As parents, we care about what goes into our child’s body.  It’s only natural to question how pure that jarred food really is.  Agatha, the founder and CEO of Yummy Spoonfuls, is helping new parents take the question out that jarred stuff with her line of organic baby food.

The Yummy Spoonfuls baby food brand is made without pesticides, nitrates, growth hormones, artificial additives or processing chemicals.  What goes from them to your baby is 100% USDA Certified Organic and 100% food.

Every parent should feel comfortable with that they’re feeding their child and Agatha is doing her part to make sure that happens.

What does the term "mompreneur" mean to you?

A female business owner who is actively balancing the role of mom, wife alongside the  role of an entrepreneur

How long has Yummy Spoonfuls been in business?

Almost 3 years

What was your inspiration for launching your business?

As a child I grew up on fresh organic foods taken from our own gardens or purchased raw and fresh from the local markets. Meals at home were always prepared with the freshest ingredients; fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish, etc. Our use of the refrigerator was mainly limited to the conservation of beverages and the occasional leftover. 

When I became pregnant, I knew for sure that I was going to feed my baby nothing but organic food. About six months into my pregnancy, I started scouting around for the best organic baby food on the market, and faced my first major challenge. I had always taken it for granted that organic baby foods, largely advertised as having NO ADDITIVES, NO FILLERS, NO HORMONES, NO PESTICIDES, NO ADDED SUGAR OR SALT, etc. would look completely different than the conventional baby foods. However, something was fundamentally wrong with what I saw. None of the foods were easily recognizable. Peas were a brownish green, and, carrots had a dusty color to it, to name just a few. While still pondering the color issue, I picked up a jar of peas to verify the ingredients listed, as well as the production and expiration dates. The ingredients listed were just peas and water, but that could not explain why the food looked nothing like uncooked peas. I looked at the expiration date on the jar and was completely shocked. The baby peas had an expiration date a year and a half away! 

This meant that the food my six month old unborn child would be eating when ten months old was already cooked and sitting on the shelves in the supermarket waiting for him. I was sick to my stomach thinking that any parent would knowingly feed their child such garbage! I could not visualize myself eating food that was a week old, let alone 2 years. I called my husband and told him that we would have to make food for our child when the time comes since there was really nothing on the market suitable for babies.

So I started doing some serious research on commercially prepared foods, and what babies in America are really eating. First, I needed to understand what was causing the foods to change color, texture and taste so unappealing. The results were terrifying! I was shocked to discover that commercial brand baby foods are heat-treated in order to maintain their two year shelf life, and in this process the taste, vibrancy, flavor and nutrition are all significantly diminished; thus the reason for the dull colors. It was clear that it was up to us to make our own baby food.

However, I soon found out that making pureed baby food was not as easy as I initially thought it would be, even for a seasoned chef such as myself. We had to look for special processing and storage equipment for baby food to avoid any type of commingling. Sitting in my kitchen looking at all the gadgets and knowing how much time it would take to shop for, cook, puree, and sift the food to take out any lumps etc., I looked at my husband and told him “making baby food is a time consuming effort that would drive anybody crazy”, let alone a working parent who is still trying to understand the intricate nature of their new baby. I did eventually persevere and make every morsel of food for my baby, but WISHED sometimes that there was a company out there that could provide this type of food so I could take a much needed break from all that cooking. Making baby food is A LOT OF WORK. I also saw the challenge that most parents face in today’s society that makes them end up feeding their children the rubbish that we have out there on the baby food market. 

THAT was the genesis of Yummy Spoonfuls Baby Food, geared towards providing fresh organic baby foods to all of those parents who, like me, truly want the very best for their babies.

While most people talk about what they already knew when they went into a business, I am curious: What has your business taught you?

That  parents truly want the very best for their kids but some parents need to be informed about the food choices they make because they just don’t know enough. as Maya Angelou says, “When we know better, we do better.”

What is the hardest part of running your own business?

