Christine Topalian, a busy working mother of two boys knew she wanted to pass on her love of food to her kids and that variety, fresh ingredients, and organic foods would be a part of the equation. When Aram, her first child was ready to be introduced to solid foods, he would happily eat her homemade purees but snubbed traditional store-bought baby food. Ellias, her second child, born just a few years later, refused purees altogether. Like many parents, she had no choice but to make everything from scratch, and in multiple forms (puree & finger food).
Christine wanted to make sure she was feeding her kids nutritionally balanced meals with the various vitamins and minerals needed throughout the day. This meant considering which vegetables to pair to maximize nutritional value, while making sure the blends tasted good too. It took time peeling, slicing, dicing, steaming, pureeing, portioning, and figuring out how to preserve a weeks’ worth of fresh meals, but Christine had the comfort of knowing exactly what her kids were eating.
The Solution to Time-Consuming and Overwhelming Baby Food Preparation
Christine wanted to be spending her precious off-work hours playing and enjoying her children, not prepping and chopping in the kitchen. She knew that many parents like her faced the same difficulties and set out to develop a solution for busy parents who wanted an easier way to get to serve their little ones homemade food without compromising on quality and nutrition. That’s when FoodieKid was born!
Christine left her corporate job and worked with nutritionist Nicole Silber to develop a fresh-frozen baby and toddler food product that would offer parents a convenient, all-natural way to take the hassle out of making baby food at home. In 2018, she launched FoodieKid’s Simple Starters, frozen organic baby and toddler meals in convenient 4oz. packets of organic ingredients that parents can steam and customize to their desired texture, from puree to diced finger food.
“Demands have never been greater on parents than they are today, and while they are juggling more than ever before, many parents still want to make organic homemade food for their little ones,” says Christine. “FoodieKid’s Simple Starters make it easier with a time-saving product that offers real versatility. We have removed the aging and staging typically associated with baby food products because we believe a parent knows the stage of their baby’s development best. Our carefully crafted blends are veggie-forward, letting the all-natural ingredients shine without any additives or sweeteners, including fruits. We even include herb and protein pairing recommendations with our blends to help develop baby’s taste for a variety of natural, healthy foods from a young age.”
Ready to Cook Portions with Peeled and Chopped USDA-certified Organic Ingredients
A great solution for both purée and baby-led weaning, the FoodieKid product line now includes the Root Veggie and Squash Pack (perfect for babies first starting out on solids featuring veggies with high levels of folate and vitamin A), the Veggie Blends Pack (a blend of savory veggies, rich in calcium and fiber to stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria), and the Lentil and Veggies Blend Pack (a great source of plant-based protein along with iron-rich veggies and vitamin C to boost iron absorption).
Christine is looking to raise funds to take FoodieKid to the next level! To that end, she has launched a WeFunder campaign with a goal to raise $500,000 to ensure her meals are an option for parents from coast to coast.
