BY W. GLYNN LITSTER

UNDAY AFTERNOON, JANUARY 7, 1894, was hot and sultry as Ellen White spoke in the large tent pitched at Brighton, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. It was the first time that Adventists in Australia had met under canvas, and it was the first time that many Melbourne citizens had the opportunity to listen to this widely advertised "prophet."

During her talk Mrs. White addressed three main themes. First, she described the importance of the sale of books and printed matter by church members. Second, she turned to the need for a training school for Bible workers, like the one in St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, that had been open for the past two years. Her third theme was the need for medical services that would help people in the community improve their diet and help them to enjoy a healthier lifestyle. Reference was probably made to the vegetarian meals offered in the dining tent on the grounds and to the health lectures being presented by Dr. Merritt Kellogg.

Immediately following the talk a Mrs. Press followed Ellen White to her tent, requesting that a series of lectures be given in the vegetarian cafeteria operated by the Women's Christian Temperance Union in the city. Ellen White, not trained in nutrition herself, demurred. But several weeks later Mrs. George Starr and Mrs. M. H. Tuxford did present a series of vegetarian cooking lessons to the public of Melbourne as requested by Mrs. Press.

Just the Beginning
The next year Mrs. White's son Willie received a parcel of health foods from his friend in the United States, John Harvey Kellogg. After sampling them, especially the Granose flakes, he ordered more, as the health foods seemed to give him relief from his indigestion. In November Willie gave samples of the American foods to campers in Tasmania. Willie ordered more foods and encouraged Adventists in the colonies to buy them when possible. In the meantime Willie wrote to Dr. Kellogg, asking that a baker be sent to Australia so the goods could be manufactured locally.

During his visit to the General Conference session in College View, Nebraska, in 1897, Willie persuaded Edward Halsey, one of Dr. Kellogg's bakers at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, to immigrate to Australia. Within days of Halsey's arrival, the Sanitarium Health Food Agency was organized, machinery was ordered, and Halsey commenced the manufacture of caramel cereal (a coffee substitute) and peanut butter in the Melbourne suburb of Northcote. Other products followed quickly as orders came from Hobart in the south and Brisbane in the north.

About this time Ellen White expressed reservations about her son being involved in plans to manufacture health foods. She wrote "One thing, the Lord has not appointed you to be an agent in the manufacture of home health foods."¹ However, three days later she wrote again, saying, "I have been in great perplexity what to do. I cannot say anything more to you in reference to our work here. . . . the situation of things in Melbourne has been opened to me, and I have no more to say."² It turns out that most of what Ellen White wrote in support of the health food business was written after she returned to America in 1900.

The rented bakery that produced the first Adventist health food in Northcote, Victoria, soon proved to be too small. Following a search for a better location, the plant was moved to an old but renovated sawmill on the Avondale College site at Cooranbong, New South Wales; it was financed by the Australasian Union Conference.

Halsey again moved swiftly to recommence manufacturing. By the end of 1899 he and his helpers were making a wide variety of products including Granose biscuits (similar to Ruskets), Granose (wheat) flakes, Bromose (a nondairy, nonsoy milk substitute), Nuttose (a meat analog from nuts), antiseptic (charcoal) tablets, granola, caramel cereal, nut butter, wheatmeal biscuits, gluten biscuits, gluten meal, and white and brown bread. The breads were sold in the local community.³

Though finances were scarce (and continued to be so for many years), the foods were sold to interested church members from Perth in western Australia to New Zealand in the east, often through the church-operated tract societies (bookstores). At the camp meeting in Maitland, New South Wales, in 1899, church members were so interested in the new foods being made at Cooranbong, they opened a small shop in the town to give advice to the public on how to provide healthier food for their families and to sell the new Sanitarium health foods. This practice of offering advice was in keeping with the meaning of the name "sanitarium," which John Harvey Kellogg had declared should mean "learn to stay well."

No Turning Back
In 1902 a small restaurant was opened in the cental business district of Sydney by Mrs. M. H. Tuxford and Miss Laura Lee (later Ulrich). It was such an immediate success that people could not find a seat during mealtime rush. A new location was soon found, and to assist patrons in obtaining Sanitarium foods to take home, a small counter was set up in the corner of the room, where the products were sold. This became the forerunner of the extensive retail chain that operated across Australia and New Zealand until 1988.

