The storefront on the forefront.

Why Rebecca’s Matters

When Norman Dill first opened our doors in 1987, he made sure Rebecca’s was built on natural partnerships and a forward-thinking foundation. For over 32 years, we’ve been a strong supporter of our community, our vendors, our team, our customers, and our planet—all of which would seem daunting, except that we discovered very early what it takes to make a positive influence in the world is you have to love what you do and take great care in how you do it.

We’re happy to say we’re not alone in that philosophy. When we say “We are Rebecca’s,” we speak for every person who makes a healthy, sustainable, local, beautiful life possible. This includes every smiling face on our team, every brand that lines our shelves, every neighbor who waves hello, and it absolutely includes you. And we’re so glad you are here.

Serving local kombucha

Serving local kombucha

Our Philosophy

Start from scratch. If a product is on our shelves, it is because is made with pure ingredients, is safe with minimal (if any) side effects, and contains minimal fillers.

Start from here. As a local small business in Charlottesville, Virginia, we know how hard—and, sometimes, how easy—it is to set ourselves apart from big name and online retailers. We believe in the power of small, which is why we have always had a role in helping other local startup businesses gain exposure on a larger scale. That’s why we call ourselves “the storefront on the forefront;” if a business meets our exceptional standards here, it has the chops to make it anywhere.

Be a reliable source—and force—for good. Our customers don’t shop online for their food, body care, and natural supplements because they want to know where their products come from. And always we do. Our customer service desk is bigger than our check-out counter for a reason. We would rather sell you the best product for your needs than anything at all.

Stay insatiably curious. We like to say that we’d rather process information than ingredients. We are constantly learning something new about human health, both in general and in the way products make our customers feel when they make them part of our daily routine. And we’re happy to share what we learn along the way.

Eat plenty of vegetables. And not just to make our mamas proud. We practice what we teach at Rebecca’s. There isn’t a single product on our shelves that hasn’t been tried, tested, and approved. And that goes for the broccoli, too. (It’s delicious.)

The Faces of Rebecca’s

Meet the team that pulls it all together.

Norman Dill (Founder)
Founded Rebecca’s in 1987
Store Phone: (434) 977-1965

Inspired by his mother’s penchant for eating well and healthy choices, Norman started his health food store journey in 1976 working in Charlottesville’s Blue Mountain Natural Foods. Prompted by this experience, he returned to his hometown in upstate New York to open his own store, Earthlight Foods, which is still in business today! More than a decade later, Norman felt Charlottesville calling once again and returned to open Rebecca’s Natural Food, which he named after his daughter.

Brandon Davis (Store Manager)
Joined Rebecca’s in 1996
Email: brandonrebnatfood@gmail.com
Store Phone: (434) 977-1965

Brandon grew up in NY, NY, but spent part of each summer with grandparents in Virginia. After completing her M.S.Ed. at Old Dominion University, Brandon spent a year as a personal trainer/health consultant in Austin, TX before coming to stay with her parents in C’ville for a summer (UVA grads who moved back to C’ville in the 90’s). She fell in love with the beauty, open-mindedness, artistry, and ease of living in our little city of Charlottesville. She took on the Supplement/Body Care Manager position at Rebecca’s in 1996 and has grown the store ever since with her knowledge, handpicked choices of unique, clean, quality products and warm, wise interactions with customers and co-workers.

Brandon Co-Manages the store with Bill Calvani and is Manager and Buyer for the Supplement, Body Care and Gifts section of the store. A normal day includes multi-tasking and constant but interesting interruptions, but Brandon creates a seamless and positive experience for customers and staff. She bounces from supervising to offering compassionate, expert customer service to researching and placing orders for new and established products to meeting with company representatives. Brandon organizes frequent staff trainings on the science behind our supplements to keep the staff up on the latest cutting edge research. Negotiating monthly sales to pass on to the customers and planning one of the many education based seminars or Expos staff attends are also on her agenda. The open Product Information desks in the center of the store really are Command Central for all the staff.

When away from Rebecca’s, Brandon enjoys sole custody parenting her daughter and playing with her 2 dogs. They enjoy the many activities that C’ville and the surrounding community have to offer and love to travel as well. She loves to relax by reading historical novels snuggled up with her family. Currently she and her daughter also create goofy songs and dances, watch musicals, immerse themselves in the world of Harry Potter (she’s a Ravenclaw) and plan trips for “one day”.

Susan J. Dunlap (Nutrition Information Specialist)
Joined Rebecca’s in 1989
Email: susan.rnf@gmail.com
Store Phone: (434) 977-1965

Susan grew up in the Baltimore, MD area and after graduating from the University of Maryland in 1976, worked as the head cook for a holistic health and retreat center. She moved to the Charlottesville area in 1979 and continued working in the organic food world including co-managing a natural foods catering service. She began her career with Rebecca’s Natural Food in 1989 and in 2007 became certified as a Holistic Health Counselor and coach by the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. She offers private consultations outside of Rebecca’s in addition to her patient and knowledgeable assistance in the store.

Susan is always keeping up with the ever expanding range of supplements and health research to provide the best service and support. For nearly 30 years as the Nutrition Information Specialist at Rebecca’s, she has helped countless people in the community find answers to their health questions. As a believer that food is our best medicine – Susan loves to try new foods, and as an accomplished cook she has plenty of experience working with recipes to fit specific diets and the challenges of modern life.

