Heather Stouffer: Local mom turns health-conscious lifestyle into baby food business

Alexandria (Map, News) - Heather Stouffer makes a mean sweet potato puree.

Unfortunately for Stouffer, her primary taste-tester doesn’t always see it that way.

“It was a lot of work making it on Sunday afternoons,” said the Alexandria resident, who would make sweet potato puree and other baby foods from scratch for her infant son, Emory. “I’d make a big batch of something and get all excited to feed it to him, and he spits it out.”

Despite Emory’s finicky eating habits, Stouffer launched her own line of organic baby foods in May. In addition to sweet potatoes, the Mom Made Scoops product line includes pear, apple and broccoli purees. The “Scoops,” which come frozen, are already being distributed through eGroceriesDelivered, a local company delivering to the Washington and Baltimore regions. Mom Made is also in talks with several grocery chains to make the products available in stores this year.

The launch was a long time coming for the technology consultant-turned-entrepreneur. Growing up

with a busy single mom and a hungry, growing brother, Stouffer learned to cook at a young age. When she got married and had her first child, she was determined to feed her son healthy food, despite a busy schedule.

Stouffer decided to turn her talent for cooking into a business, she said, because she realized that not everyone has the time to make baby food.

“I wanted to offer an alternative to making your own baby food. [Parents] don’t want to cave and heat up mac and cheese and chicken nuggets every night,” she said. “But a lot of us do because we just don’t have the time, no matter how educated we are about health.”

While organic baby foods are not a new thing, Stouffer’s entry into the marketplace comes as the organics industry is taking off, said Craig Minowa, an environmental scientist with the Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association.

Organic products are the fastest growing sector of the agriculture market. Globally, organics are a $25 billion dollar industry; over the last five years, sales have grown between 18 and 20 percent on an annual basis.

Baby foods are one of the most popular offshoots of the organics industry, Minowas said, because many consumers will buy all-natural foods for their children, even if they’re not buying for themselves.

Stouffer intends to grow with her young consumers. As Emory, who is now the company’s director of taste-testing, gets older, the Mom Made product line will expand.

Business

» Current job: Founder and president, Mom Made Foods LLC

» Last job: Director of business development for a technology consulting company

» Essential Web site: Google.com

» Best perk: Knowing that every decision I make will directly impact the success of my business.

» Gadgets: KitchenAid Immersion Blender is great for recipe testing. The industrial-size model is even more fun for large batches.

» Education: Denison University, B.A. in psychology

» Original aspiration: When I was really little, I wanted to be a bulldozer driver. I’m not sure why. But by the time I was a teenager, I realized demolition was not my thing. I decided that I wanted to be involved with health and children. I wasn’t sure how that would apply until now.

Personal

» Hometown: Suburb of Kansas City

» Hobbies: Traveling abroad, flower arranging, cooking, yoga and playing with my 16-month-old son

» Vacation spot: Provence, France, and Door County, Wis.

» Role model: My mother. She went from being a stay-at-home mom to a corporate executive. Yet, she still likes to cook Sunday family dinners.

» Quote: We have a picture that I bought in France which hangs next to our front door. It says, “Nous allons changer le monde.” (We will change the world.)

» Reading: “Organic, Inc.” by Samuel Fromartz

kwilmeth@dcexaminer.com

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