From the beginning the men and women who promoted the health food business saw it as a means of reaching the public with a better way of life. As the word "health" was included in the name of the company, it was not surprising that in the very early years salespeople directed their public selling through doctors and scientists. But when they realized that the value of their products had greater appeal as food, the sales emphasis quickly shifted
to grocers and the general public.

At this point a problem surfaced: who should distribute the foods? In February 1900, before Ellen White left Australia to return to America, the problem was resolved. On February 19 a meeting was convened at Avondale College at 6:00 a.m., but no resolution was reached by late that evening. The group met again the next morning, expecting Ellen White to be present. Instead, she sent advice through her son Willie. Though no text of what she advised survives, it appears from minutes of the Sanitarium board that she advised that "the distribution of our health foods throughout Austra-lasia ought to be carried on primarily by the members of our denomination."⁴ To this day Sanitarium continues to distribute its products to wholesalers and distributors, who sell it to the general public.

Feeding the Demand
In 1901 a small factory commenced manufacturing Sanitarium Health Foods in Christchurch, New Zealand. Sidney Amyes, a farmer who wholeheartedly supported his church, left his farm in the care of an overseer and promoted the health foods throughout New Zealand, laying a strong foundation for the salespeople of the 1930s and the spread of the company's foods to the present. New Zealanders now regard Weet-Bix and Marmite, Sanitarium products, as icons of their nation, and the Sanitarium-operated annual Aussie Kids Tryathlon is regarded as one of the great national sporting events. Today Sanitarium controls more than 80 percent of the breakfast cereal market in the country, with two factories, one in each island.

Sanitarium Today For more than 30 years Weet-Bix has been Australia's most popular breakfast cereal. Each year it earns Sanitarium A$745 million. The sale of So Good soy milk brings in A$115 million a year, making it the number-one-selling soy milk in Australia. Sanitarium employs approximately 1,700 people across Australia and New Zealand. Sanitarium's Cooranbong manufacturing site in New South Wales is one of the largest cereal production plants in the Southern Hemisphere. Sanitarium operates 12 production, warehouse, sales, and distribution facilities in Australia and New Zealand. Sanitarium Health Foods are exported to 30 countries worldwide-including the United Kingdom, Asia, the United States, and the South Pacific. For more information, visit the Web site: www.sanitarium.com.au.

By 1910 Sanitarium in Australia had largely overcome its financial problems. Cafés served hundreds of meals to patrons each day in each state capital city, and the foods were sold across the nation through regular grocery outlets. By World War I the Cooranbong factory had shipped its products to markets in Singapore, Malaysia, China, Burma, and India, to most islands across the Pacific, and as far west as Africa. To meet demand, the factory was enlarged in 1914, again in 1917, and completely rebuilt in 1920. God had richly blessed the humble beginnings of the health food business.

In the interwar years two new factories were built in Victoria and Western Australia, and three competitors in the breakfast cereal business were taken over, bringing the now-famous malt-sweetened biscuit Weet-Bix into the range of products. A new factory was built at Christchurch, New Zealand, and another competitor bought out in Auckland. During the great depression, Sanitarium never knew the fears of retrenchment or closure. The public needed good, cheap, healthy food, and Sanitarium met the need. The factories went into two and then three shifts a day to meet the demand.

One story tells of a local bureaucrat who was sent to the Cooranbong district, where Sanitarium had its main factory, to find out why no one in the district was applying for public assistance during the Great Depression. He reported that the food business was so busy providing food for the nation that residents had no time for idleness. The depression also saw the construction of five major company factories, warehouses, and offices, further evidence of God's blessing.

Bigger and Better
Another milestone during the depression years was the establishment of the company's own research and development branch. William D. Leech, from the United States, was appointed to research various features of the products including aspects of quality control and the introduction of new product lines. From this laboratory Sanitarium introduced a variety of new product lines including Jell Kwic (a vegetarian jelly), various new meat analogs, and the groundbreaking and award-winning soy drink So Good, highly valued by persons allergic to milk or milk byproducts.

The engineering branch of the research and development division manufactured its own specialized equipment, including the Bispak machine, which fully automated the packing of all the biscuit (cereal) lines made by Sanitarium.

