everything you want to know about whole kids

The idea for Whole Kids first came to us almost ten years ago when many of our family and friends kept telling us about how much junk there was in children's snack foods, but also grumbled that there weren't really any yummy, convenient and healthy alternatives available.

We didn't want to give our nieces and nephews unhealthy junk food, and we certainly didn't want our kids (when we decided to start a family) to grow up without having healthy snacks to enjoy.

Now that we have our own little girl called Chloe (who just turned one!), we're even more driven and committed to create healthy food and a healthy environment for kids wherever we can.

Getting back to that time ten years ago, and before we even thought about what foods we should make, we researched the issues and talked to nutritionists, dieticians and mums. And of course we talked to kids. We found that most conventional children's snack foods were poor in nutrients and full of unnecessary and potentially harmful food additives, preservatives and colourings. Many had high levels of sugar, fat, sodium and were often high in calories.

For many mums and dads, no surprises there.

What also disturbed us was the corresponding rise in so many children's health issues like diabetes, obesity and food allergies. For us, the link with tackling all these issues and healthy food is clear.   

We thought there must be a better and healthier way to make yummy snacks for kids without all the junk. And we also wanted to do things differently. We both worked in corporate roles with big companies and we were a bit fed up with the stress, politics and lack of time for our family and friends. We wanted to create a business that really cared about what it was doing and was also a fun and friendly place to work.

We both love organic food – not only is it chock-full of healthy goodness and free from pesticides, chemicals and nasty food additives, but it's also better for our environment.  When we started to think about what foods we should make, we looked around and discovered that no one in Australia was making a range of healthy organic snacks for kids to take to school.  Why not be the first?

With all the money we were saving to buy a house, we set up Nourish Foods and manufactured our first run of Whole Kids organic products in 2005. Our small rented house in Richmond was often packed so full of cartons that we sometimes struggled to find space to have dinner.  With all this stock, we were a little worried as we didn't even have a single customer yet.  

So we packed our bags and set off to the inaugural Organic Expo in Sydney in 2005 to see what would happen. When the expo doors finally opened, we were both very nervous.  We’d spent our life savings and thought no one would even visit our stand.

But we made a promise to each other: if we got a few smiles and encouraging words from mums and kids about our products, then we'd toss in our proper jobs and devote all our energy to Whole Kids.

The response we got blew us out of the water. Parents really appreciated what Whole Kids was all about, and kids just loved our yummy snacks. We were over the moon! Yippee!

And we made true to our promise - we gave up our jobs as soon as we got back to Melbourne.  Australia's first range of organic snacks for kids was officially launched.

That’s just the beginning of the Whole Kids adventure. We have so many exciting ideas and plans to help improve the health and nutrition of kids everywhere.

We hope you and your family enjoy our yummy snacks. Please contact us if you have anything tell us, anything at all.  We’d love to hear from you.

Thanks,

Monica & James

(...and after all these years, we still haven't bought a house. But we have something more special - our little girl Chloe!)