Ep. 033 - Camille Hardy on Building a Tech-Savvy Food Startup from the Ground Up
CEO & Founder Chunky Vegan
What does it really take to launch a perishable food brand that refuses to cut corners?
In this episode of The Bites and Bytes Podcast, host Kristin Demoranville talks with Camille Hardy, founder and CEO of Chunky Vegan, about building a baby food company that blends clean ingredients, operational resilience, and cybersecurity from the ground up.
Camille brings decades of experience from Disney, NBCUniversal, and Sony Pictures in enterprise IT, but it was a simple trip to the grocery store that lit the fuse. What started as frustration over toddler food labels evolved into a mission: to build a brand that embodies transparency, safety, and smarter technology across the food supply chain.
You’ll hear:
• How Camille’s corporate IT background gave her an edge in food startup chaos
• The hidden costs (and ethical choices) of making clean food for infants
• Why packaging, yes, even the glass, matters more than you think
• Where AI is already improving forecasting, planning, and personalization
• The role of cybersecurity and data privacy in food startups, even small ones
• Real talk on sourcing, compliance, and what the future of nutrition could look like
If you work in food, agriculture, supply chain, food safety, or startup innovation or just care about what we feed the next generation, this episode is a must-listen.
Show Notes:
BBC article “How humanity has changed the food it eats”
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Episode Key Highlights
00:05:44 – Why Camille Started Chunky Vegan
00:14:10 – The Challenges of Producing Fresh Baby Food
00:15:30 – Why They Follow UK Food Standards Over U.S.
00:22:33 – Farm Sourcing, Traceability & Food Safety Practices
00:26:48 – Even Glass Jars Need to Be Tested for Lead
00:30:24 – AI Plans for Ingredient Sourcing & Custom Meals
00:32:29 – Cybersecurity, Privacy & Encrypted Customer Data
00:36:35 – Failover Plans, Cyber Resilience & Small Biz Security
00:38:26 – Future Plans: Senior Nutrition & Store Expansion
00:43:16 – What Needs to Change in Food: Cold Chain Affordability
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🛡️ About AnzenSage & AnzenOT
AnzenSage is a women-owned cybersecurity advisory firm specializing in security resilience for the food, agriculture, zoo, and aquarium industries. AnzenSage offers practical, strategic guidance to help organizations anticipate risks and build resilience. Their services include:
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Listen to full episode :
Episode Guide:
00:00:16 – Intro & Welcome to the Episode
00:01:00 – Camille’s Favorite Food & Food Memory
00:04:30 – Camille Introduces Herself and Chunky Vegan
00:05:44 – Why Camille Started Chunky Vegan
00:08:03 – Being Mission-Driven vs Market-Driven
00:10:17 – Balanced Vegan Meals Without Pushing an Agenda
00:11:08 – Personal Journey with Veganism & Nutrition Challenges
00:14:10 – The Challenges of Producing Fresh Baby Food
00:15:07 – U.S. vs UK Food Regulations for Infant Food
00:15:57 – Why Chunky Vegan Uses Glass (Not Plastic)
00:17:01 – Logistics & Cold Chain Distribution Complexities
00:18:23 – How the Product Can Help Elderly & Ill Individuals
00:22:33 – Farm Vetting, Food Safety, Traceability & Testing
00:26:48 – Food-Safe Glass vs Cosmetic Glass—Lead Testing
00:29:08 – Product Sizing & Launch Strategy
00:30:24 – AI for Supply Chain, Custom Meals, Production
00:32:29 – Cybersecurity, Customer Privacy & Data Encryption
00:34:29 – Real Cyberattack Story & Founder Preparedness
00:36:35 – Camille’s Corporate Background Helps With Cyber Resilience
00:38:26 – Expansion Plans: Senior Nutrition & Retail Footprint
00:39:18 – Current Flavors & Ingredient Sourcing Philosophy
00:40:47 – Seasonal Releases & Focus Group Testing
00:41:44 – Inside Focus Group Life (And Frosting Trauma!)
00:43:16 – What Needs to Change: Affordable Cold Chain Shipping
00:46:15 – Empowering Kids to Love Whole Foods
00:47:02 – Founder Ethics, Industry Complexity, and Final Reflections
00:47:58 – Gratitude and Episode Wrap-Up
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00:00:16 Kristin Demoranville
Hey there.
00:00:16 Kristin Demoranville
And welcome back to the bike to Bites podcast. I am your host Kristin Demoranville, and today.
00:00:22 Kristin Demoranville
Up, we're heading straight into the messy, brilliant tech laced world of food startups. My guest is Camille Hardy, founder of Chunky Vegan, and someone who's not just building a company by flipping the script on what early nutrition and operational resilience looks like in the food space. We're talking clean ingredients, complex logistics, startup chaos.
00:00:43 Kristin Demoranville
Last stars that don't leach chemicals. Oh yeah. And why cyber security matters even.
00:00:48 Kristin Demoranville
In baby food.
00:00:49 Kristin Demoranville
No, seriously. This episode is a crash course and what it takes to build something that feeds people, respects the planet, and survives modern supply chains.
00:00:58 Camille Hardy
Let's get into.
00:00:58 Camille Hardy
It.
00:01:00 Kristin Demoranville
Well, I'm absolutely delighted to have our next guest on the show. But before we go into your introductions and everything else good like that, we're going to start with favorite food and favorite food memory. They do not need to be the same thing.
00:01:12 Camille Hardy
Fair food is all summer fruits. I love all summer fruits, you name it. I love it. It just says nostalgic.
00:01:22 Kristin Demoranville
So we're talking like strawberries and raspberries that kind of or you think it's like watermelon?
00:01:26 Camille Hardy
Strawberries, raspberries, cherries, nectarines, yeah.
00:01:30 Kristin Demoranville
All the things so like all Summer harvest, summer fruit.
00:01:33 Camille Hardy
Yes, I love it. Sounds good since we're.
00:01:36 Kristin Demoranville
Recording in winter, that actually sounds really good, right? And favorite food. Memory is that attached to summer fruits.
00:01:43 Camille Hardy
Actually I think it is because in the summers I'm from New York and I would spend the summers with my grandmother, we moved my. My father moved us to California.
00:01:54 Camille Hardy
And so we wouldn't come to back home to New York for two weeks and I would be with my grandmother. And so it's kind of associated with me having that time with her. And yeah, she loved it. She she gave us fresh food all the time. And so that's what I associate. That's why it's my favorite. Did you go out and pick any of it? Did she take you out on your kids?
00:02:09 Kristin Demoranville
Got.
00:02:12 Kristin Demoranville
And go like big strawberries or.
00:02:14 Kristin Demoranville
That's enough.
00:02:15 Camille Hardy
Yes, well, my great grandmother had, like fresh wild raspberries and berries in her yard. So yeah, we would be able to go.
00:02:22 Camille Hardy
Out and just.
00:02:23 Camille Hardy
At Will just go right out and grab some fresh fruit. Fruit so.
