Nurse ‘Delivers’ New Baby Food Company
REPURPOSED HARDWARE STORE NOW BURSTING WITH A DIFFERENT FLAVOR
There is fresh life in a historic hardware store in downtown Kaukauna.
The building sat defunct until last year when the owner began an extensive renovation of the historic hardware store. The building, located at the corner of State Highway 55 and Crooks Avenue, was erected in 1889 by Julius Kuehn, a blacksmith who later served as the city’s mayor. In 1911, it became Fred Merbach’s hardware store, then later Kaukauna Hardware until it was shuttered in the ’90s.
The Little Food Company, a local mom-owned business that creates organic, locally-sourced baby food purées, now calls the historic space home. The brainchild of Amanda Santoro, the Little Food Company provides nutritious and convenient baby food.
Santoro has four children, ages 26, 17, 14, and 4, and has been a registered nurse for 20 years. She worked for years as a labor and delivery nurse and enjoyed helping hundreds of mothers deliver and feed their new babies.
Santoro made homemade baby food for her first three children because she was at home with them and enjoyed providing them with fresh and nutritious foods in the first crucial years of their development.
“When we were blessed with our fourth baby, Jake, he was born at 25 weeks, and it changed everything,” Santoro says.
As a mother to a premature infant, Santoro was concerned about ensuring that her baby still received as many nutrients to supplement what he would have received in utero. She was determined to provide him with nutrient-packed baby food when he transitioned into solid foods.
At the time, San toro also held down a full-time job and decided to try grocery-store baby food. “I figured things must have improved in the decade since I had my last baby!” Santoro says, laughing. When she went to the store to look for healthy, natural baby food, “nothing had changed.”
Santoro was disappointed to find highly-processed pouches diluted with water and packed with “fillers and additives that significantly deplete their nutritional content. I was just amazed that there is frozen, fresh dog food in coolers at the store, and nothing comparable for babies.”
After significant research into nutrients for babies and available products, and armed with motherly instinct and her experience as a labor and delivery nurse, Santoro concluded that feeding babies homemade, natural and local food is the best possible start for a child.
With time a limited resource, Santoro figured she could not be the only working mother concerned about the lack of local and natural options for baby food. Her disappointment in the options at the grocery store sparked her inspiration for starting the Little Food Company. Santoro was driven to try to provide other busy moms a fresh, natural babyfood option that they could feel good about giving to their children.
“I'm excited to introduce our wholesome and convenient baby food to health-conscious parents who want the best for their little ones.” Santoro says.
Amanda Santoro, founder Little Food Company. Contributed photo
'This writer and her 2-year-old sampled watermelon/carrot, apple/fennel/date and pea/fennel/pear. The purées have the consistency of a rich sorbet and are bursting with flavor. “Mm, nummy ice cream!” proclaimed my 2-year-old.'
BEGAN AT FARMERS MARKETS
Santoro launched the Little Food Company at area farmer’s markets and has been utterly overwhelmed by the response.
“I am the only one doing this in the whole state of Wisconsin,” she says. The Little Food Company has experienced expansive growth since its inception in 2017.
“I am so fortunate to have a lot of people interested in what I am doing,” she says.
She has received support from several area organizations, including grant funding and mentorship from CAP Services, Doyenne Group, gBeta, Midday Women’s Alliance and the Wisconsin Food and Beverage Capacity Accelerator Program. The Little Food Company is featured on “Project Pitch It” starting in March on WBAY-TV in Green Bay. “Project Pitch It” is a local show styled after “Shark Tank” where judges receive pitches from three Wisconsin entrepreneurs.
“Everyone is a winner, but you’ll have to tune in to see how we did!” she says. The show prizes include $10,000, classes through Cardinal Stritch and several networking and mentorship opportunities. The Little Food Company’s episode will air at 12:30 p.m. March 23.
The Little Food Company moved to the Kaukauna hardware store location in November 2018 Of the location and renovation, Santoro says that she “was fortunate to be able to have input throughout the building’s renovation process, and the result of the collaboration is a beautiful FDA-inspected commercial kitchen that was custom-built for The Little Food Company.”
With original wood floors and a beautiful stamped metal ceiling with black-and-white-patina that runs the length of the space, the renovation has brought new life to the downtown. (The building is listed under “Kuehn Blacksmith Shop-Hardware Store” on both the National and State registers of historic places because the State Historical Society considers it “one of the finest examples of commercial Romanesque Revival architecture in Kaukauna. Few commercial buildings in the city retain their original storefront or have an intact stamped metal ceiling.” The space also houses a small back workroom and a sunny storefront space with a kids’ play kitchen and table, a large adult-sized table, a freezer stocked with fl at-packed baby purées and bright yellow barn doors that open into the kitchen.
Santoro reports she follows strict food safety regulations, which keeps the facility closed to the public during food manufacturing. Santoro enjoys opening the storefront for order pickups, tours, tastings and baby cafes during the pop-up hours as posted on The Little Food Company’s Facebook @littlefoodcompany and Instagram @ALittleFoodCo.
Santoro personally sources all ingredients and strives to stay as local as possible. She supports nearby organic farmers and small businesses by purchasing in-season, local produce and other premium quality ingredients. Although looking to expand her wholesale accounts, Santoro says that “there is a limited selection of purées currently available in store at The Free Market (Appleton), Pasture & Plenty (Madison) and Willy Street Co-Op North & West (Madison).” For customers seeking a wide variety of menu items, Santoro recommends the online convenient subscription packages through her website www.LittleFood.co “which are great baby shower gifts or gifts for a new mom.”
Santoro’s flavor combinations are inspired. The purées range from classic (apple/banana, sweet potato, butternut squash, pear) to sophisticated (pea/fennel/pear, apple/avocado/amaranth, eggplant/pear/plum).
“The more in-season an ingredient, the more flavorful and nutritious it is, since it has not been sitting out for a long time,” she says. The variety of flavors The Little Food Company offers also helps to develop babies’ palates and appetites for healthy foods by exposing them to new flavors at crucial developmental stages.
Although billed as baby food, the purées are not confined to infants. “I still feed them to my 4-year-old; and I even have some adult clients who top their yogurt or oatmeal with my purées!” Santoro says. (Indeed, this writer and her 2-year-old sampled watermelon/carrot, apple/fennel/date and pea/fennel/pear.
The purées have the consistency of a rich sorbet and are bursting with flavor. “Mm, nummy ice cream!” proclaimed my 2-year-old.)
Over the past year, Santoro has scaled back at her nursing job. “I went from full time to part time last August, and I just left part-time work in January,” she says.
Santoro is excited about concentrating on The Little Food Company’s growth and being able to be present for her family. Her passion for the business is palpable as she describes her focus on growing the company within Wisconsin.
“I am really enjoying showcasing Wisconsin’s flavors for local babies,” she says. Indeed, The Little Food Company has partnered with baby models from around Wisconsin to market their products.
“Who better to be the face of the Little Food Company than real babies?” she says.
“I really enjoy making these babies little celebrities in their communities and it helps to connect Wisconsinites not only to The Little Food Company, but to local flavors,” she says. “I want to provide real food for local babies.”
