Margaret Rudkin: the Bread Lady by Linda Harris Sittig

Chances are you have savored a buttered slice of cinnamon swirl toast, or a decadent Pepperidge Farm cookie, or snacked on a handful of Goldfish Crackers. But you may not know the story, or the woman, behind the brand.

Enter Margaret Rudkin, born Margaret Fogarty, the oldest of five in a second-generation Irish family in Manhattan in 1897.  Margaret spent time with her Irish grandmother, who taught her to make cookies and biscuits. Even as a child, Margaret was a hard worker and graduated Valedictorian of her public high school class. From there, she got a job in a New York City bank and worked as a bookkeeper for nine years.

In 1923 she married Henry Rudkin, and he did well enough in the business that they saved money to purchase a property in Fairfield, Connecticut. Margaret promptly named the land Pepperidge Farm because of a pepperidge tree on the property. Three years later the stock market crashed in the Great Depression, Henry lost money, and Margaret resolved to sell products from the farm to help the family’s finances.

Then in 1937, Margaret was faced with a new challenge. Their youngest son, Mark, suffered from asthma and numerous food allergies, particularly with store bread. Wonder Bread was practically the only choice on supermarket shelves. A local doctor suggested that Margaret learn how to bake bread herself.

Her first attempt did not go well. In Margaret’s own words, “the loaf was as hard as a rock and one inch high.”

But she persevered until she arrived at a recipe that worked, and her son’s health improved. The doctor began to order loaves of her bread for his patients. Within months Margaret was taking orders from townspeople who also wanted the health bread.

Made with pure ingredients and no preservatives or artificial colors or flavorings, Margaret made each batch by hand in her kitchen. As more orders came in, she hired a local woman to help with the production.

The success of the bread led Margaret to set up a small farm bakery, and even though she charged 25 cents a loaf when store-bought bread cost only a dime, her business skyrocketed. By the end of her first year of production, she was selling 4,000 loaves a week.

She hired more women employees, stating that anyone who has learned to take care of a family can also learn a business. A staunch believer in the importance of family, Margaret offered her women flexible work hours, allowing mothers with young children to arrive later once their children were in school.

Within ten years, Henry became her marketing director, and together they were selling 40,000 loaves a week in the commercial bakery they opened in Norwalk, Connecticut.

To celebrate, they took a trip to Europe and Margaret discovered Belgian chocolate cookies. She used every ounce of charm available and came back to America with the recipe.

Once home, she expanded her bread business to now include cookies (the Goldfish crackers would come later). By 1955 there were six types of cookies available.

As the decade turned to the ‘60s, Margaret was an oft-requested speaker on manufacturing, and in 1963 she wrote The Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook, the first American cookbook to become a bestseller.

She eventually sold the company to Campbell Soup for $28 million, but stipulated that the brand name would remain Pepperidge Farm, she would continue to run the company, and that she would join the board of directors of Campbell Soup—the first female to accomplish that.

Henry died in 1966, and Margaret passed away a year later.

And what of that sickly young son? Mark grew up to be a healthy landscape architect who worked on many of the famous gardens in France. After all, the French do have good bread!

The next time you find yourself enjoying a Pepperidge Farm product, think of the woman whose mission was to create a healthy bread for her child, and in the process created a legacy.

One strong woman.

Now excuse me while I make a cup of tea and open a pack of Milano’s.

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My goal is to pay tribute to the strong women who are lesser-known, and my novels do exactly that. Cut From Strong Cloth, Last Curtain Call, and Counting Crows (release date October 2019) are all available from bookstores, Freedom Forge Press, and on-line resources like Amazon.

Linda