Jennifer Garner is opening up about her decision to launch Once Upon a Farm.
The actress, 47, joined Forbes’ senior editor Dawn Chmielewski at the magazine’s Women Summit in New York City on Tuesday and chatted about why she co-founded the company.
Once Upon a Farm makes organic cold-pressed baby food, as well as smoothies and applesauce for kids.
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“It really all started with my mom,” Garner revealed. “My mom grew up super poor in Oklahoma, on a little farm in Locust Grove. … I grew up in West Virginia, where I was surrounded by generational and real intractable poverty. I was aware of my cousins’ lives versus mine, the kids around me, their lives versus mine.”
And because of that, Garner joined forces with Save The Children to focus on helping young children who are living in poverty.
“When we think of kindergarten readiness in Manhattan or Los Angeles, it pretty much means reading. Maybe they even know some Spanish,” she said. “But in our country at large, it’s not knowing the alphabet, it’s knowing that there is an alphabet. It’s not being able to read a book—it’s knowing books exist.”
“But in the process of all that, we see hungry kids,” she added. “I’m a mom with three kids who nursed and pumped all over the world, probably in this bathroom here. I tried so hard to make my kids’ baby food – and I have help – and it sucked.”
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That’s when she decided to launch Once Upon a Farm.
“I can’t just feed kids in Manhattan, Connecticut and Beverly Hills. That doesn’t ring true for me. Becoming WIC-approved was our mission,” she said. “The food available for babies in WIC …. it looks like cat food. How can we feed a baby something you won’t touch with a 10-foot pole?”
Read more from Garner here.