00:02:27 Camille Hardy
And you could smell she had mint and you would smell those. Just all those scents in there. I love it.
00:02:33 Kristin Demoranville
I love it when you went by someone who had an herb garden like their front yard or yeah, and you just when you're a kid and you just were like, what's this? Is that like experiment? And then you could grab it and put your hand and sniff it. And lavender too. I always used to grab lavender. Yeah, I love that we don't. It's sad as a society, we don't really do gardens as much as we used to. I feel like, I mean with the pandemic.
00:02:43 Camille Hardy
Yes.
00:02:52 Kristin Demoranville
Thing that picked up, but I just remember there being so many more when I was a kid and they absolutely were Berry bushes and more.
00:02:59 Kristin Demoranville
You just walk into someone's backyard, kind of and take an apple. Not that I'm recommending you steal anything, anybody.
00:03:02 Kristin Demoranville
Three finished.
00:03:05 Kristin Demoranville
But I'm just saying like it was.
00:03:06 Camille Hardy
More prevalent and you. Abundant. Yeah, we could totally just be out in the neighborhood all day and eat off of the trees from our neighbors and pick berries and honeysuckle like just, you know, all throughout.
00:03:19 Camille Hardy
Was the summer of summer day not really having to come home and grab?
00:03:22 Camille Hardy
Anything to eat?
00:03:23 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah, we had on there was walnut trees on one of the properties that lived in and they would harvest those and.
00:03:29 Kristin Demoranville
Chestnuts and all these things I remember there being so much food around us at all times and now I just feel like there just isn't, which is nowhere tragic, to be exactly right, nowhere to.
00:03:33 Camille Hardy
Yes, exactly.
00:03:39 Camille Hardy
Be found.
00:03:40 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah. And also I mean with the the global climate change, of course you can grow citrus in certain states now that you couldn't grow before, which I'm trying to be very wild. But I don't really want to have to bring in like a lemon tree in the winter like.
00:03:51 Kristin Demoranville
What am I going?
00:03:52 Kristin Demoranville
To do with it inside a lot of work, right? And maybe that's why we don't have.
00:03:56 Kristin Demoranville
Those things anymore because they do take work and.
00:03:59 Kristin Demoranville
Right.
00:04:00 Kristin Demoranville
Nature kind of took care of it in certain places. I grew up in New England, so very similar story that Raspberry bushes, blueberries. They were just kind of abundant everywhere and as long as you wash them. You OK? Yeah. It careful of it was fine. But also we're probably from both from the same generation that drink out of like water.
00:04:14 Kristin Demoranville
Hoses on the side of them.
00:04:16 Camille Hardy
Absolutely.
00:04:17 Kristin Demoranville
You know, last feral generations.
00:04:20 Kristin Demoranville
I just did things that were kind of crazy that I don't think people do these days. That's great. I am totally going to get some fruit when I get off.
00:04:26 Kristin Demoranville
This broadcast here because I'm.
00:04:28 Kristin Demoranville
Like salivating just.
00:04:28 Kristin Demoranville
Thinking about it, go ahead and introduce.
00:04:30 Camille Hardy
Yourself to the audience. My name is Camille Hardy. I am the founder of chunking.
00:04:36 Camille Hardy
In at Chunky Vegan, we're a farm to table organic baby food company or infant and toddler food company. We source our food directly from farms so that we can provide a farm fresh nutrient dense meal options for in in some topplers that's great. And we met because we were both finalists in Innovation challenge in the county.
00:04:56 Kristin Demoranville
That we were in and and your speech when you were talking was just.
00:05:02 Kristin Demoranville
The fact that you were doing research with different universities about nutrients and it just really.
00:05:08 Kristin Demoranville
Spoke to me and.
00:05:08 Kristin Demoranville
I was.
00:05:09 Kristin Demoranville
Like oh, we need to have on the show because I want to talk about what it means to own a food company. And I realized that this is a little bit different than the normal set of technology professionals I have on the podcast. But I think it's really important in order to serve an industry.
00:05:11 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah.
00:05:23 Kristin Demoranville
Has any type of aspect of.
00:05:25 Kristin Demoranville
It you need to understand.
00:05:26 Kristin Demoranville
What it takes to create one?
00:05:29 Kristin Demoranville
So that's why.
00:05:30 Kristin Demoranville
I'm having this particularly wonderful guest on. We've already had a great conversation before I hit record, but will you tell me why you started to TV again? Because I know I do know the story a little bit, but just for.
00:05:35 Camille Hardy
You did.
00:05:41 Camille Hardy
The audience sake. Absolutely.
00:05:44 Camille Hardy
It started with my son he when he transitioned to eating solid foods.
00:05:49 Camille Hardy
I remember I would stand in the grocery aisle frustrated reading labels on the baby food jar. Everything was shelf stable or process.
00:05:57 Camille Hardy
Or, you know, filled with some sort of preservative. I wanted something different. I wanted something fresh. That's what I'm used to. That's not something that I was interested in feeding my son. We're talking about expiration dates of two years beyond that date. And it had an organic stamp on the Bob Jar, which is this is an oxymoron.
00:06:17 Camille Hardy
I'm. I'm I'm.
00:06:17 Camille Hardy
Just not understanding how we're able to.
00:06:22 Camille Hardy
How this is able to float and get by and this is these are the offerings that we're offering our early stage eaters. They're coming out of the gate and this is what we're offering. And so that was a light bulb moment for me because I was struggling to find high quality food. And that's when I started to source.
00:06:41 Camille Hardy
Food and initially it started from the grocery stores and then I'm saying, wait a minute, where are they getting this stuff from? I don't know how it's treated and being.
00:06:53 Camille Hardy
Virginia. I'm surrounded by farms, so I started tapping into those farmers and just going down a rabbit hole, if you will. And and saying well.
00:07:01 Camille Hardy
How are you?
00:07:02 Camille Hardy
You know, how are you treating your produce? And they would say it was chemically treated or not. So then I would narrow down that list and.
00:07:11 Camille Hardy
Eventually got to a point where I was able to identify a few farmers that were organic farmers, Amish, or just without any chemical chemicals that they were using to treat.
00:07:24 Camille Hardy
Food. And then I started to use that to cook my some meals and it just evolved as I started doing that, I would have leftovers or or extra that I would give some other parents that were have running into the same issues. They really liked it. They started tapping in and like, well, wait a minute. I didn't say I was a meal prep service.
00:07:45 Camille Hardy
This I was just offering this, you know, as something you know for your child to try. When I started realizing that there was a true demand and that there was a gap in this area of pediatric nutrition. So that just is what?
00:07:59 Camille Hardy
Prompted me to really delve into.
00:08:00 Camille Hardy
This a little bit more.
00:08:03 Kristin Demoranville
That's that's great. I love it that there's a personal story. It wasn't like you just saw a niche.
00:08:06 Kristin Demoranville
In.
00:08:07 Kristin Demoranville
The market, like a A, A market niche that wasn't being served in terms of like profit, but you actually wanted to do it for the betterment of family. That's I think that's a great start.
