Food Entrepreneur - August 17, 2021 - 8

The company markets
I was a half hour late for it because it was
an absolute nightmare to get there. My
car broke down on the way. We ended up
talking for hours and mainly just bonding
over the challenges all families face in getting
healthier products to kids, especially
families in need. And so we kind of looked
at each other, hit it off and high-fived at
the end of that and said, " Let's do something
together, and maybe it's this. " And it
ended up being this. So, we embarked on
this crazy journey at the end of 2017... It's
been an absolute rocket since then.
Jen, how does your connection to
your family farm influence product
development? Will we see more limited-edition
Farmer Jen pouches?
Ms. Garner: The connection really
happened as we were starting to brainstorm
and talk through our goals, our aspirations,
how much we love the name
of the company, all kinds
of different things.
I said, " You know, I
an assortment of organic,
chilled food for babies and
children, packaged in graband-go
pouches.
have a family farm, and it's
in my care. My uncle and aunt
live there. He's been a plumber for 40
years. " And the next thing you know I was
calling Uncle Robert and saying, " Hey, how
do you feel about becoming a biodynamic
organic farmer? "
This little farm that had really only
ever had some big pecan trees and a
few cows back in the day and a bunch of
chickens, well, suddenly it is so much fun
to watch it come to life and watching my
aunt and uncle out there just mending
fence and hustling around.
So far, all the Farmer Jen editions
Once Upon
A Farm acquired
and flavors have included vegetables that
I've been there to plant, to harvest, and
if you've seen me on a mower, you'd
know that I've probably killed
quite a bit of our profits. Not
my skill set.
Raised Real, a direct-toconsumer
brand of frozen
meals that may be pureed,
mashed or served as
finger foods.
And so right now
we have some gorgeous
pumpkin squash growing
for this fall... My whole
family went. My niece and
my nephews and my kids,
parents and all of our relatives,
we all planted together this year.
It was so much fun. And they're up and
growing and looking great. And coming
up, I think we have to see how it evolves,
32
Food Business News
RAISED REAL
but our blueberry bushes
are killing it out there, so
you never know.
How has the pandemic
affected your business?
Mr. Foraker: Our business
started to accelerate about six to nine
months before the pandemic started.
We've gone on this long journey here
that Jen and I laugh about and cry about
sometimes of just learning, like, two steps
forward, one step back. We came here and
thought we were building a fresh baby
food company, but really it was more of a
broader kid nutrition brand.
We learned six to nine months before
the pandemic that around 80% of our consumers
in consumption were kids that were
actually not really babies anymore. They
were 1 through 8. Once we started talking
to them a little differently and talking to the
parents a little differently and continuing
to improve our packaging and products, the
business really accelerated.
When we went into that March-April
time frame last year our business slowed
down a little bit, mainly as the entire
world was figuring out how to shop, so
our direct-to-consumer business tripled
overnight. We had a platform already,
fortunately, that was there, and that got a
lot bigger really quick.
The other thing is we just were really
nimble and able to get consumers to be
able to figure out how to find us even at
August 17, 2021
ONCE UPON A FARM
Food Entrepreneur - August 17, 2021

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