It was the scariest moment of my life by far.
My daughter Vivian, her lips began to swell and she turned blue in our living room.
We ended up having to rush her to the hospital.
It's something I wouldn't wish upon any parent ever.
That's when I really understood the severity of food allergies.
My name is Denise Woodard, and I'm the founder of Partake Foods.
I am a Mom to a child with severe food allergies.
Viviy, have you been in an ambulance before?
Yes, because I couldn't breath.
You couldn't breathe?
No.
Her food allergies affect every aspect of our life.
Everytime you walk out the door, check to make sure you have four EpiPen's,
make sure you know where the nearest doctor is.
When we want to go out to eat I'm calling the restaurant days in advance,
because it just takes one bite of food to affect someone who has food allergies.
I'm making some Rainbow Soup.
Butter...
I tasted it. It's yummy!
Food allergies are a growing problem.
Food allergies in kids has more than doubled over the past ten years.
It's incredibly hard to shop for kids with food allergies,
so I quit my job to start Partake.
Partake Foods is a line of allergy-friendly snacks.
Everthings free of the top eight allergens, but most importantly delicious.
A cookie to a kid is enjoyment,
This is actually our newest flavor.
it's happiness, it's a big smile typically,
and we figured if there was a way that we could make them safe for nearly everyone and enjoyable it's life changing.
Qutting my job to start Partake, I would say scary is an understatement.
Laughs
Without Google I don't know if Partake would exist today.
I use Google Sheets for all of our inventory.
We literally determine all of our blog content from using Google Trends,
and we use Google Ads to help people discover our products and grow our E-commerce business.
By the end of this year we'll have five full-time employees.
We've gone from selling 150,000 cookies last year to over a million this year,
and we're looking to finish the year in 2000 stores.
Which one's your favorite?
All of them.
All of them?
I think that Vivian's food allergies have actually made us closer.
The Motherly love, how strong it is...
I heard a quote about, "It's your heart constantly walking outside of your body."
and I think that couldn't be more true.
Cheers, cheers.
I want food allergy Moms like me to see our brand and say,
"Phew, this is something that's safe, that tastes good, that I'm happy to share with my child."
I think mission accomplished so far.
Messy hands high-five.