My name is Tamar Wagman. In my past life I was an event planner in the Toronto area for various high-end catering companies.
When my son, Jonah was born, in 2003, I took 8 months maternity leave. My husband (who is a chef) and I made all of our own baby food because we were really disappointed and frustrated with what the jars had to offer. My husband has a skin condition called psoriasis, so going 100% organic was very important to us as there is a 50% chance that our children could develop it at any time.
When I went back to work, we didn’t have the time anymore to make our own baby food. It was also a time when we had started introducing meats to our son, which made making our own even more challenging. When we tried the jarred meats we had REALLY had enough!!!
I quit my new job after three weeks of being back at work. It was a very difficult time for me emotionally and professionally…I felt as if I was at a crossroads. The day after I quit my job, I met my oldest friend Eryn for lunch. We had gone to kindergarten in Toronto together (30 years ago!!!). Her professional background was in business consulting and she was looking to start her own business.
We had never talked about going into business together before. She was not a mother yet, but was looking at starting a business in the baby arena. I told her about our frustration with baby food and lamented that we just couldn’t buy something similar to what we made at home. It was literally as if a light bulb went off over our table that day… That night we “googled” the concept of frozen baby food and found several very young and very successful companies selling frozen baby food in the UK and in Australia…but nothing existed in North America!
Next, we called upon moms all across the city through focus groups and on line questionnaires to help us create a frozen baby food product with the varieties and packaging that they wanted…we got so much support for our idea that we knew we had a winner - and Sweetpea was born. Our business plan projected that we would be in 50 stores our first year and after 1.5 years we are in approximately 200 stores across the country!!
We feel very proud when we get feedback from consumers whose babies have loved our baby food and it’s especially rewarding because they tell us they love eating it themselves…after all, the majority of people who open jarred baby food wince at the thought of feeding it to their babies…and why should they? We feel that parents should be able to eat the food that they are feeding their babies, with no guilt attached.
All of our products are created by my husband (chef and author Jordan Wagman, and pediatric nutritionist, author and mommy Dr. Joey Shulman. We make sure that every recipe not only tastes delicious (chef approved) but is also nutritionally sound and age appropriate for the baby you are feeding it to (nutritionist approved).
I have totally re-invented myself from event planner extraordinaire to baby food maker. The process has been extremely challenging and has required endless hours of hard work and perseverance but I have never felt more rewarded professionally in my life. Working from home and for myself allows me flexibility so that I don’t miss those important events with my kids. I’m just as productive from the hours of 8pm to midnight as I am anytime during the day and working for myself allows me to do that.
When my second baby arrived in 2007, I really appreciated this self-made work schedule even more. I’m also so proud that my kids will one day see the business that I created for them and for babies across Canada.
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