The people behind the bar

We couldn't find the bar we wanted, so we made it ourselves.

Every bar on the market we found had ingredients we didn't want. So we took it upon ourselves to create a bar right in our South Florida kitchen. We worked with ingredients we already ate daily - dates, seeds, almonds, and honey - and had in our pantry. Our goal was simple: create a bar with meaningful protein, well rounded nutrition, incredible taste, and zero compromises.

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Emily and Joe, founders of The Forward Bar
The founders Emily & Joe
Plant-Based
Seed Oil Free
Soy-Free
Kosher
GMO-Free
Gluten Free
Organic

The Bar We Couldnt Find

It started with a simple problem: there was no bar we actually wanted to eat every day. The options felt like a compromise.

As two health-conscious professionals with busy lives and high health standards, we needed a convenient snack without compromising on ingredients. The bar aisle left us with two options: a bar with real ingredients but low in protein, or a high-protein bar that didn't deliver real, balanced nutrition.

So we built the third option.

The Forward Bar was created to move protein bars forward — away from processed protein to whole-food nutrition. We use thoughtfully sourced ingredients that provide protein, naturally. Because to us, The Forward Bar is more than a snack. It’s proof that convenience and real food can go hand and hand.

Emily & Joe Co-Founders, The Forward Bar
The Bar We Couldnt Find

Meet the founders

Two people. One standard.

Emily

Emily

Co-Founder · IIN-Certified Health Coach

Food can be both deeply nourishing and genuinely delicious! I refuse to choose between the two.

Emily, Co-Founder · IIN-Certified Health Coach

What Emily brings

  • Expertise as an IIN-Certified Health Coach
  • Deep passion for whole-food nutrition and wellness
  • Thoughtful approach to every ingredient, recipe, and detail behind The Forward Bar

Believer in the power of whole foods

Our Evolution

What we've been up to since launch.

founders posing at The Forward Bar launch event

The Launch

In The Hamptons

01 / 06

  1. The Launch

    In The Hamptons

    We officially launched The Forward Bar Labor Day weekend 2025 in the Hamptons. Introducing what started in our own kitchen to customers for the very first time. It marked the beginning of bringing The Forward Bar into the world — and building the community around it.

  2. Event after event

    Countless Connections

    From our backyard in South Florida to New York and even California, we spent the year showing up in person and sharing The Forward Bar. More than 30 events gave us the chance to connect in person — to share our story, hear from customers, and discover how many of us are looking for the same thing: a better way to fuel our bodies with real food.

  3. The Forward Collective

    Gurney's Montauk

    Our marquee event of the year. We brought The Forward Bar community together in Montauk for our first-ever Forward Collective hosted at Gurney’s — an elevated morning of movement, nourishment, and connection. More than 200 people joined us for an experience designed to bring modern wellness to life and celebrate the growing community around The Forward Bar.

  4. Certifications

    Making It Official

    From day one, we’ve never used seed oils, our manufacturer has always been certified kosher, and every ingredient has been certified Organic. But we wanted to go the extra mile to independently verify the standards we’ve held from the beginning. This year, we received our USDA Organic certification, Seed Oil Safe certification from Seed Oil Scout, and Kosher certification from EarthKosher. Because transparency isn’t just something we talk about. It’s something we prove.

  5. Eudēmonia · West Palm Beach

    In the room with wellness

    We brought The Forward Bar to Eudēmonia, joining some of the biggest names and most forward-thinking voices in wellness. All weekend, one question kept coming up: How did a protein bar made entirely from whole foods — not protein powder — not already exist? We didn’t need the validation, but being surrounded by leaders in wellness and hearing it again and again certainly gave us some.

  6. On shelves we're proud of

    60+ retailers

    More than 60 retailers now carry The Forward Bar, including Pop Up Grocer in NYC, Nude in Miami, Garden Butcher in Boca Raton, Loot Grocery in West Palm and Reserve on Abbot Kinney in Venice — curated shelves, chosen by buyers who vet every ingredient.

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Our promise to you

No shortcuts. Just real protein, 45% DV magnesium, 25% DV zinc and 4g of fiber, from real food.

Every gram of it from seven organic whole foods. This isn't a protein bar pretending to be food. It is food — whole, vibrant, powerful — that just so happens to be protein packed. It's chewy, like a seed and date bar — not soft like candy, not chalky like a powder bar. That's what real food does.

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