Mum quit sales job to launch child food firm
AMOTHER from Dorset gave up her job in sales to create her own food business after she found that her son’s allergies made it hard for her to buy food suitable for him to eat.
Cherrelle Beckitt is the founder of The Family Food Co which produces nutritious food that children will love, but also easy for busy parents to cook.
The mother of one discovered that her young son Louie had multiple food allergies early on, which made the already tricky world of weaning even harder to navigate.
Her worries around allergies meant that she cooked everything herself from scratch so that she knew that Louie was eating high-quality food that was safe for him.
As a time-poor parent having to spend a huge amount of time cooking, Cherrelle said: “During the first lockdown I was absolutely knackered. I was up every two hours, suffering from severely broken sleep.
“Whilst I was on maternity leave after working in sales for almost 20 years, being a mum was by far the most exhausting job I’ve ever experienced.”
So she decided to look into convenience food options but was shocked by her findings.
She discovered that, according to Public Health England, 20% of children aged two to four are overweight or obese. And data from the British Dental Association on a survey of 109 children’s food pouches revealed they contain sugar levels equivalent to 150% of a soft drink.
So Cherrelle decided to create The Family Food Co, to try to tackle the childhood obesity crisis.
When creating the meals, Cherrelle said: “I regularly ask myself ‘would I feed this food to Louie?’ If the answer is no then it’s not good enough. This keeps me focused on sourcing only the best produce from the best local suppliers.”
Cherrelle knew she needed to work with an expert so teamed up with paediatric dietitian Lucy Upton to approve the recipes for the meals and develop a resource library of weaning and feeding support factsheets and social media posts.
Now, two years after Cherrelle’s business idea was first envisioned, The Family Food Co is a multi-award winning children and family meal delivery company feeding families all over the UK.
With more than 4,000 followers on Instagram and a flow of loyal customers, the business is continuing to grow.
“We want The Family Food Co to help eradicate parent guilt,” says Cherrelle, “In today’s society we’re expected to work, raise children, cook, and clean for our families, but it’s simply not possible.
“It’s easy to get bogged down and feel like a terrible parent when you have to feed your child a ready meal because you’re too exhausted to cook from scratch, but now you can do so without the guilt and with the knowledge that the convenient food you’re feeding your child is 100% balanced and dietitian-approved.”