FOOD
Yumble E M P OW E R I N G K I D S T O M A K E H E A LT H Y M E A LT I M E C H O I C E S BY LAUREN BENS
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etting kids to eat healthy is not always easy. A mom’s “healthy” can be a kid’s “yucky.” Supermom Joanna Parker became acutely aware of this when she decided that she wanted to spend more time at home following the birth of her second child. So, she set out to find a solution, to make mealtime a bit more yum and fun, and created Yumble, a kid-approved food delivery platform. Yumble not only encourages kids to eat better, but it also rewards them for changing their habits. Yumble began with a post on a Facebook group for Upper East Side moms and continued to grow from word of mouth. The “panda plates” were a big success. “Our
desired results. Kids have minds of their own and rejecting mom’s meal choice is a way to express their independence. So, Joanna pivoted, introducing what she calls “child-led eating.” The concept is a follow-on to baby-led weaning, which involves not spoon-feeding your baby before you start giving them table food. “The baby-led weaning idea is to let your child be in charge by listening to their bodies and controlling their eating. With Yumble, children choose their menus and are rewarded for making healthy choices. Our goal is to ensure children eat healthy at every meal “MY GOAL IS TO and learn how to eat EMPOWER healthy for the rest of CHILDREN TO their lives,” Joanna MAKE HEALTHY, said. SMART CHOICES “My goal is to IN FOOD AND IN empower children to GENERAL. WE make healthy, WANT OUR smart choices in KIDS TO BECOME food and in general. We INDEPENDENT, want our kids to THRIVING ADULTS.’’ become independent, thriving adults. As parents, we often deprive our children of control, especially at mealtime. Studies show, though, that the more involved kids are in their choices, the more likely they are to follow through on those choices and put up less resistance. These children grow to be more independent, better problem solvers, and have stronger self-esteem.” Yumble is also introducing a new prize platform which earns kids points when they choose healthy meals online, try new foods at home, and engage in numerous other healthy activities. The points are intended to make Yumble extra palatable to both kids and parents. Serving kids from 2-12 with more than 70 different menu options, accumulated points can be customers were my beta group as I wore many redeemed for attractive hats while working to build the company,” valuable prizes, while teaching kids how to eat Joanna said. She also went from edible healthy at every meal. “There are countless experiments with moms and their kids to studies about the value of positive taking a bite out of the big time when she reinforcement,” Joanna said. “And so appeared on Shark Tank. This experience allowed the entrepreneurial mom to expose the at Yumble we empower kids by rewarding them for making healthy choices.”P brand to a much larger audience. But it soon became apparent that Joanna’s yumblekids.com best intentions did not always produce the
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