Following World War II, sales of Sanitarium products soared. Marketing and advertising kept pace with and often pioneered new approaches to selling. However, because of radical changes in societal behavior and intense marketing practices, Sanitarium had to close its restaurants. In the 1980s it became evident, with the growth of supermarkets, that the buying public wanted to make their purchases in one location. Nor did they wish to discuss their personal health questions with the person behind the counter, as had been done for decades. This social swing led to the closure of all Sanitarium specialty stores in 1988.

In the 1990s, with every aspect of business specializing and the new pressures of information technology, the company management restructured its manufacturing and marketing base by dividing it into separate business units. This has allowed each unit to concentrate on its particular production and marketing specialty. Several companies were acquired, bringing new product lines to the Sanitarium Health Food Company. These included the Longalife frozen foods and the Mello-Yello snack foods (not associated with Mello Yello soft drink in the United States).

A Legacy of Better Living
When Willie White put forward the idea of manufacturing health foods, he reported the observation made to church members at the 1895 Hobart camp meeting: "I explained how we were making the Health Food business a missionary agency."⁵ Forty years later George Chapman, the general manager, wrote that the health food business "came into existence primarily to provide foods and beverages to supplement the restricted diet of those who accepted the message of health reform, and who discarded unhealthful foods, including flesh meats, tea and coffee. Those who engaged in the business did so believing they were 'doing God service,' and so they were. They worked long hours with very meager facilities, and often could not get their small wages until months after they were due. But they labored on, content to 'spend and be spent.'"⁶

In 2001 the Australian government investigated the tax-exempt status of Sanitarium and concluded that Sanitarium is a completely different operation from any of its competitors. Its aim, according to the government investigators, is not just to make money. Sanitarium's primary purpose is charitable, and its philosophy has not changed in its 105-year history in the marketplace. The report went on to point out that Sanitarium Health Food Company is part of the program of the church, spending "a significant part of its revenue on nutrition programs and is involved in many nutrition-research programs. It makes submissions to government on issues such as dietary guidelines and acts as an industry conscience on nutrition."⁷

The outreach component of the company is clearly reflected from its early days, when money was in extremely short supply. In 1906 workers in the Sydney restaurant were able to make a gift of £25 (about US$125 at the time) to assist with the island mission work of the church.⁸ Over the decades it has been conservatively estimated that the Sanitarium Health Food Company has donated more than $1 billion of its profits to humanitarian projects as well as contributing directly to the budget of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia and New Zealand. In addition, Sanitarium has donated large quantities of its products to communities in Australia, New Zealand, and abroad in times of disaster, famine, and special needs. It heavily supports ADRA and its many causes.

Ellen White wrote: "The health food work is the property of God,
and . . . it is not to be made a financial speculation for personal gain. It is God's gift to His people, and the profits are to be used for the good of suffering humanity everywhere."⁹

Though Mrs. White may have had some doubts about the work her son Willie was doing when he initiated the Sanitarium Health Food Company in Australia in 1897, there is no doubt in the minds of Seventh-day Adventists in the South Pacific Division today that the company was ordained by God to be a blessing to His work there and to the people of the world as it has spread the knowledge of how to obtain and keep better health. Sanitarium is a highly respected business company and has been instrumental in informing many men and women in the commercial world of the beliefs and practices of Seventh-day Adventists, and many have thus been led to Christ.

Following the counsel given more than 100 years ago, the church through Sanitarium Health Foods continues to offer a healthier alternative in more than 30 countries. At the same time it gives work opportunities to students seeking a Christian education in the South Pacific Division, other countries of the world, and now in the United States.

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¹ Ellen G. White letter 206, 1897, in Arthur L. White, Ellen G. White: The Australian Years, vol. 4, p. 341.
² E. G. White letter 208, 1897, in Arthur L. White, p. 341.
³ "The Health Food Factory," Union Conference Record, dec. 1, 1899.
⁴ Sanitarium Health Foods board minutes, Dec. 22, 1900, p. 16.
⁵ W. C. White Letter Book, Dec. 22, 1895, p. 76.
⁶ G. T. Chapman, "God's Providences in the Health Food Work," Australasian Record, July 29, 1935, p. 14.
⁷ L. Dunston, "Sanitarium Clarifies Its Charity Status," Record, Sept. 22, 2001, p. 5.
⁸ The average worker's wage at the time was approximately 15 shillings per week (US$3.50).
⁹ Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, p. 128.

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W. Glynn Litster, now retired, has been an educator, historian, and missionary, with his wife, Elva.