We’re getting personal! This is Kim, the Baby Foodie Momma of the duo. After officially launching Fresh Baby Bites one year ago, I’m excited to announce that Baby #2 will be making his debut in a few weeks. Soon enough I’m going to be starting solids again…like the rest of you. So here we are, the first of my series of blog posts behind the scenes of a Baby Foodie Momma, Mom-Preneur, and Mom of Anna and Baby Boy to be.
Since launching FBB a little over a year ago, I have received many questions and inquiries as to why I took on this adventure, how do I do it, and where did the idea come from. Some background-3.5 years ago my daughter, Anna Mae-named after my beloved and feisty great grandmother, started solid foods. I did what every good San Francisco mom does and attended a starting solids class, bought a Beaba baby food maker and hit the farmers market. I can make all of Anna’s food myself-organic, local with lots of variety this is easy–no jarred food for my little one!
This was all fine and dandy until I went back to the corporate world. Being a stay at home mom really didn’t appeal to me-my husband thought I was crazy-but 24/7 baby time terrified me-I am not nearly creative enough or patient enough for that job. I honestly think I would have been doing my daughter a dis-service by staying home with her full time! She thrived in her Mandarin daycare–was immersed in art, music, science, language, daily outings to museums, library’s, farmers markets–she loved her daycare and they loved her. Everyone was happy including Momma!
The one thing I quickly realized after going back to work was that I wasn’t giving 100% to anything or anyone, I tried but couldn’t do it. I would come home and find my freezer didn’t have any of the local, organic baby food that I had whipped up last week. I didn’t have time to go to the farmers market let alone the time to prep, cook, purée and get creative with making baby food—ughhh! I was forced to resort to jarred baby food-ick!! So I thought, why isn’t someone doing this for me?? I would pay for this service! Why do I have to feed my baby something that has been on shelf longer than my baby has been alive?!? There has to be a better way! That is when it dawned on me-if I would pay for this type of service I am sure other people would too. I am working hard in my corporate job to make money for someone else-why not work hard for myself and launch a local, fresh organic baby food business?
I mentioned the idea to my good friend Cristina and much to my surprise she wanted to be a part of the business as well!! She is a foodie with a diverse and successful marketing career and me with a long sales career and now the experience of me being a mom, it was a perfect match. It took us 2 years to actually get Fresh Baby Bites off the ground and to quit the security of our corporate jobs–who knew so much goes into launching a business, but at least we knew we had dotted our i’s and crossed our t’s.
We sold our first containers of Fresh Baby Bites in February 2011 and haven’t looked back since. Sure it has been a lot harder than I thought it was going to be, but once people hear our story and taste how great our products are they love it. We have given many parents precious time back to them by whipping up baby food better than they could even imagine making themselves. That in itself keeps me going everyday– even 8 1/2 months pregnant!! But more on that next time.
Happy Feeding!
-Kim Burns—Baby Foodie Momma