About Us

OUR approach

Woodbelly is a farm-to-table catering company specializing in artisan pizza with toppings that change with the seasons and cooked in our mobile, wood-fired ovens. To complement the pizza, we offer a selection of appetizers, side dishes and desserts...

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Our Food Philosophy

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Our Team, Our People, Our Family

The People Making Things Happen At Woodbelly

David Huck
David has been making pizza since his time in the housing and dining cooperatives of Oberlin College. He moved to Vermont in 2011, and has been making pizza, mixing dough, driving and maintaining trucks, and managing the sales, marketing, and financial needs of Woodbelly ever since. David has a hunger for best practices and synthesizes research and advice from experts, which has lead him to innovation that is grounded in what works. He loves arcane trivia.

Lucy Schmid
Lucy grew up on the coast of Maine and spent years working at a bustling diner on the Portland Waterfront. Now in her third year with Woodbelly, she is perfecting the art of bringing pizza and humans together. From chopping garlic with gusto to intuiting a smooth flow of food service, Lucy delights in her roles as event lead and pizza maker and approaches her work with a performative flourish.

Dave Dickson
Dave grew up in Burlington, Vermont, received a Bachelor’s Degree from Bates College, and was trained in kitchens in Vermont, on Cape Cod, and in Central Italy. After working as a librarian and gardener for several years in Perugia, Italy, he returned to Vermont and took a series of jobs on farms and in nurseries before joining the Cooperative in 2014. Dave mixes the dough, chops wood, drives trucks, and cooks pizza. Dave brings his attention to detail and a passion for simple handmade food to his work at Woodbelly Pizza—when he is not skiing in the Bolton backcountry.

Jocelyn McElroy
Jocelyn is the ultimate Woodbelly roustabout, balancing a farm life in Greensboro and a pizza slinging career in the big ol' city of Montpelier. She is one of our most experienced Event Leads for complicated and high staff events and has taken on the responsibility of Events Team Lead in 2019. In addition, she maintains and fusses over our diesel trucks. She enjoys long walks on the beach and 6 week long Sardegnan bike tours. Self identified abundance communist.

Mollie McElroy
Mollie moved to Vermont in the Fall of 2017 and took Woodbelly in her stride. She has been transforming our cooperative systems coming from a background in Sociology, management and team building; she nerds out about community practices, power dynamics and accountability. She is our General Manager and most recent Worker-Owner. You might see her around town walking her beautiful (and ridiculous) Australian Cattle Dog with her darling husband, Greg.

Testimonials

Here's What People are Saying.

"We would highly recommend Woodbelly. They catered our casual rehearsal dinner, and their pizza, appetizers, and ice cream were all delicious... I can't tell you how many people came up to me and asked who they were and how we found them! We loved their ethos, that all their food comes from local farms, and that they will take back the waste and compost it for you. Perfect! Overall we were very happy to have chosen them and would gladly use them again (now we are hungry just thinking back to that"

—Elizabeth, 2015

Farm to Table

Our food philosophy revolves around wholesome ingredients that nourish the people who grow them, the land they draw from, and the friends who eat them. We see food as medicine and as a powerful tool for health and wellness both in body and mind. We use traditional techniques whenever possible. We mix by hand in a traditional dough trough inspired by French paysanne miller-bakers and pre-industrial New Jersey pizza shops.

Our pizza aims for transcendence. We embrace wild and natural cultures, again, beginning in the dough. Our sourdough starter has been maintained for years and has acclimated to our current kitchen from its distant origins. Fermented over the course of two da ...
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Worker Owner

"Worker cooperatives are values-driven businesses that put worker and community benefit at the core of their purpose. In contrast to traditional companies, worker members at worker cooperatives participate in the profits, oversight, and often management of the enterprise using democratic practices. The model has proven to be an effective tool for creating and maintaining sustainable, dignified jobs; generating wealth; improving the quality of life of workers; and promoting community and local economic development, particularly for people who lack access to business ownership or sustainable work options." -- US Federation of Worker Owned Cooperatives

Woodbelly becam ...
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Latest News:

Caledonia Spirits Opening Creeping Closer; Pizza At Distillery Not so Far Off

During the winter, Woodbelly and Caledonia began talks about what a wood-fired pizza offering could look like at their new riverside distillery on Barre St (technically Gin Lane) in Montpelier. That reality is about to come to fruition and every day we see greater progress. We will have more news to share in the weeks ahead. If you want to stay up to date on what's happening, just check back in or sign up for our email newsletter for the latest.

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Airtable helps worker-owned cooperative improve and streamline wood-fired corporate and event catering

Airtable is a google spreadsheet on steroids, a powerful relational database that allows users to customize it for their unique use cases. Beginning in 2015, Woodbelly implemented a series of tables to manage costs, predict topping quantities, track hours and track sales and marketing objectives. In 2019, we are using it to keep track of the profitability of specific events and are developing tools to reserve our "assets" (like ovens) to create a more seamless customer booking process

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