00:08:19 Kristin Demoranville
To a founder as well, you know we have to like to be.
00:08:24 Kristin Demoranville
More intentional, I think as founders, rather than just like, oh, we'll make this investment and do this really cool thing because it's going to make me money. I feel like that's just you disengaged from your audience anyways, immediately by saying that. So I think that's great. And when you told your story before, I I was really touched by it because, you know, I you have to think about that.
00:08:45 Kristin Demoranville
We think about it differently now because, you know, we were discussing when we were kids that everything was fresh for the most part for us, we didn't really either came out of my great grandparent's garden or the farmers markets where we grew it.
00:08:58 Kristin Demoranville
If it came to the grocery store, we weren't really super worried about pesticides or anything like that or any type of chemicals being used on it. There wasn't huge factory farms at that point. They were up and coming, but they weren't quite there yet. And now it's, you know, no seasons in the grocery store and everything's got preservatives in it and things you wouldn't even think about have all kinds of crazy things in it.
00:09:18 Kristin Demoranville
And I'm not going down this lake.
00:09:20 Kristin Demoranville
Conspiracy theorist thing about how you should eat you eat however you want. If you want to drink raw milk, go for it. If you don't, you don't. If you don't want to eat meat, don't eat meat. We're not.
00:09:29 Camille Hardy
Here to push veganism on anybody either, but at all we don't push that as as a vegan company, it's just to say that we've done the research to.
00:09:38 Camille Hardy
Make sure that this option is well-rounded, so if you choose you know you can use this as a side to.
00:09:46 Camille Hardy
A meat entree. But if you chose not to introduce any meat or dairy that you can get a well balanced vegan meal. So we don't, we don't just we're not staunch veganist by any means, right. So it's just to say we we really want to provide this option for those who we don't really have any vegan.
00:10:05 Camille Hardy
Options one and two, if you chose to introduce that.
00:10:09 Camille Hardy
You very well could in a way that you can get everything that you needed to get without having to introduce meat or.
00:10:11 Kristin Demoranville
Hey.
00:10:17 Camille Hardy
Dairy.
00:10:19 Kristin Demoranville
Which is great because you know, he said. Sometimes the vegan options aren't actually healthy at all, exactly. It could be a lot of processed, whatever, or absolutely. And I'm not picking on pea protein. There's, you know, that's fine, but it's in a lot of things now with vegan food and it's a little questionable if it's OK, you know, I.
00:10:39 Kristin Demoranville
And I should be really candid with the audience that's listening. I actually went vegan for three years and it was an interesting journey. But I'll tell you, it was a lot of processed food.
00:10:48 Kristin Demoranville
Yes, I feel better in some ways and not in others. But whenever you eat just regular straight up vegetables, always feel really good. But it doesn't mean that I I definitely still eat meat now. And fish it's it's part of my life now. But I have a healthy respect for people who are trying to live a a different lifestyle in that regard.
00:11:08 Kristin Demoranville
Because it's actually really hard to get into work with the food that's out there on this in the supermarkets and it's and I really again applaud what you're trying to do, especially when it comes to.
00:11:13 Camille Hardy
It is. It is.
00:11:19 Kristin Demoranville
We called them early for Cedars first stage theaters. There you go. Early stage eaters. Sorry, I need to be correct because you actually can't call almond milk. Almond milk. You have to call it plant based beverage. I had another guest who corrected me on that. But you cannot say milk because milk comes from an.
00:11:21 Camille Hardy
Early.
00:11:34 Kristin Demoranville
Animal.
00:11:35 Kristin Demoranville
And I went OK and I.
00:11:36 Kristin Demoranville
Don't want to insult the dairy industry?
00:11:38 Kristin Demoranville
As I do work around too, but that's that's so interesting. So.
00:11:46 Kristin Demoranville
I guess the other.
00:11:46 Kristin Demoranville
Thing is, you started a company and you it started very organically and unintended I suppose.
00:11:59 Kristin Demoranville
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00:12:14 Kristin Demoranville
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00:12:34 Kristin Demoranville
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00:13:24 Kristin Demoranville
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00:13:47 Kristin Demoranville
People who are listening are a lot of technology people, a lot of operational technology people and a lot of other different types of parts of the industry, but they don't probably have the understanding of what it means to start a food business and the complexities of it.
00:14:00 Kristin Demoranville
So what were?
00:14:01 Kristin Demoranville
Your biggest hurdles when you started chunking vegan.
00:14:03 Camille Hardy
We can go through.
00:14:04 Kristin Demoranville
Tony Parker that you want very broad question.
00:14:08 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah, that's why I said like, whatever.
00:14:09 Kristin Demoranville
You want to start with.
00:14:10 Camille Hardy
Yeah, producing fresh food is difficult. It's it's, it's hard, it's it's not shelf stable. And so we have to make sure that we.
00:14:20 Camille Hardy
Take certain measures to make sure that we can preserve it, refrigerate it, or freeze it and keep it as pristine as possible until it reaches it, so that it can reach the destination so it can reach the consumer. And so because we are not a highly shelf stable, we don't have a highly shelf stable product.
00:14:40 Camille Hardy
Just making sure like we're against time. So when we get our food from the farm, we have to instantly start preparing and we have to.
00:14:47 Camille Hardy
Get to the point of cold pressed processing where you know we freeze it, refrigerate it, or get it to a point where we can stop that age. You know that aging time timer, if you will, and then I would say that's one thing. So dealing with highly perishable items is 1 complexity. The other would be.
00:15:07 Camille Hardy
Navigating the Food safety regulation.
00:15:10 Camille Hardy
So just in general, navigating that is difficult, but when you're doing that for a high risk demographic like infants and toddlers, and becomes even more, there's even more red tape to kind of get.
00:15:22 Camille Hardy
Through.
00:15:23 Camille Hardy
To make sure that we are adhering and we are compliant with all of the food regulations, we have also held ourselves to an even higher.
00:15:30 Camille Hardy
Standards. So we go beyond the US Food Regulation standards. We hold our chunky beginners held to the UK standards.
00:15:37 Camille Hardy
Yeah. So they don't allow a lot of things that the US does. And so because of that, we we are held to making sure that we are compliant in a lot of different areas. And so that is a huge hurdle to have to kind of deal with and packaging is is another glass jars is what we use.
00:15:57 Camille Hardy
We refrain from using any plastics or any any materials like that. We are trying to be sustainable. It is a sustainability win, however.
00:16:07 Camille Hardy
It's hard to source affordably here in the US, so that's been another hurdle to finding a manufacturer domestically where we can keep our costs, you know, reasonably low. Yeah. And I'm sure that that will be interesting depending on how things continue to move forward with relations within.
00:16:27 Kristin Demoranville
Different places in the world with items such as glass for example. I'm really glad to hear that you following the UK standards by the way, because technically that means you're in compliance with EU because it's very similar. I have a lot of food safety people.
