Today we’d like to introduce you to Serenity Carr.
Hi Serenity, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My husband, Joe, and I started Serenity Kids for our daughter, Della! Like a lot of kids, I was fed a lot of sugar, grains, and dairy. As a result, I was constantly sick, cried all the time, had trouble sleeping, and developed severe stomach problems. These issues didn’t go away until I was in my 30’s when I decided to cut out sugar and processed foods. I instead started eating quality meats, organic vegetables, and healthy fats. It’s mind blowing to think about how drastic the shift was to my mood, my energy, my sleep patterns, and overall health. When Joe and I began family planning, we searched in grocery stores, baby stores, online, and found that there weren’t any options that we could trust and feel good about feeding to our future little one. All we found in the market were products full of sugary fruits that lacked good meat and fats. I put on my nerd hat and learned through countless hours of research that there is already a perfect baby food, breastmilk, which is mostly fat and carbs. The USDA recommends babies consume 30g of fat per day and eat animal products, but no existing products contained these essential nutrients. Because of this, we decided to create a new kind of baby food and make it accessible for everyone. Our two year old, Della, sleeps great, is pretty much always happy, hardly ever gets sick, and has healthy, consistent stools. We believe this is largely because of how we feed her. We’re energized to be on this mission of making children healthier by offering nutrient-dense foods that taste great and are convenient for parents.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
When Joe and I first started the company, we were so excited! It was a new adventure for us. Joe is an innovator with lots of ideas and had no experience in manufacturing. I come from an operations background and am more organized by nature. You could say that the two of us create a perfect balance, but it also leads to lots of disagreements that can cross over into our marital relationship. We had to learn how to maintain boundaries and be husband and wife first, business partners second. Early on, our launch kept getting delayed as we ran into significant manufacturing issues trying to make high-fat meat purees on equipment designed for fruit purees. We had already collected pre-orders from customers, so we were dealing with refunds, incorrect email addresses, and tons of customer service inquiries before ever shipping a single product. Once we were able to get the products out the door, we experienced major growing pains. We had to kick it into gear and get more investors, expand our team, and engage in really deep hiring and culture discussions. However, each obstacle that has been presented is really just a door to the fun that’s on the other side!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Serenity Kids?
Many well-known baby food brands are selling products based on outdated nutrition data, as seen by the baby food aisle being filled with unbalanced products containing mostly carbohydrates with little to no fat or protein. Serenity Kids is the only high fat, low sugar baby food made to mimic the nutrients of breast milk using ethically sourced meats and organic vegetables. Our purees are shelf-stable and packaged into pouches for convenience. Buy them online at myserenitykids.com and Amazon, or at a variety of Austin retailers like Whole Foods, HEB, Wheatsville, Sprouts, and Natural Grocers. Born from our real life health struggles which fuel our passion to make the world better, Serenity Kids is focused on providing nutrient-dense foods for babies and toddlers featuring clean meats and healthy fats. We’ve created healthy products for babies that actually taste GOOD and parents trust feeding to their little ones. Our products all taste savory because babies are developing their palate preferences that will determine how they eat later in life. Introducing savory flavors at a young age helps create healthy eating habits and reduce their risk of obesity. We want to set them up for success by using ingredients that are naturally low in sugar and high in easily digestible protein. We add fats like organic avocado oil and olive oil to encourage brain development and vitamin absorption. Further, we care not just about what you feed your baby, but how that food impacts the world. Our meats come from animals raised on pastures of small American family farms that practice regenerative techniques. These techniques improve the soil, reduce run off, and sequester carbon. These animals live harmoniously with nature, similar to how they would have lived in the wild, and are never given GMO feed, antibiotics, added hormones or pesticides.
Any big plans?
We feel super blessed to be growing so fast- we’re now the fastest selling shelf stable baby food in the natural grocery channel. We’re also expanding into conventional retailers including Kroger and Target this year. It’s super-exciting to make our nutrient-dense foods more accessible to moms and babies! Our innovation pipeline contains many fun, innovative products that expands the age-range of our brand. We’re launching new formats very soon, so stay tuned! The heart of our mission is to find the amazing souls that breathe life into our city. We believe that what makes our city great isn’t the celebrities or giant, cookie-cutter corporations – it’s the artists, creatives, mom-and-pops, and local entrepreneurs who pour their heart and soul into their craft. The goal of the Inspiring Stories series is to celebrate those hidden local gems and encourage our readers and the community at large to spend more of their money with local businesses, local artists, creatives and professionals.
Pricing:
- $3.49-$3.99 for Serenity Kids’ Ethically Sourced Meat Baby Food Pouches
- $2.19 – $2.49 for Serenity Kids’ Organic Savory Veggies Baby Food Pouches
- Grain Free Puffs $4.99
Contact Info:
- Website: https://myserenitykids.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myserenitykids/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myserenitykids
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/myserenitykids
- Other: https://myserenitykids.com/collections/grain-free-puffs
Image Credits
Serenity Kids
