What started as a way to feed her daughter wholesome, healthy food has now landed Barrie entrepreneur and mother-of-two Jennifer Giorgianni’s products on one of Canada’s top wellness websites.
Giorgianni created Riley's Kitchen in 2021 after struggling to find packaged food options she was comfortable feeding to her 11-month-old daughter. The company offers organic, plant-based, sugar-free and salt-free pancake mix, muffin mix and fritter mix
“I'm actually a physiotherapist as my day job and then when I went on maternity leave for the first time with my daughter," she told BarrieToday. "When she started eating solid foods, I just found it really challenging and really overwhelming because there's so much pressure on moms to make all this healthy foods from scratch all the time.”
As Giorgianni perused the aisles of the grocery stores that were in the baby/toddler section, she said she simply couldn’t find what she was looking for.
“The only things in there were kind of convenient type foods like pouches or puffs and there wasn't really anything to help you make an actual meal," she said. "Pretty much everything has sugar in it or a lot of added sodium .. and it was just not good enough quality to feed a baby.
“I was actually looking for a product that I felt would make my life easier and I just couldn't find it," Giorgianni added. "I just couldn't believe there wasn't something like this out there on the market.”
Giorgianni decided she would try to find a way to help other parents who found themselves in the same predicament by looking for better quality and no added sugar.
“I started on a really, really small scale. I was doing some local markets and then had interest through retailers and it's just kind of gone from there," she added.
Since starting the business simply as a way to ensure her baby had nutritious food options, Riley’s Kitchen has been added to shelves at select retailers from Ottawa to Niagara Falls.
The addition of her popular products to Well.ca, though, will now make them available across the county.
“It's actually been a long time in the work, so it's been months and the works in terms of presenting the product to them and (hoping) they were interested,” Giorgianni said. “It's just a huge milestone. It's been one of my kind of dreams in terms of partnerships ever since I started this brand to be honest because.
"As a mom, I look for products that I can trust that are good quality and healthier on well.ca. It’s just a huge opportunity to be alongside those other brands and to be on a place where other moms and parents are looking for.”
The three products have been available on the website since the beginning of August, noted Giorgianni.
She called the addition "huge" for her company.
“Obviously they're Canada's largest platform for health and wellness, so we can just reach more families across the country."
While she has yet to receive much feedback from the company, the feedback from consumers has been very positive, Giorgianni said.
“Consumers have been really excited and supportive because they can now shop for our products where they already are shopping for other healthy products for their kids. Being able to have those products delivered right to their door, it is just already convenient for them," she added.
With this new partnership in place, Giorgianni now has her sights set on her next goal, which is to expand even more throughout Canada and get Riley’s Kitchen on the shelves of more grocery retailers at the national level.
She also has plans to expand her product line to include some high-quality, ready-to-eat products for customers of any age.
“There's a difference between homemade and packaged food in terms of nutrition, which is why our product really stands out because you can have some convenience level without sacrificing that nutrition at all," Giorgianni said. "It's still early days, (but) I would say early 2025 would be my goal.”
