road and you realize it ties the present with days gone by.
“You want the best product, quality product, you want it!” said Janice Blakeney, who started working here 48 years ago. “I was 21 years old at that time. They started me off at $1.90 an hour.”
To think, she’s experienced less than half of the Lance history.
“America’s favorite sandwich crackers, they were invented right here in Charlotte,” Quincy White told Queen City News.
As the great-granddaughter of the founder of Lance Packing Company, she’s proud to know all there is to know.
“Lance was believed to have the largest company-owned sales force,” she says, pointing to a photo displayed with other memorabilia at the Philp L. Van Every Foundation, another part of the Lance Legacy which supports nonprofits in the Carolinas.
In 1913, Philip Lance was in a tight spot. The food broker inadvertently picked up 500 pounds of peanuts instead of coffee beans. When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But what about nuts?
He roasted them and sold them for a nickel per bag and then set his sights on the peanut butter biz.
“You can do anything that you set your mind to with a little hard work and ingenuity,” says White.
In 1915, Lance became partnered with son-in-law Salem Van Every. Then, Lance’s daughter Mary Arnold forever changed the game by saying some magical words, at least in the annals of snacking.
More about Van Every Foundation here
“’Dad, I want to spread the peanut butter between two crispy crackers!’” White said of Mary Arnold’s lightbulb moment.
That’s when the first commercially sold peanut butter sandwich cracker was born.
In the generations ahead, the company thrived despite some of the nation’s hardest years.
“Lance had its first million dollars in sales in 1935 during the depression because the products were a nickel,” White said.
Eighty-six years ago, Lance began baking its crackers and created ToastChee, the cheese-flavored sandwich squares with a spread of peanut butter in the middle.
Today, each package is like a plastic-wrapped time capsule.
“So, if that wasn’t in my lunch box it was a sad day at school,” recalls Martin, that employee
There are17 varieties of sandwich crackers made at the Crump Road location. Over the years, they’ve been like tiny building blocks.
“There were a number of companies that helped build Charlotte back in Charlotte’s heyday. One was Lance, and then there was Ivy’s and Belk’s [department stores], and Charlotte Pipe and Foundry,” said White.
She takes great pride in the fact that Lance has been such an important part of Charlotte’s history. You might even say their peanut butter is part of the economic glue that was so vital to the economy.
“Lance employed a lot of people in Charlotte,” White says. “So Lance was family, people met their spouses at Lance.”
There’s a lot of automation these days, but White says the foundation has always been good humans.
“During the war years, the men went off for war and Lance actively hired a lot of women,” she says, showing us more historic photos. “People felt really loved and valued and important like they were really contributing to something special.”
After nearly five decades on the job, Blakeney is a throwback.
“When I came in, I really didn’t know what I was going to be doing, but man I fell in love with it, yes,” she says.
“[Janice is] a wonderful person, I’m thankful for the years of service she’s put into Lance,” said White.
The more things change in the QC, the more folks find value in the knowledge that some things are just like they remember.
“I can’t even describe how proud I am,” White said.
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