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MOTHERS IN FOOD EMANATING POWER
By Matt Robinson
Though March is generally International Women’s Month, we at F&B like to stay ahead of the curve by providing a platform to some of the strongest, most progressive women in the industry. “I think it’s a great thing that awareness continues to be raised on the underlying discrepancies in the food and beverage industry that in some areas are historically male dominated,” says Kara Landau, CEO and founder of the “functional” snacking brand Uplift Food (https://upliftfood. com). When she was working as a consultant in the food industry, Landau admits that she, “never even thought about the fact that my gender was playing a positive or negative role.” When she launched her own businesses, however, she says that it became, “significantly more evident that I was part of a minority simply due to my gender.” “I find as a woman with a new company, it has been difficult to get others to take me seriously and to understand my vision,” adds Brittany Baker, CEO of the allergy-sensitive baking company FOMO (https://fomobaking.com). By way of example, Baker recalls when she went looking for space for her dedicated allergen-free commercial kitchen, “there were many landlords who were unwilling to take a chance on a female owned start-up.” In fact, she also recalls more than one male landlord asking if her husband or father could come to help negotiate and finalize the deal. “It felt insulting and almost comical,” says the former lawyer, noting that one landlord went so far as to try to explain to her what a percentage was. Many female food entrepreneurs have faced similar challenges. Award-winning plant-based chef Joanne Young (www.thehealingcuisine.com/) suggests that, “most of those challenges are found in the back of the house in restaurant kitchens, where male dominance has been the norm.”
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Mona Ahmad of Mona’s Currynations (www. monascurryations.com) - a line of restaurantinspired, clean-ingredient frozen Pakistani and Indian meals - has also noticed few women, especially minority women such as herself, are in senior roles in food manufacturing. She is grateful that the factory her company utilizes has a female manager and production team who work from 7AM to 2PM so that they can all have appropriate worklife balance.
“I find as a woman with a new company, it has been difficult to get others to take me seriously and to understand my vision,” - Brittany Baker
“Partnering with this female team,” Ahmad suggests, “has made it easier to communicate and understand what we are trying to achieve.” Brittany Baker and her co-founder of Littlemore (https://littlemoreorganics.com) are still working full-time in demanding jobs while also running this new business. In addition, Joana Fraser is a practicing pediatrician with Boston Children’s Hospital and a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. Fraser’s partner, Lauren Bain, is an MBA with a background in finance and management consulting. In addition to having challenging jobs, they have five children under the age of five. While they admit to being “insanely busy,” they both conclude that they “wouldn’t have it any other