When she’s not cooking up her own creations, often using ingredients from her backyard garden, she can be found checking out the wonderful assortment of restaurants in and around Charlottesville. For her own health she teaches and practices T’ai Chi Chuan, meditates and does yoga. Whenever possible she loves to travel and check out the food scene in other communities. This year Susan is celebrating 20 years with her husband Lee, who is a both a talented T’ai Chi teacher and rock guitarist. They share their home with two gray tabby cats, Sensei and Tiger.

KeriAn Dodson

KeriAn Dodson (Store Operations Officer)
Joined Rebecca’s in 1995
Store Phone: (434) 977-1965

KeriAn Dodson grew up on Long Island, NY, where she worked at her first health food store—Village Natural Food—throughout high school and during college breaks. After graduating with her B.S. in Environmental Science from Allegheny College, KeriAn moved to Charlottesville where she was Grocery Department Manager at Rebecca’s Natural Food for two years.

She took a year off from Rebecca’s when she started graduate school in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UVA. KeriAn then came back to Rebecca’s part-time while she continued graduate school work, eventually returning full-time to Rebecca’s as Store Manager. KeriAn has served in a number of roles at Rebecca’s, most recently overseeing Store Operations and IT Administration; she’s the staff’s go-to person for software, hardware, and other tech issues.

Outside of work, KeriAn enjoys cooking, and is cultivating a love of food in her energetic 8 year old daughter, who is eager to help out in the kitchen. In turn, her daughter keeps attempting to get KeriAn into the garden in hopes of discovering anything she can get to grow (success is still pending!). Community involvement and volunteering is important to KeriAn (when she can fit it in, between working full-time and being a mom). KeriAn has helped coordinate speaker presentations and cooking demos for the Charlottesville Vegetarian Festival several times. She has also volunteered with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s Grasses for the Masses program, setting up an aquaculture system to sprout and grow underwater grasses, and then transport and plant the grasses to the coastal restoration sites to improve the health of the bay.

Bill Calvani

Bill Calvani (Grocery Manager)
Joined Rebecca’s in 2001
Email: groc.rnf@gmail.com
Store Phone: (434) 977-1965

Bill is a New Jersey native who arrived in Charlottesville in 1999, intrigued by the Cosmopolitan character and access to Nature that Charlottesville promised and continues to deliver.

Bill has had a lifelong interest in the effect of food and food quality on Cognitive and physical performance. He has also been interested in personal responsibility and a lifestyle driven by philosophical consistency. This led to and has suited him for the job of Grocery buyer at Rebecca’s.

In addition to his full time duties as Co-Store manager and grocery department manager at Rebecca’s, Bill maintains an active schedule with his family of wife and three sons, Brazilian Jiujitsu training and assistant coaching and traditional Indian Gada construction and training.

Bill is a Brown Belt in BJJ, is Internationally recognized in Gada swinging and is certified as a Primal Health coach, a MovNat Level 1 Trainer, an Onnit Unconventional Fitness Trainer and a Lucky Mojo Hoodoo Root Doctor. He is also philosophically aligned with the Weston A. Price Foundation and it’s mission to respect and maintain Ancestral Foodways as systems designed to promote health through pleasurably prepared foods of highest quality. He is a slightly above average cook.

Sophia Cowan (Supplement & Body Care Associate)
Joined Rebecca’s in 2004
Store Phone: (434) 977-1965

Sophia was born in Louisville, KY, and moved with her parents to Charlottesville in 2001. Homeschooled through high school, Sophia started work at Rebecca’s when she was sixteen and has been here ever since (over a decade)!

Originally hired in the supplement department, Sophia moved to cashiering a year or so later, where she spent the longest stint of her employment at Rebecca’s as the Head Cashier, running the afternoon cashier shift and training new sales associates to use the registers. Sophia is now Full Time in Supplements & Body Care helping customers make informed decisions in regards to supplements and body care products for their health and well-being.

When not at Rebecca’s, Sophia spends her free time planning and running a local gaming and cosplay convention called OmegaCon where she is the Director of Vending, recruiting local and regional artists and retailers to sell their nerd and gaming-themed wares. When she’s not running events for other gamers, she enjoys playing games herself, both of the tabletop and board game variety as well as the video game variety. She is also a talented artist and enjoys designing intricate costumes for Cosplay Conventions.

India Burton (Grocery Associate)
Joined Rebecca’s in 2016
Email: groc.rnf@gmail.com
Store Phone: (434) 977-1965

Rebecca Stegeman (Accounts Receivable)
Email: receiving.rnf@gmail.com
Store Phone: (434) 977-1965

Rebecca's Natural Food

Rebecca’s (The Store)
Phone: (434) 977-1965 Direct Line

Every bit a part of the team since 1987, the store has been a strong and silent partner in our brand’s growth since it first welcomed Norman with open arms. Its shelves keep us on our toes, and its bright ideas are powered by wind and efficient T-5 light bulbs. If its walls could talk, they would speak volumes in low-VOC paint. Its sustainably-sourced floors have seen sweeping changes in the food, supplement and health industries, and they’ve given enduring support every step of the way. When it’s not giving everyone who enters a happy group hug, Rebecca’s enjoys sidewalk sales and photo-bombing staff pictures for the website.

“I have always left Rebecca’s feeling well taken care of and that what I have purchased is the best item for what I need. I feel so grateful have this in our community. Thank you for having wonderful staff who are so great to interact with and answer questions. It makes a huge difference. Especially in a time when people can order so much online it feels great to have somewhere to go in person and get items!”

Jessiah M.