00:16:40 Kristin Demoranville
Here as well as some food defense. Yes. And I've heard stories about the infant and toddler situation in general with it because basically because of the formula issues, it's become more on the radar, if you will, and for good and bad reasons. Of course, we have. Food safety is interesting. And I realized in my career that food safety is really closely tied to cyber security.
00:17:01 Kristin Demoranville
Because we anything that technology wise, it touches food is a food safety issue and we have touched a lot of food production of course. And so I've I've really gotten to love those teams because they're fighting the same fight.
00:17:13 Kristin Demoranville
In a way, yes. So that's super interesting. And then logistics wise and distribution wise, I'm sure that's also difficult cause you have to transport in cold storage or frozen and that becomes that's complicated and depending on how big the business eventually gets.
00:17:25 Camille Hardy
Yes.
00:17:30 Camille Hardy
Which it will.
00:17:31 Kristin Demoranville
That's going to be an interesting thing.
00:17:34 Kristin Demoranville
Transports for cold storage are all connected with the Internet. They're all IoT and it's really fascinating how that works as well on like a totally geek out, like industrial moment, it's cool, but that is that is some.
00:17:48 Kristin Demoranville
And it's really interesting cuz again, people just probably think, oh, I'm gonna start a food company. I'm just gonna like, you know, make grandma's cookies or whatever. And it's not. It's not as easy as people think it is. It's it's difficult and probably at first it probably it sounded like it was started a little bit, almost like a catering situation. And then it transferred into. I'm going to start this company that's going to produce this product and because you were sharing it with your.
00:18:10 Kristin Demoranville
Friends and family for a bit. And now. Yes. Yeah. And now it's you. You are a CEO of a company, a food company that is. First of all, I applaud you because I, I mean, I know because I'm in the food industry. I know how difficult this.
00:18:23 Kristin Demoranville
Lobbyist and the criticism and the I'm sure, just from your name alone.
00:18:28 Kristin Demoranville
People were like, wait.
00:18:29 Kristin Demoranville
What and and then to hear it's baby food. And then people get weirded out and have an opinion about that and you're just like, no, no, no.
00:18:35 Kristin Demoranville
It's not.
00:18:36 Kristin Demoranville
Like that, you know it's it's providing nutrient dense situations to people who couldn't have it necessarily before. And we were talking.
00:18:43 Kristin Demoranville
Off air, when we were doing the pre interview that this could even go beyond to people that are critically ill or people that are about to transition and pass into the next life.
00:18:53 Kristin Demoranville
Those kind of things, because I've just lost all my elders on and I was thinking that, you know, they didn't really get to eat too much towards the end because there wasn't food that could really chew and correct. There was a part of me that wish I could have just, like, shipped up some chunky bacon to them. But they was out of state obviously. But I thought what a great way to give people dignity. Towards the end, you know, that they could.
00:19:14 Kristin Demoranville
Have some food that's good for them that tastes good and be able to, you know, not just chew on ice chips. I mean, if that's the stage we're at, I understand there needs to be more consideration for that as well as obviously the early stage.
00:19:27 Camille Hardy
Leaders, we've received a lot of interest in that, that space as well for seniors and that is going to be another phase that we offer down the line and another part of my story is that when I was preparing these meals for my son, my husband's grandmother at the time she was dealing with Alzheimer's and dementia.
00:19:47 Camille Hardy
And so I literally started feeding her when I said him and it was absolutely something she could consume, and she liked it.
00:19:55 Camille Hardy
And so we were able to get her to eat more because it wasn't.
00:19:59 Camille Hardy
Feeding her table food and she just didn't want it. It's gentle enough on the stomach. So I mean, it did allow her to have that level. I think of dignity. And she was able to get the nutrients that she needed and she wasn't. We weren't just shoving her.
00:20:14 Camille Hardy
In sure you know.
00:20:15 Camille Hardy
Yeah, trying to get her to replace, not eating, being able to chew her food. So she was able.
00:20:21 Camille Hardy
To kind of have those.
00:20:23 Camille Hardy
Other options available to her.
00:20:25 Kristin Demoranville
It's it's interesting too. As I I read I don't. I mean we have read or watched. It was a video from the BBC of and I think it was a few years old.
00:20:33 Kristin Demoranville
When I watched it recently, I was talking about how the food that we eat nowadays is actually really soft compared to what it used to be, and I was like, wait, what? And apparently that's part of like the marketing of how we get people to eat food and more sugar kind of thing because we make it softer and easier for them to. And I just was like, whoa, wait, hold up. And they explained.
00:20:53 Kristin Demoranville
Because I remember crunching carrots when I was a kid. I think we basically just eat all cooked carrots now as adults. You know, we don't.
00:20:59 Kristin Demoranville
Really.
00:21:00 Kristin Demoranville
I mean, if you have, if you have our carrots.
00:21:02 Kristin Demoranville
Good for you, you.
00:21:03 Kristin Demoranville
Know and generally speaking, because we're so worried about different, you know, coli, salmonella, Listeria, we have to.
00:21:09 Kristin Demoranville
Cook our vegetables most.
00:21:11 Kristin Demoranville
The time now and I thought, wow, that's it was really gone. Ohh, I'd love carrots. Yeah, I think they're the best, actually. I probably overindulge in them at times, which is not good on the stomach. Just, you know, heads up for everybody. But, you know, or I, you know, with their cucumber fades this past summer, I don't know, you just go through phases of vegetables for some reason or cauliflower.
00:21:13 Camille Hardy
That was a snack for me.
00:21:31 Kristin Demoranville
My sister teases me that I eat cauliflower. Too much cauliflower great, I guess. So I I I didn't think I ate it much, but I think cauliflower is great. I think it goes with everything. You can change it up, the flavors and whatever you're making. One of my favorite things today is roasted cauliflower.
00:21:34 Camille Hardy
OK. Yeah. Is that OK?
00:21:48 Kristin Demoranville
Tacos, I mean.
00:21:50 Camille Hardy
I think that's the best.
00:21:51 Kristin Demoranville
Thing ever. But anyways, this is just me, this is not my favorite food or favorite food memory because I never said it on air, so I should be clear on that. But I do enjoy calling hard tacos. Anyways, you were talking about food safety and all the things that.
00:22:03 Kristin Demoranville
Are.
00:22:03 Kristin Demoranville
Going on, obviously, there's been a lot of like food recalls, right? So.
00:22:07 Kristin Demoranville
Like spinach, we could say.
00:22:08 Kristin Demoranville
As an example. So I still like.
00:22:10 Kristin Demoranville
Spanish with a bit of a side eye because skittish.
00:22:14 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah. Yeah. And lettuce, right? Are are you doing anything to counterbalance that? And best you can, I realize that you're sourcing in the best way you can. Are you looking for farms that don't have the cattle pastures that are close by to where they grow? They're very, they're leafy greens that they're green leafies every farm.
00:22:33 Camille Hardy
We partnered with I have.
