Got a picky eater at home? Welcome to the club. It's not exclusive.
But for several locals, a desire to solve the picky eating conundrum has earned them a spot in the ever growing market of parent-created organic baby food brands.
"I have three picky eaters, but Jack is my youngest one," said Heather Schoenrock, founder of Roswell-based Jack's Harvest, a line of frozen organic baby food. Schoenrock had been making baby food for years when a friend noticed that the pureed peas Schoenrock was feeding Jack looked so fresh and bright. Schoenrock began sharing her freezer full of purees with friends who told her they would pay for more. In 2006, a business was born.
Today, Jack's Harvest is one of at least three organic baby food companies with roots in the metro area, all of which evolved in part to satisfy picky pint-sized eaters. Agatha Achindu, a Woodstock-based mom, launched Yummy Spoonfuls, another brand of frozen organic baby food, in 2006. And NurturMe, a line of dried organic baby food co-founded by Atlanta-raised Lauren McCullough and her partner Caroline Freedman, hit store shelves in 2010.
Competition is increasingly fierce in the organic baby food segment, which has grown about 60 percent over the last five years, said Elizabeth Pantley, author of "The No-Cry Picky Eater Solution," (McGraw Hill, $17). In 2012, global sales are expected to reach $2.26 billion, according to estimates from Innovative Research and Products.
Why all the hoopla about organic baby food?
"The average person is becoming more health conscious," Pantley said. Not just about organic foods, but also issues of childhood obesity and illnesses. Parents want to start their babies off right, she said, and if time doesn't permit them to make their own baby food, ready-made organic baby foods fills the gap. When there is a picky eater involved, and there usually is, organic foods can make the road to healthy eating a bit easier.
"Organic foods are more colorful, bright and have richer flavors. They look fresher and are more enticing," Pantley said. "Food that is colorful is more appealing to [children]." Parents also may play a role. "A parent's attitude is a critical factor to how picky a child is," Pantley said. "The better a parent feels about what they are feeding the baby, the more positive their approach."
Achindu, of Yummy Spoonfuls, can attest to the transformation in a child's eating habits when a parent's attitude changes. Moving to the area 21 years ago from her native Cameroon, she was appalled to see people eating food from a can. She made it her mission to teach adults how to eat better, but when she became a mother, her efforts shifted to children. She became the go-to-source for moms with finicky eaters.
At workshops, she taught moms how to make baby food, but they still asked her to make it. One day while preparing orders for about 300 moms, her subdivision was overrun with cars and the doorbell kept ringing, so her husband suggested she might consider starting a business.
Yummy Spoonfuls comes in three stages -- Creamy Yummy, Mushy Yummy and Chunky Yummy. In 2009, the brand won first place in Cookie Magazine's baby food taste test, while placement in stores such as Whole Foods and Dean & Deluca helped the company grow. This past June, sales had doubled the 2010 total, Achindu said.
Despite the success of her company, Achindu still teaches moms. "People say, I can't believe that you sell baby food and you still teach people how to make baby food," Achindu said. "It is not just a company. It is a mission in America to change how we see food."
The biggest issue historically with organic food (for baby and adults) has been the cost, Pantley said. Organic baby food runs a few more cents per ounce than traditional baby food, but the hope is that as the industry grows, the cost will go down. Already, niche markets for organic baby food have emerged.
In 2010, McCullough and Freedman launched NurturMe in Whole Foods stores across Texas.
The duo located organic farms with the equipment to freeze dry or drum dry the foods -- processes that help retain nutrients, phytochemicals, flavor and freshness. Moms only need to add liquid to turn the six dried flavors into infant meals. Though distribution and recognition have continued to grow, it was input from moms that had the biggest impact on the company.
"We did a focus group recently where 80 percent said they would use NurturMe for infants, but 100 percent said they would use it to get their kids to eat veggies. That is where parents are struggling," said McCullough, who discovered that parents were mixing pouches of NurturMe to yogurt, macaroni and cheese or even restaurant meals to make sure their picky eaters were getting the proper nutrition.
The company has since re-positioned itself as a brand of organic baby food that grows with your baby from infancy to age four. And based on one user's story, the product may have broader appeal in the future.
One happy customer "was cooking for her husband and couldn't find a vegetable in the house," McCullough said. So she pulled out a package of NurturMe peas, made a puree for her husband and he lapped it right up.
Jack's Harvest
404-551-5322 or 866-Jacks04. www.jacksharvest.com
Available at Whole Foods or online at Amazon.com and www.jacksharvest.com.
NurturMe
512.326.4910. www.nurturme.com
Available at select Whole Foods, Babies R Us or online at Amazon.com, Target.com and Diapers.com.
Yummy Spoonfuls
678.464.3103. www.yummyspoonfuls.com.
Available at various locations and online at Whole Foods, Return to Eden, Nuts ‘N Berries, Amazon.com and Yummyspoonfuls.com.
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