Small Goole business offering weaning advice and support goes national during lockdown

Our monthly feature on one of the winners of this year’s Goole & Howdenshire Business Excellence Awards continues with our focus this month on Yorkshire Born Yorkshire Fed, which offers weaning information workshops, ideal for parents of babies aged three to eight months.

Sessions are run in community venues across Yorkshire. Workshops for groups of mums can also be delivered from the comfort of your own home, ideal for a group of mummy friends.

Our Goole chatted to Sophie Ross-Briggs from Yorkshire Born Yorkshire Fed, which was crowned the winner of Innovative Business of the Year. The winner of this award had to have the best overall business product or service demonstrating creativity and innovation.

When was the business set up?
The business launched on Yorkshire Day (August 1st) 2018, and was initially set up as a baby food business, providing fresh meals with local Yorkshire food to support busy parents. It soon became clear that many new parents were bamboozled with weaning and all the conflicting information available online. This is where our weaning workshops began; sharing years of expertise and knowledge on how best to wean your baby, making the process as simple and enjoyable as possible.

What services do you provide?
We provide weaning advice and support for parents, teaching them everything they need to know about introducing solid food to their little ones. We offer this in groups sessions from public venues, i.e. soft plays and child-friendly coffee shops, and we also deliver sessions for groups of mummy (and daddy) friends, as well as follow-up support via our private Facebook group.

What makes you proud of your business?
I love the way it has evolved and I have helped so many families. I feel proud to have made my business work and grow while working from home with two kids under three as a full-time mum!

Did you enjoy your night at the awards?
The business awards was my first (and only) ‘night out’ since having my little girl Liberty.  I was lucky enough to be on the Filplastic table and had a throughly enjoyable night.

How did it feel to win Innovative Business of the year?
I was shocked! To be up against such big names and fantastic businesses, I couldn’t believe such a small business could win!

What makes you stand out?
I am really passionate about infant feeding. I worked for the NHS for 10 years and my speciality was working in the children’s centres delivering and training staff around healthy eating and weaning, so I have a great deal of knowledge and experience. Our workshops acknowledge that there are guidelines around weaning, however, we also value that every child and family is different and try to empower women to make informed decisions rather than tell them what to do.

What are your plans for the upcoming year?
Whilst I have been on Maternity Leave I have managed to take on five trainers who are delivering weaning workshops over Yorkshire. With the lockdown we have moved our session online so have accidentally gone national, and have even had someone book on from Canada! We were just launching our new Weaning Party, which will be for children aged six months plus and will cover fussy eating and trying new things. It will include lots of tasters – but obviously this can only launch when we can see people face to face. We are also launching an online Vegan Workshop.  I hope to continue with the online sessions, but also can’t wait to get back to my amazing venues.

For more information visit the company’s Facebook page @YorkshireBornYorkshireFed