00:22:36 Camille Hardy
I've met the farmers. I walk the farms, I look at the practices, I'm there I'm, I'm boots on the ground because I need to know. I know them by name, you know, we have the personal relationship. A lot of the Amish farmers, they farm in that way. So if they are doing vegetables, they will have a whole.
00:22:39 Kristin Demoranville
I love that.
00:22:56 Camille Hardy
You know, pasture of just festivals and movie greens, you won't see the animals in those spaces or.
00:23:02 Camille Hardy
It is and then also.
00:23:03 Camille Hardy
In addition to that, we have to test, we have to do a lot of testing. We have to everything that we get from the farms, we have to label it by batch.
00:23:13 Camille Hardy
So that we can trace there's some traceability there and then you have to do batch testing. And again, I don't want. Yeah, I I know I can't. There's not a surefire way for me to catch everything, like as much as I possibly can. You know, I don't ever want to get a call about ill reaction to our food. So that would just devastate.
00:23:33 Camille Hardy
Because the whole purpose of why I created this company was for the exact opposite. I'm so very diligent just about.
00:23:42 Camille Hardy
Almost to the extent of, you know, driving my team crazy just about making sure we are, we're tested, we are. You know, we make sure that we're we're testing everything, we're validating everything. Our cleaning processes are, you know, very stringent. I don't, I don't feel like we can over compensate in those areas.
00:24:01 Camille Hardy
I would rather err on the.
00:24:03 Camille Hardy
Side of caution to make sure that we're.
00:24:05 Camille Hardy
Providing the cleanest, most.
00:24:09 Camille Hardy
Purest option that we can like even the water we use is very specific and I'm very intentional. We use all those osmosis water to clean and to cook with.
00:24:18 Camille Hardy
All of our our.
00:24:19 Camille Hardy
Fruits and vegetables because that is the purest form of water that we can have access to. So there is intention in everything. So when my companies.
00:24:29 Camille Hardy
Derived on a mission.
00:24:32 Camille Hardy
And so this mission is what fuels my passion. And so I am hoping that we can, you know, the results of that will be seen in our listeners, that our food eat our food and that grow up on our food. You know, I hope it helps with not having exposure to ailments and food allergies and all of this, these things that kids are dealing with these things.
00:25:02 Kristin Demoranville
Hey, quick pause. You're still with me, and I know you are first. Thanks. You're awesome. If this episode is making you think laugh or question your pantry choices, hit that like button. Share with a friend, drop a review, or just text someone. Say you got to hear this one. All of it helps more people find these conversations. All forms of engagement are welcome.
00:25:22 Kristin Demoranville
And my cat also agrees. Seriously, your support keeps the wheels turning and the guests coming.
00:25:27 Camille Hardy
All right, let's get.
00:25:28 Kristin Demoranville
To it. Yes. I thank you for sharing all that. I think that's fantastic and I'm sure the the food security people that are listening, we're like yes, someone who cares, a founder who cares because there's plenty of examples in the media and and research that are not being taught in collegiate level of owners and owners who did not care.
00:25:49 Kristin Demoranville
And a lot of people pay the price for that and so.
00:25:52 Kristin Demoranville
I'm sure everybody just sort of a clapped a little bit there that understands and I certainly was trying not to clap, but I was very happy to see her that with your testing or are you using any technology to test or you just doing like the old fashioned lab way. So we have our testers we it's just pretty rusty old fashioned but I know that we have to kind of where we're going in the direction.
00:26:12 Camille Hardy
Some of our scientists in Virginia Tech, the team there.
00:26:17 Camille Hardy
I don't know all of the technologies that they are or will be using, but as far as I'm aware it's pretty much the old fashioned way of of testing by sending samples and evaluate all the samples that are being tested, and we also are starting to get some test kits as well just to test. The trace chemicals will come up in food.
00:26:36 Kristin Demoranville
It's a whole other type of testing that's kind of terrifying, actually. If you think about it, because the fact we have to test for that seems really kind of.
00:26:44 Kristin Demoranville
Right that we shouldn't have to test for like heavy metals and other things.
00:26:48 Kristin Demoranville
Like that and.
00:26:48 Camille Hardy
There's so even down to the glass because certain glass is made, it has levels of lead. So you have to. It's not just using any glass. You have to be particular about the type of glass you use. So there are like beaker grade glasses and they're just like some low soda.
00:27:04 Camille Hardy
Mine.
00:27:05 Camille Hardy
Glass, which does have trace levels of lead. So just being educated on all of those things, you know, it doesn't make sense to take all of these measures to make sure the food is a certain way and then put it in a package that could could reintroduce certain things that we're trying to eliminate, right. So a lot of the.
00:27:22 Kristin Demoranville
Hmm.
00:27:25 Camille Hardy
Manufacturers in the US use soda lime glass, which does contain levels of lead, but they said the FDA deemed them safe.
00:27:35 Camille Hardy
It's a whole other conversation I was.
00:27:36 Kristin Demoranville
Going to say that's crazy. And did you ever think that you would be a glass expert in your life?
00:27:40 Camille Hardy
No, absolutely not like that came with. I had no clue. Yeah, no, this is all part of the the nonsense of it all.
00:27:48 Kristin Demoranville
That's that's so much. Wow, that's crazy. And wow, that just actually blew my mind because I never thought about the components of glass. And if it's food safe. But I mean, obviously, I mean, that's now I'm wondering if any of my glass downstairs is safe. Actually, to be honest, like any containers that I've ever bought, they're glass or plexiglass or something like that.
00:27:58 Camille Hardy
That's.
00:28:09 Kristin Demoranville
Wow, OK, I I hope I hope listeners just also have their mind blown because I've definitely like, wait a minute. Should I reevaluate everything in my cabinet?
00:28:16 Camille Hardy
Because there's certain glass that they use for makeup, you can't use that for food. You can't use that same glass to putting your food in. If it's not food grade safe. So yeah, yeah, there's a lot of different levels of.
00:28:30 Kristin Demoranville
See and This is why starting a food company is such a a feat in itself, because now you have to learn things you never thought you need to learn before.
00:28:30 Camille Hardy
Glad.
00:28:39 Kristin Demoranville
That's. Yeah. Wow. OK. That's a lot that is.
00:28:42 Camille Hardy
A lot of expenses that go go with that, right. So the the soda lime glass is cheaper. So I can get tons of that for cheap, but I don't choose to. I I'm choosing to use something called borosilicate glass that's like beaker Gray glass. So yeah, again, maybe a different conversation.
00:28:45 Kristin Demoranville
Sure.
00:29:02 Camille Hardy
Or another podcast.
00:29:04 Camille Hardy
Yes.
00:29:04 Kristin Demoranville
Wow, that's that's crazy. And then how big are your jars? Just out of curiosity?
00:29:08 Kristin Demoranville
So people know like 6, nothing right here.
00:29:09 Camille Hardy
There.
00:29:10 Camille Hardy
Yeah, we decided to launch with six Oz. We could get like 2-4 and six ounce sizes, but I just wanted to start with one size just so that it can be easier for my skew process as I'm coming out of the gate. But yeah.