The many roles I have to juggle and there are days that I don’t have time to separate the role of wife, mother, friend and sister, days that everyone needs me at the same time.

How long would you say it took for you to build, from the ground up?

2 Years

Does anyone else in your family play a part in the running or day-to-day of Yummy Spoonfuls?

My wonderful husband Georges and friend Sherri without whom Yummy Spoonfuls won’t be the success that it is today.

What are some of the top reasons why parents should consider organic baby food?

The global scientific community has constantly acknowledged the negative and at times long lasting effects of small doses of pesticides and other agricultural chemicals on people, especially during the early stages of development as a fetus and during infancy. These pesticides and other agricultural chemicals release toxins into our systems whose effects are still being studied and about.

In order not to get caught up in this debate about how negative the toxins are, why not try to avoid them? As such, for all members of your family, you will find below some reasons (culled from Everything I Need to Know about Organic Foods) why you and especially your children should join the tide and get on the organic train.

In two separate reports, both the Natural Resources Defense Council (1989) and the Environmental Working Group (1998) found that millions of American children are exposed to levels of pesticides through their food that surpass limits considered to be safe. Some of these pesticides are known to contain neurotoxins. Neurotoxins have the ability to cause harm to the developing brain and nervous system. Additionally, some researchers feel that children and adolescents may be especially vulnerable to the cancer-causing effects of certain pesticides since the body is more sensitive to the impact of these materials during periods of high growth rates and breast development.

Eating organic foods provides children with “dramatic and immediate” protection from exposure to two organophosphate pesticides that have been linked to harmful neurological effects in animals and humans, shows a study funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency and published in the September 2005 issue of Environmental Health Perspective. The pesticides – malathion and chlorpyrifos – which have been restricted or banned for home use, are widely used on a variety of crops, and according to the annual survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Pesticides Data Program, residues of these organophosphate pesticides are still detected in common food items usually by young children.  Over 3,000 high-risk toxins routinely present in the U.S. food supply are, by law, excluded from organic food, including: pesticide, heavy metal and solvents.

What stands out about your business that you feel helps separate it from the competition?

At Yummy Spoonfuls™ we believe in providing the very best products for babies and their families.  That means that every jar of baby food with the Yummy Spoonfuls name is made from scratch with all natural ingredients grown without chemical pesticides, nitrates, growth hormones or other harmful substances.

Yummy Spoonfuls™ offers our customers a tremendous amount of product diversity!  With twenty-five different product offerings across three different product lines, even the most discriminating palate is bound to find something satisfying, nutritious and delicious.  Some of our flavorful product combinations include:  mashed organic mango, pureed organic papaya, mashed organic apricot and brown rice , organic lentil and carrot porridge and mashed organic butternut squash and apple, just to name a few!  With our wide range of products, consumers are able to expose their child’s palate to different tastes, textures and cultures.  All of our meals are dairy free, gluten free, no preservative, no additives, no salt or sugar added.

How has Yummy Spoonfuls grown since it first launched?

When we launched in 2006 we were the only company at that time making fresh 100% USDA certified organic baby food in the entire South Eastern Region. We started with 15 meals and we now have 25 nutritious yummy meals for babies and toddler, our goal is to reach 50. We are now in selected Whole Foods and numerous fine markets all over Georgia. We are also going national January 2009.We have also taken an extra step in the fight against childhood obesity and diabetes. We offer free workshops, teaching parents how to take the junk out of their kids’ diets and how to make healthy wholesome snacks at home like popsicles etc. Up coming workshops with North Fulton Regional Hospital and Life University.

Do you have any "New Year" goals for your business that you would like to accomplish? 

As childhood-obesity and childhood-diabetes rates in the United States continue to surge out of control, my goal for 2009 is to help parents take a closer look into the eating habits that they are teaching their children and make them understand the direct impact of the food they eat on the results they get.  Have every  parents to start believing in the adage ‘you are what you eat’