Every year you can count on the Wild Alaskan Company team to show up with an all-hands-on-deck spirit — it’s why the company is what it is today — but to me, it feels like 2024 has been one of the most energizing and expansive years yet. For this week’s letter, I’d like to share about some of the standout moments from the year, the ones that I think best exemplify how we’re continuing to pursue our mission to accelerate humanity’s transition to sustainable food systems.
We embraced new ways to celebrate wild-caught seafood.
WAC has always been a company rooted in deep gratitude and respect — for Mother Nature, for the fisherpeople, and for the communities that are supported by abundant, Alaskan harvests. These roots are what have sustained the company’s evolution from year to year, nourishing our mission to support a more sustainable food system.
To that end, WAC expanded its roster of seafood this year to include even more varieties and preparations than ever, with offerings that I am proud to serve in my own home to friends and family. Crab meat, picked from the shell! Pre-seasoned, ready-to-cook burgers! A second, unbelievably sweet species of Alaskan shrimp!
It was perhaps our most intensive and innovative celebration of seafood yet — and we’ve been so inspired by it that we’re taking this energy into 2025, embracing growth as we develop even more ways for you to explore how Alaskan seafood can enrich the meals that you make and share in your own homes. I can’t yet reveal to you all the delicious, exciting things that we’re working on for next year, but I will say that you can look forward to more offerings that embody our values as a company to be your trusted source for sustainable, wild-caught seafood.
We explored more ways to advocate for the fish.
There’s no greater teacher than Mother Nature, and there are few greater classrooms than Alaska. To that end, we’ve brought more Alaskan voices into the fold. Monthly missives from commercial fisherman Melanie Brown — as well as a spotlight of the Velskos from Homer, Alaska — who offered different manifestations of what it means to live the fishing life. We also have begun nurturing a partnership with the Bristol Bay Historical Society Museum to plumb the depths of fishing history in the State of Alaska. Moving forward, you can expect some deep dives in the coming months, with tales that illuminate the Kallenberg family’s role in shaping the Alaskan fishing industry as we know it today.
We also brought the WAC team to the classroom for the second-ever onsite gathering in Arron’s hometown of Homer, Alaska. As a team and company, it’s such a special experience to be able to break bread with our teammates, who work remotely from their homes all across the country — as far north as Alaska and as far south as Hawaii and the southernmost reaches of Florida. This time around, we brought the team to Salmonfest, a yearly music festival in Ninilchik, Alaska that brings people together around the shared mission of protecting wild salmon.
The WAC team was also in the audience of a sustainability panel organized by Arron and his sister Haley. This panel presented an opportunity, open to the public and to the fishing community, for WAC to foster dialogue around the future of sustainable seafood in Alaska. It was an ambitious undertaking that we hope to build upon with future panels to support WAC’s commitment to social impact as a public benefit corporation.
Personally, having my WAC colleagues with me on the shores of Kachemak Bay was more meaningful than I could have ever expected, as I had just lost my father-in-law Walt Kallenberg two weeks before the onsite gathering. Arron and I watched as a veritable village sprung up to help fill in the tender void, as Walt had been planning to be there to help us juggle our obligations as parents as well as business owners. Following such a profound loss, it was the lowest of lows and the highest of highs to see both our young son and daughter being cared for and guided and entertained — a spontaneous show of love and care from our teammates that we will never forget.
Caption: An unboxing photo from a WAC member, showcasing the new map that you can find in every WAC box!
We furthered our connection with members.
You, dear members, have been here with us throughout the journey of 2024. You embraced the introduction of so much culinary newness with gusto; many of you were as excited as we were about the new map tucked into each newly designed WAC box (with a quietly placed poem I wrote along the border!), a delightful surprise that was part of our new branding work. You celebrated Alaska by voting WAC in as your #1 pick for Best Meat Delivery Service in USA Today’s 10Best Readers’ Choice contest (for the second year in a row). And most beautifully, you moved us to the core with your outpouring of love and kindness following Walt’s passing, reinforcing the cosmic bonds that tie us all together as a fish family.
I may some day have the pleasure of meeting you in person — in fact, I recently spotted one of you sporting your WAC t-shirt, while I was out on a coffee run (Hi, Dave!) — but know that your presence is deeply tangible to Arron and myself, as well as the entire WAC team.
Cheers to all that we’ve witnessed and accomplished over the past year, and may we carry all that we’ve experienced along with us into another year’s journey.
Live Wild,
Monica
Pictured above: A portrait of the WAC team at this year’s onsite gathering in Homer, Alaska.