00:29:23 Camille Hardy
We're sick sense.
00:29:24 Kristin Demoranville
You actually mentioned a little bit about how you know that you're gonna have to head towards technology at some point, probably with, you know, if you do you, you do already do online ordering. I believe we do the website. Yeah. So that's already one piece of technology. So you have.
00:29:37 Kristin Demoranville
Commerce and then distribution wise, you're probably going to have some type of a tracking system. So you know where your packages are moving and running. If you don't already probably. And then obviously whatever carrier you used, they're already using technology. Actually yesterday I was signing for a package and it dawned on me that they put the little tablet for it and you just sign and that's it's just the way life is now, right.
00:29:57 Kristin Demoranville
The day you had to like, sign the piece of paper that they had in their hand on the clipboard, and we don't do that anymore. I'm sure they could roll. I hope they can roll back to that. If they had to, but it's just how much technology is like, invaded our lives to the point we don't even realize it's happening now. But I wanted you to talk a little bit about your thoughts and feelings around bringing tech into your company at some.
00:30:16 Kristin Demoranville
Point whether that's AI or more type of online e-commerce or where do you see that going for chunky vegan just in general?
00:30:24 Camille Hardy
I absolutely think we are.
00:30:26 Camille Hardy
Are using AI to a certain extent and I think I want to get. I want to delve deeper into that so that it I think that we can use that to help us predict ingredient.
00:30:36 Camille Hardy
Shortages.
00:30:38 Camille Hardy
And optimize our production schedules and even suggest new recipes. You know, based on the nutritional needs, it's also something I'd like to integrate into our website. It can help us, you know, maybe you could put in some data about the child and it would help you either customize a meal, give you some meal.
00:30:58 Camille Hardy
Suggestions for your child? So there's a lot of opportunity that we have where I see that we can definitely incorporate.
00:31:05 Kristin Demoranville
More technology AI technology into our operation. It's awesome and I love that you're taking already about like a little chat bot for the website that come in and you like. Here's just a quick little whatever and then it will pop up and give you some information. I think those are. I think that's going to be the start of everyone's customer service from now on. Moving forward, I think we'll be using.
00:31:24 Kristin Demoranville
These little quick chat.
00:31:25 Kristin Demoranville
Bots and then will eventually take you to somebody if you need.
00:31:27 Kristin Demoranville
To talk to a.
00:31:28 Kristin Demoranville
Person, but I think that's brilliant that you're going to use that in production, scheduling and ingredients to completely.
00:31:29 Camille Hardy
Yes.
00:31:33 Kristin Demoranville
That my mind was spinning. I'm like, oh, there's so many things you can do, and I'm sure some people that are in the food industry that are manufacturing their actually thinking about ERP systems and other things like that, that's down the line for you not right now. That would be kind of absurd if you did an ERP at the moment, but there's that's that you're embracing AI because I think a lot of people are afraid of it and I and in talking to other companies that help food startups and they embrace AI.
00:31:37 Camille Hardy
There is.
00:31:56 Kristin Demoranville
And somebody recently said food startup does embrace AI. Now they're not going to get ahead in the industry because it's going to be the predominant way that we get customer data to understand trends in the market, people's flavor.
00:32:08 Kristin Demoranville
Files refrigerators are tracking us. Our food apps track us. If you order food from, like Instacart or DoorDash, or Uber eats, you're trying track trust and believe your data is being tracked. So all of this so and you do e-commerce. So let's quickly just jump into customer privacy. I'm not a privacy expert, but I understand enough. And I think a lot of people listening.
00:32:29 Kristin Demoranville
As well, you're obviously collecting data from your customers and you obviously have agreements with you know that you have on your website that say like we're obviously not selling your data and we're being really cautious with you and that kind of stuff. Want to talk a little bit about that as a founder because that's another set of things that you probably had to learn.
00:32:44 Camille Hardy
As well of how do we keep customer data safe while we purchase our products? Just our cybersecurity for protection. Sure. Yeah. So of course, yes, that's just another layer of of things that I need to make sure that you know, it's a liability that we have to make sure that we have a strategy and plan in place to protect data. And so we our customer data.
00:33:03 Kristin Demoranville
Finished.
00:33:05 Camille Hardy
Is encrypted and payments go through like a third party.
00:33:08 Camille Hardy
Platform and we actively monitor that for fraud. So we we are definitely aware of the sensitivities around exposure in, in putting our customers at risk. And so we're just making sure that I partner with cyber security companies to ensure that we can protect that data so.
00:33:29 Camille Hardy
That's high on my radar. I don't want to breach. We're way too small to be encountering those types of things. So. And I think because we are small it it's it's manageable, it's easy for us to kind of have a better hold on making sure that we can protect the data. Small businesses are just.
00:33:43 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah, definitely more agile.
00:33:46 Camille Hardy
Yeah. We're just as vulnerable to to cyber threats as big corporations are. So you know, we do have to have an awareness and you know, some strategies in place to make sure we are protected. So I would definitely advise, I don't think a lot of small businesses don't consider those things because they don't feel like they are at a point with.
00:34:05 Camille Hardy
Whatever you are.
00:34:07 Camille Hardy
Exposing somebody's information.
00:34:08 Camille Hardy
And you are at that point.
00:34:10 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah. And do you be surprised how hackers don't care how big or small you are? If they see a vulnerability, they're going for you. And I don't know if I show this on air, I might have shared on air once, but I my company, and I'm sorry, not ancient sage ends in OT, which is my product, my software product actually was suffered a cyber.
00:34:29 Kristin Demoranville
Attack. It was a brute force attack, so someone to try to knock into our software essentially, instead of freaking out and think it was the worst thing ever. I actually laughed and said yes, we're we're ship company.
00:34:39 Camille Hardy
Because we're somebody just trying to give something.
00:34:42 Kristin Demoranville
Well, it was funny because my partner and I immediately scrambled and did all our due diligence immediately and they didn't take any of our data that you could just see that someone.
00:34:49 Kristin Demoranville
Tried to take our data. It's interesting because like I said, we flashed into like security mode immediately and it was taken care of, but thankfully that's our expertise.
00:34:57 Kristin Demoranville
But I thought, what if this was somebody who was in a small business who didn't know, and then they didn't know what was happening. And the only reason we knew it was happening is we noticed there was some some kind of a adjustment that we didn't do so. And it was one of those moments where it was just this gut check that even there were so small and that somebody went.
00:35:09 Camille Hardy
OK.
00:35:15 Kristin Demoranville
For us and.
00:35:15 Kristin Demoranville
It just was kind of absurd. So it really can happen.
00:35:18 Kristin Demoranville
It really can.
00:35:19 Kristin Demoranville
It really.
00:35:20 Camille Hardy
And.
00:35:20 Kristin Demoranville
And I think the idea is to, if you have an attack to, to stay resilient and functional operationally through it and then, you know, deal with the the fallout as you need to. And I I think that that's what I'm most worried about with small businesses in general is will.
