Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Thompson.
Hi Sarah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
We started Honey Child Artisan Pops after a chance encounter with an ice cream truck. It was a warm spring day in Chicago. We were walking our daughters home from school when we realized that we were trapped. The ice cream truck stood between us and our path home. We searched the menu board for the least troubling option but found that anything we chose was going to cause a sugar rush followed by a crash. We walked home, treats in hand wondering why we couldn’t find delicious treats without all that sugar and dairy. Not only that, but we wondered why we couldn’t find alternatives that included nutrient-dense ingredients, superfoods and plant-based proteins. We couldn’t find what we were looking for in the marketplace, so we decided to make them ourselves.
After moving to Cincinnati we decided to make our dream into a reality. We took the recipes that we had been developing in our home kitchen and moved into the commercial facility at Findlay Kitchen. Through their mentorship and with a lot of hard work on our part, we have grown our small business to include 4 mobile pop carts and have pops for sale in a variety of regional and local retailers such as Clifton Market and Whole Foods Market. You can find our carts throughout the greater Cincinnati area in warm-weather months and at grocery retailers year-round.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Damien Thompson is a professional food photographer with a background in marketing and design. Sarah Thompson is a former professional dancer with a background in fitness and herbal medicine. We decided to pool our strengths and create a family business together. Though we were no strangers to hard work, neither of us had founded a food business before. We were complete novices and had/have so much to learn. All businesses faced challenges with the Covid 19 Pandemic. As it was only our 2nd year in business, we adjusted by adding local delivery, pickup, shipping in the midwest and started selling through grocery retailers.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a family business who seeks to create community through the joy of healthy eating. We make delicious frozen pops from whole blended fruit that contain superfood ingredients, plant based protiens and adaptogens. Our pops are naturally free from dairy, gluten, soy and cane sugar! Though there are other full fruit pops out there our pops are formulated more like fortified smoothies. They are like a smoothie on a stick.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
Yes! Right after we moved to Cincinnati we took part in Co-Starters Kitchen Edition- a food startup workshop hosted by Arts Wave and Findlay Kitchen. It was a fantastic program. We learned so much during that time. Since then we have been honored to be a part of the Findlay Kitchen collective. We get to make our product alongside other food entrepreneurs. The inspiration, passion and commitment at Findlay Kitchen really help us keep going when the times get tough. Findlay Kitchen also provides mentorship which has helped us every step of the way. We are also grateful for SCORE. We were able to be partnered with some great business mentors who helped us get organized when we were first starting out.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@honeychildpops.com
- Website: www.honeychildpops.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/honeychildpops
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/honeychildpops
Image Credits
Damien Thompson Photography
