Today's Case:
Van de Kamp's Frozen Foods
Re: Van de Kamp's Bakery/Restaurant
From: Ty
To: Phaedrus
Date: 10/14/2025, 6:42 PM
On 10/14/2025 5:48 PM, ty wrote:
Question -what is the connection between Van de Kamp's Bakery, Restaurants
and Grocery Store items like the incredibly wonderful Chicken Pot Pie?
Thank you!
(Ty) Adams
Hello Ty,
From the history here: Baked Goodness
Theodore Van de Kamp died in 1956, and the family sold the company to General Bakeries that same year. Van de Kamp’s eventually splintered into two different companies- the bakeries and the frozen foods enterprise. Van de Kamp’s Holland Dutch Bakers filed for bankruptcy in 1990. The frozen foods division lives on with new owners.
The company sold its Van de Kamp's frozen foods division (which would include the fish sticks.), the last of its Van de Kamp's operations, to Pillsbury in 1984. Pillsbury owned the Van de Kamp's frozen seafood brand after acquiring it in 1984 and later sold it in 1989 to Whitman Corp. The Van de Kamp's brand itself is now owned by Conagra Brands, which recently agreed to sell it to High Liner Foods. The fish sticks are distributed by the Con-Agra Company of Chicago and appear to be manufactured by High-Liner Foods, a Canadian Company based in Nova Scotia.
I have a dedicated Van de Kamp's page here: Van de Kamp's
I cannot find any mention of the VdK chicken pot pie. Are you still buying it? It would have been sold to Pillsbury as part of the frozen foods. I do not know if Hi-Liner Foods makes the chicken pot pie product as well as the frozen seafood and I do not know if there is a connection between Pillsbury and Hi-Liner Foods. I have a package of "Van de Kamp's Fish Sticks" in my freezer, but the package only mentions that they are distributed by Con-Agra, not by whom they are produced.
Phaed