00:35:34 Kristin Demoranville
You get through.
00:35:35 Kristin Demoranville
It and it sounds like you're aware of it to the point where you're like, you know, we're going to get through it and it's going to be OK.
00:35:41 Kristin Demoranville
Which I love for you and most people don't have that attitude going into it.
00:35:45 Kristin Demoranville
It's just kind of like it hasn't happened to us. We're not that attractive. It's no big deal, but because you're a food company and in my opinion, makes you more of a target because you the damage could go further than the financial. It could go to disruptions with people could do a lot of damage along along the lines of rescuing data, for testing. It could do. You could.
00:36:05 Kristin Demoranville
Another package didn't know was contaminated all these.
00:36:07 Kristin Demoranville
Things is so much.
00:36:08 Kristin Demoranville
More to think about huge effect, yes.
00:36:10 Kristin Demoranville
Yes, and I don't think that.
00:36:13 Kristin Demoranville
Bad actors and nation state attacks.
00:36:16 Kristin Demoranville
Care. They will do whatever they gotta do to either make the money or cause the problem, so I applaud you for being super diligent already on that because it's going to serve you in the future. It's not a it's not an if it's going to happen and when it happens, unfortunately. Yeah. And we do have a failover plan as well. So no, it happens. Yeah.
00:36:35 Kristin Demoranville
That.
00:36:36 Camille Hardy
How do we pivot? How do we, you know, can't knock us completely out? What can we do with storing information? How can we? What is our plan around that? So I come from a technology or corporate or enterprise wide background. And so I'm applying those things just to have that level of preparation, even though we have.
00:36:49 Kristin Demoranville
Great.
00:36:53 Camille Hardy
We're small, but we.
00:36:54 Camille Hardy
I don't plan for us to be.
00:36:55 Camille Hardy
This way for.
00:36:56 Kristin Demoranville
For long, ever try and managing industrial cybersecurity risk with spreadsheets? Yeah, we've been there too at Anson, OT.
00:37:13 Kristin Demoranville
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00:37:52 Kristin Demoranville
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00:38:12 Kristin Demoranville
Process to help them stay operational, safe and resilient.
00:38:19 Kristin Demoranville
Well, that's good. So let's talk about the future of chunky vegan. Like what? What do we got to look forward to coming up from from?
00:38:25 Camille Hardy
Your team.
00:38:26 Camille Hardy
What's next? We're working on expanding our product line like I talked about earlier. So we do want to branch out into the senior area, but just overall nutrition as well for people who have gastrointestinal issues, you know, if they can't eat shoes, swallow it can't, it doesn't necessarily have to be for seniors.
00:38:46 Camille Hardy
We're also improving our packaging.
00:38:48 Camille Hardy
Partnering with local retailers to make sure our meals are even more accessible. So that's like in the immediate future. That's what we're currently working on now, just trying to get in a few stores, not trying to, you know, saturate the market, but we want to keep our just focus on like a boutique health Wellness stores. That's where we're starting for now. I see I think those.
00:39:07 Camille Hardy
Are like the immediate.
00:39:08 Kristin Demoranville
Future plans, and I suppose the people that are listening to this particular episode, want to know what flavors of food you already have. And I know they can go on the website, but let's.
00:39:17 Kristin Demoranville
Just tell them anyways.
00:39:18 Camille Hardy
Sure. So we have one of our best sellers is our our purple Okinawa sweet potato.
00:39:25 Camille Hardy
Deriving from Okinawa, Japan, it is. It's just a very simple recipe and that's like for our, you know, beginning beginner stage eaters like stage 1. So it's a puree. The the consistency is a puree form. The next thing we have our next bestseller is our coconut Curry lentils. A lot of mostly all of the food is infused with some.
00:39:44 Camille Hardy
Like the coconut Curry lentils, we infuse that with one of our signature ingredients called the veggie boost. And so that's just to add additional nutrients to the lentils, the quinoa and some of the hemp seeds that we have in there. It gives them an extra pack of iron and all of these other nutrients.
00:39:59 Camille Hardy
They need we have a butternut squash and sweet potato option, which is another hit with the with the youngsters and we have a black bean and optional sweet potato and.
00:40:09 Camille Hardy
We have a.
00:40:10 Camille Hardy
Strawberry Millet and a Peach Millet. So a lot of the ingredients that we use if you're if you're just listening to the ingredients, they are not like typical.
00:40:19 Camille Hardy
Ingredients we don't like to really tap into mass produced ingredients because those are the ones that are the heaviest in terms of chemically treated.
00:40:27 Camille Hardy
Even though we source our foods and produce from Amish farms, where we try to steal things, things that are different to create a wider palette for kids in terms of just flavours and tastes and just fresh. So it's the true food, the way it comes, no additives, no presents. And are you planning on expanding your flavor range coming up as well?
00:40:47 Camille Hardy
Absolutely. So you know our food and our flavors are season based. So we, you know, whatever is in peak season, you will be featuring whatever that fruit or that vegetable is in at the top of season. So you can like.
00:41:00 Camille Hardy
Summarize the flavor of of that in the upcoming season, so there's gonna always seasonally be something new that we're gonna be introducing. And as we test new flavors and we do focus groups a lot because that's very important, we probably will be adding in new staples. So the ones that I just talked to you about those.
00:41:18 Camille Hardy
Are all of our staple flavors.
00:41:19 Kristin Demoranville
Alright, I'm assuming you're gonna do some summer fruit to sauce.
00:41:22 Kristin Demoranville
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I love that you do focus groups as well. That's so important and that's another thing that is really interesting and complicated at times too, to get the right people to come in and help test. And when I worked at a food company, it was the employees that tested a lot, which I'm sure you do.
00:41:24 Kristin Demoranville
OK.
00:41:38 Kristin Demoranville
As well, but I don't ever want to eat frosting ever again like I am all set.
00:41:44 Camille Hardy
So much, right?
00:41:45 Kristin Demoranville
Or glaze, or any type of fruit filling or anything that exception bakery company and they would give it to you on a saltine cracker. And the only thing you could have was that was like a lot, a little cup of water. And it was just so much sugar that it, like, assaulted you literally. Your mouth was like, excuse me, this is gross, like, not not interested in this. And you had to rate it. There were like 3 different frostings and you'd rate.
00:41:50 Camille Hardy
OK.
00:42:06 Kristin Demoranville
Which one do you like the the best and end up being? Which one did I hate the?
00:42:09 Kristin Demoranville
Least I usually end up taking.
00:42:12 Kristin Demoranville
But I originally when I first started working, I was like, oh, it's so cool. I'm gonna taste ovarian cream today. And by the time you get to like, you know, whatever particular fruit they wanted you to taste at the end of the, you know, the few years I was there, I was like, I don't know, they never, like, I don't want to be here. I can't hear low. Yeah. Like it was not cool. Not cool at all, actually.
