It started, like many good stories do, around the family table. No corporate focus groups. No complicated business plan. Just a growing frustration with what was being served, and what wasn’t being said.
Ben Spell, the founder of Good Ranchers, had spent years inside the meat industry. He understood the system. He knew how imported meat was sold under patriotic labels. And he knew how the average American family was being misled about what was actually on their plates.
While sitting with the weight of it all, Ben felt God speak something unexpected: Start a meat company. He sat with that feeling for a moment, took a shower, then found his wife, Corely, and said it out loud. She didn’t blink. “Let’s do it,” she replied. That was the beginning.
Good Ranchers wasn’t built on buzzwords or investor dollars. It was built from the ground up in pop-up trucks and at farmers markets, selling hand-packed boxes of meat, one conversation at a time. From 2010 to 2021, the company went city to city, earning trust the old-fashioned way. By the time the operation moved online, every cut was vetted, every farm was local, and every label was honest.
The mission wasn’t just to deliver meat, it was to connect families with the people who raised it. With ranchers who’ve been doing this for generations, often on the same land their great-grandparents once worked. They wanted to make sure that when someone opened their freezer, they didn’t just see food, they saw care, craft, and commitment.
And that meant the food itself had to live up to that standard. Every steak is aged 21 days for flavor. Every cut is pre-trimmed for convenience. Only “upper choice” or better is accepted. The Essentials Box, a Good Ranchers bestseller, quickly became a staple in households across the country. Their Better Than Organic Chicken, American-raised with nothing added, offers peace of mind in every bite. And the Seed Oil Free Chicken Nuggets? Legendary. Parents are known to sneak them when the kids aren’t looking.
But the story doesn’t end with food. In 2024, Corley, co-founder, wife, and mother, was diagnosed with cancer. She and Ben stepped away from the company to focus on faith and healing during that time. It was a season marked by challenges, but also by quiet miracles. One day, Corley looked at Ben and asked what it was like when God told Ben to start Good Ranchers. And that's when she shared what God had just told her: her cancer was gone. A simple moment, once again, became a defining one. A huge testament to their faith and fortitude.
Good Ranchers was never just about running a business. It was about investing in what matters. Coming home. Sitting at the table. Fighting through the hard stuff together. Celebrating the wins. Food doesn’t fix everything—but it provides the nourishment to face anything. And that’s the heart behind every box, not just to sell meat, but to bring people back to the table. Visit their website at goodranchers.com.
