Land O' Frost

Our Beginning

Land O’Frost is a third generation, family-owned business, started by my grandfather, Antoon Van Eekeren, in 1941. Antoon was an immigrant from Holland, who came to the United States with dreams of success, much like many other immigrants. He realized the growing wartime demand for freezer storage and purchased a building on the south side of Chicago to house people’s frozen meats. He was a visionary who looked at the needs of consumers and acted on them. In 1952, he expanded by producing frozen meat pies, TV dinners and wafer-sliced beef. The products were sold under the Land O’Frost name, and the company became incorporated six years later.

After my grandfather retired in 1966, my father Paul Van Eekeren and his brother Henry became the leaders of the company. They shared Antoon’s vision and continued to grow Land O’Frost, with innovation and the customers’ needs as priorities. With significant growth, Land O’Frost opened its first lunch meat manufacturing plant in Lansing, IL in 1969. My father, with the help of an incredible team, personally designed new manufacturing machines, making production less labor intensive, reducing cost and above all, improving food safety.