00:42:32 Kristin Demoranville
So wow. Yeah, it was interest.
00:42:33 Kristin Demoranville
Oh.
00:42:34 Kristin Demoranville
Just.
00:42:35 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah, they usually end up just grabbing the new people that they'd end up being the Guinea pigs and all the rest of us were there for a long time or like, absolutely not all my interns are anybody who came in on a contract was like I oh, did you try this? But I'm like, Oh my God, though, like, and The funny thing is I ran into an old friend of mine used to work there with me years ago. We're having drinks. And he said, I don't eat the cakes anymore.
00:42:56 Kristin Demoranville
I can't eat cake. I'm done. Like, that's a pomade. I can't. And this is homemade. I'm not touching it because it's all the store bought cake. So we were used to, and I was. Even if I smell that.
00:42:57 Camille Hardy
Since.
00:43:04 Kristin Demoranville
Frosting. I'm like drama.
00:43:07 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah, total trauma like absolutely not. But this is this has been so much fun. I really been actually enjoying this. I feel like I've just got super educated and I love that.
00:43:16 Kristin Demoranville
So as we're leaving, I want to ask you if you could change one thing about the food industry to support small businesses and startups better and even go beyond that female owners, what would you suggest?
00:43:27 Camille Hardy
Well, my one of my pain points. It's affordable cold chain shipping. Just trying to get.
00:43:34 Camille Hardy
You know, we don't have a we are selling our food right now locally because I haven't found a solution to get the product shipped outside of where we are locally in a reasonable amount of time. That's affordable. So in order for us to do that, we have to do expedited shipping. That's one of the biggest barriers of.
00:43:51 Camille Hardy
Getting fresh food.
00:43:51 Camille Hardy
To people if those costs.
00:43:54 Camille Hardy
Down more small businesses could thrive and we our reach would be a lot broader. But right now that is.
00:44:00 Camille Hardy
Mutation that prevents us from other people have access to our food. If there is a way that we could come up with some sort of effective cost effective, we wish to streamline that. That would be amazing for for people in this industry and in this business and for small businesses in this industry, especially since there's so many cold items that ship.
00:44:04 Kristin Demoranville
Yeah.
00:44:20 Kristin Demoranville
Cream chips. You can get a you can get pizza shipped. I mean, like, there's so many different items that can come in and out, but I never actually thought about the cold storage. It not only has transfer cold, but has to be stored in a warehouse. Cold. Yes. That's fascinating. Yeah. Excessive process. Yeah.
00:44:36 Kristin Demoranville
And especially since I mean it's one of those things that in order to grow, you're going to have to do that truthfully. That's really interesting. So anybody is in cold storage, a start working on that. I think one solution I came up with was just, you know as we grow, we would have to create a hub in the area that we're going to expand to.
00:44:54 Camille Hardy
So that it just allows us.
00:44:56 Camille Hardy
The ability to drive our.
00:44:58 Camille Hardy
Our food and our products where we need.
00:45:01 Kristin Demoranville
To take them.
00:45:02 Kristin Demoranville
But that's interesting because you'd have to expand into a new type of warehouse situation, and that's a whole lot of expense in itself. And then more employees, that's a whole lot of expense in itself and a whole other range of issues that comes with that. I'm sure that your vetting process is because your small business, you have to trust the people that are working with you, otherwise that's what's the point. So that's that's a whole other set of headaches. And then you'd have to hire people to manage those people. And then.
00:45:14 Camille Hardy
Nice.
00:45:26 Kristin Demoranville
The head of HR and all these other things, and that's now we're getting into corporate levels of weird and and then we kind of eliminate almost the the vision for the the business that's.
00:45:36 Kristin Demoranville
A lot. That's a lot to take.
00:45:37 Camille Hardy
And it's a lot to take in, I just feel.
00:45:39 Camille Hardy
Like I want to get.
00:45:41 Camille Hardy
This type of food in front of people I want to change the way that we think about nutrition for her. If it's in toddlers.
00:45:49 Camille Hardy
And if that.
00:45:49 Camille Hardy
Is what it will take then. That's what we are prepared to do. But this is beyond us. Just trying to mass.
00:45:57 Camille Hardy
Produce to get to a certain number, we really want to affect how kids are reacting and to food to fresh food to whole food. Yeah, cause right now they're excited about packaged food. And yes, sugar, a lot of sugar and those energy drinks are really super gross and.
00:46:11 Kristin Demoranville
Sure.
00:46:15 Kristin Demoranville
That's what would be really nice to actually introduce them and also I've how do we teach kids that it's OK to to be experimental with food and also, you know, you find you can like like it's OK, But I'll make it weird and make it accessible. How do we give them a plant their own food and not just, you know, whatever culture you live in, like, here's a bunch of other different types of ethnic dishes.
00:46:36 Kristin Demoranville
And I would get them there. So I applaud you for pushing forward this because this is a huge undertaking and again.
00:46:42 Kristin Demoranville
Hey I want to continue to push the conversations on this podcast to talk about the food industry because I want people to understand what it takes to be a food owner, to understand what it means to be in this space, especially if we mention all the hit all the bullet points, you know, food safety, distribution, cold storage, cyber security.
00:47:02 Kristin Demoranville
Incidents. How do I serve my customers? How do I continue to keep my ethics?
00:47:06 Kristin Demoranville
Place and still serve the public. Thank you for what you do and also I love that you're working with like the the industry in terms of research and understanding nutrients and all that other stuff. I can't even navigate the vitamin aisle. I mean, I do have like not very successfully. I don't think you know. And I think that that's the problem is that we've just made it.
00:47:24 Kristin Demoranville
So complicated. I mean the food.
00:47:26 Kristin Demoranville
It is the most complicated system on the planet.
00:47:28 Kristin Demoranville
We did that but.
00:47:29 Kristin Demoranville
To to have to as an adult now, think about all the different nutrients I'm not getting, and especially as we age and all those other things. But to start it at an early stage and start, you know, people off at the best possible way and also help them if they are in chronic illness or passing into the next life and all these other things, it's just so.
00:47:49 Kristin Demoranville
I just think it's cool, so I hope the listeners think it's cool too, because it's cool and so thank you very much for being here with us and sharing your story. It's been an absolute.
00:47:58 Camille Hardy
Pleasure, Kristin, and thank you for inviting me. I am very grateful to sit amongst you and all of your other amazing guests to just share my story. So I really appreciate it.
00:48:08 Camille Hardy
It's an honor.
00:48:16 Kristin Demoranville
On today's episode, a huge thank you to Camille for pulling back the curtain on a run. It really takes to build a food company that also stands for something. And thank you for hanging out with us and this conversation lit a fire in your creative.
00:48:29 Kristin Demoranville
Brain made you rethink your fridge or just entertain you on your commute, chores, workout, or wherever you were doing. Don't forget to like, share and drop us a comment. Every click helps the show grow and as always.
00:48:41 Kristin Demoranville
Stay safe. Stay curious and we'll see you on the next one. Bye for now.
