In today’s peanut-free and allergen-concerned environment, it’s never too cool for school. That’s what Chelsea, Mass.-based JSB Industries learned over the decades.

For John, Scott and Brian Anderson, the three brothers who handle day-to-day operations, it’s all about guidance from their customers and father Jack Anderson, who founded the company in 1978. Always the student, Jack Anderson listened and learned, venturing from food service into wholesaling sweet goods, said Scott Anderson, vice-president of operations. His brother John serves as vice-president of sales and Brian as vice-president of purchasing.

“When my dad started the business, I saw him scooping muffins with an ice cream scoop by hand, and now I’m seeing us making 40,000 muffins an hour,” Scott Anderson said.

Jack Anderson’s latest success involves the SunWise line of crustless sunflower butter and jelly sandwiches that are a thaw-and-serve, peanut-free alternative and a hit at K-12 schools throughout the nation. Ten years ago, he ran into a young entrepreneur who made the signature SunButter and jelly sandwiches by hand and wanted to sell the business.

“We purchased the company, brand and some of the equipment five years ago,” Scott Anderson recalled in the October issue of Baking & Snack magazine.

Two years ago, JSB installed a high-speed line that now produces 160 to 170 crustless whole grain sandwiches a minute for retail as well as schools, health care and other institutions, and it’s growing by leaps and bounds. Catering to children with trendy protein and whole grain bread items without introducing nuts or peanut in a meal solution is a perfect formula to expanding in these food service institutions.