Food Entrepreneur - August 17, 2021 - 7

ONCE UPON A FARM
From left,
Once Upon A Farm
for Women, Infants and Children in
select states. The company also partners
with Save the Children, an organization
promoting literacy, nutrition and early education,
for which Ms. Garner has served
as an ambassador for more than a decade.
Earlier this year, Once Upon A Farm
acquired Raised Real, a direct-to-consumer
brand of frozen meals that may
be pureed, mashed or served as finger
foods. The company plans to reintroduce
the line of organic meals later this year
in Target stores and on the Once Upon A
Farm website.
In a recent interview, Ms. Garner
and Mr. Foraker discussed the origins of
and their aspirations for Once Upon A
Farm as a " next-generation kid nutrition
company. "
Food Entrepreneur: Jen, what drew
you to the food industry?
Jennifer Garner: I grew up just one
generation removed from our family farm
in Locust Grove, Okla., where my mom
had grown up. Farm to table was not just a
concept; it was a total way of life for us.
August 17, 2021
My mom made every
bite we ate; even when I
was dying for a Little Debbie's
snack cake or a Pringle,
it didn't happen. Our potato
chips were homemade. We had
a garden. We went to farmers markets.
Everything was organic. I was so, so lucky.
Food has always made sense to me.
When I started trying to feed my own
co-founders John Foraker,
Cassandra Curtis and
Jennifer Garner.
all the time because I never
mind obviously when
my kids reach for it. My
15-year-old probably goes
through five pouches a day.
John, what inspired you to
get involved with Once Upon A Farm?
John Foraker: I became one of their
kids... I was shooting a movie called " The
Kingdom, " I was trying to nurse, I was
trying to make my 8-month-old daughter's
food. I was shooting these big fights all
day, and I'd come home covered in fake
blood and be blending things up. Anyway,
it was a working mom's nightmare.
And when I found this tiny Once
Upon A Farm, it just made sense to me.
It solved a problem. And there are so
few companies that are new that are out
there that you feel like, " Oh my gosh, this
would have really changed things for me
as a mom. "
And actually, now that we've aged up
into kids, it does solve a problem for me
first big investors after I sold Annie's to
General Mills in 2014. They let me invest
in different businesses as long as it wasn't
competitive. I always thought I wanted to
get involved in fresh baby food because
when I was running Annie's as a public
company, I got to become good friends
with the folks at Freshpet, which had
basically reinvented the pet food aisle
with refrigerated offerings, and it just
was amazing to me that no one was doing
anything similar to that.
I invested, and then one day maybe a
year or a year and a half later, Ari picked
up the phone and said, " Jennifer Garner
is interested in learning more about this
company, and she would love to meet. "
We had an hour meeting in LA, and
Food Business News
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Food Entrepreneur - August 17, 2021

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