August 15 • 2019 41
jn
Recipe for Success
Desire for gluten-free baked goods led to business.
W
hen Jessica Mindell started
Jessica’
s Natural Foods in
2009, she never expected
it to be something she would still be
doing 10 years later. The company has
grown from its roots in Mindell’
s home
in Birmingham to sales in more than
30 states and is featured in major gro-
cery store chains such as Whole Foods
and Wegman’
s. All the company’
s
products are gluten-free.
Mindell has an engineering degree
from the University of Michigan but
has always had a passion for baking.
During college, she worked one hol-
iday season at Zingerman’
s in Ann
Arbor where she worked in a commer-
cial bakery.
After working for a number of years
in engineering, Mindell quit her job
and began baking full time.
The inspiration for her company
came shortly after learning that her
husband has a gluten intolerance.
Mindell’
s love for baking combined
with the limited availability of glu-
ten-free baked goods led her to begin
experimenting in her own kitchen.
Eventually, she began taking small
batches of her oat-based granola to
local stores who agreed to sell them.
When perfecting her recipes,
Mindell would often make little
containers of the granola with small
tweaks made to each container. She
would number the containers and give
them to friends and family, asking
them to report back to her what they
liked best.
Mindell, a mother of two, one of
whom attends preschool at Temple
Beth El in Bloomfield Township,
often
jokes that the company was her first
child. She will also be the first to admit
she didn’
t quite know what she was
doing in the beginning.
“I didn’
t have a formal business
plan,” she said. “When I was going to
stores and offering samples, one store
said they would take a case of each, so
I had to go home and figure out how
to make an invoice. All the stores are
so supportive of local businesses.”
This year, on its 10th anniversary,
Jessica’
s Natural Foods got re-certified
as a woman-owned business through
the Women’
s Business Enterprise
National Council (WBENC).
“I am really proud of being woman-
owned,” Mindell said. “It’
s a great way
to connect with other small wom-
en-run businesses.”
In the 10 years since its conception,
Jessica’
s Natural Food’
s product line
has expanded to include syrups and
mixes for gluten-free baked goods.
“
All the products I have are based on
needs for my family in my own life,”
Mindell said. “My daughter wouldn’
t
drink milk, so I created the strawber-
ry syrup to make it taste better. We
wanted to get the kids on a gluten-free
diet, but many gluten-free products are
rice-based, which has a lot of arsenic.
I wanted to create mixes that were not
rice-based to cut down on the amount
of arsenic my kids were getting.”
Mindell does not have a set business
plan for the future but says she believes
future products will also be based
upon her family’
s needs. ■
To learn more about the company or purchase
products, visit jessicasnaturalfoods.com.
JESSIE COHEN JN INTERN
COURTESY OF JESSICA MINDELL
Jessica Mindell
Member FDIC
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