By Taylor Hood
Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
WWR Article Summary (tl;dr) Yummy Spoon was voted “Product of the Year” by the nation’s largest-volume retailers, such as Target, CVS and Walgreens, among others, at the Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing Tradeshow in Orlando, Fla. Hundreds of products were presented at the show, representing six categories. Yummy Spoon was voted first overall.
Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
A one-handed, self-dispensing spoon for babies? Yes, please.
Parents can understand. Especially if they have kids who are close in age. The phone is ringing, the oven is smoking, older brother is writing on the walls and baby is wailing for food. Parenting can be overwhelming, to say the least.
That’s why when something comes along that makes it a bit easier, people tend to notice. That’s exactly what University of New Mexico alumnus and Albuquerque entrepreneur Gina Cormier has done with the Yummy Spoon.
The spoon is a simple children’s spoon made from BPA-free, food-grade silicone. The handle is a large balloon-shaped pad with a cap on the end. After removing the cap, the owner simply places whatever he or she wants into the spoon, from yogurt to bananas. Then a slight squeeze and the food is pushed out into the spoon for easy access for baby.
Yummy Spoon was born of experience. “I was mixing up my son’s food and I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it would be so much easier if I could just mix this banana in the actual spoon and then just feed him with one device,'” Cormier told the Journal. Her brother encouraged her to make a prototype. That’s when the real work began.
“In my eyes it was just going to be so easy. OK, I’ll just take my idea and I’ll just go to a plastics mold. … But that’s not the case, obviously,” Cormier said.
Everything from packaging to production took hours of research.
“I’ve learned so much about food-grade silicone and what can go in dishwashers, or microwaves, or freezers,” Cormier said. “As a stay-at-home mom, I knew I wanted it to be easily cleanable, BPA-free and that you could transport it easily.”
Cormier manages to keep her friendly attitude despite the massive workload that she faces daily. She is the mother of three small children, an entrepreneur, a long-distance runner and the girls soccer coach at Sandia Prep.
Like many small startups, Cormier’s is operated from her home. What is rare about Cormier’s business is the success that it has met.
Last year, Yummy Spoon was voted “Product of the Year” by the nation’s largest-volume retailers, such as Target, CVS and Walgreens, among others, at the Efficient Collaborative Retail Marketing Tradeshow in Orlando, Fla. Hundreds of products were presented at the show, representing six categories. Yummy Spoon was voted first overall.
It was also named one of the Top Nine inventions of 2016 by Georgia Tech.
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The Yummy Spoon sells for $19.99, and a two-pack is available for $25.99. A portion of all sales go to the Yummy Support Program, which provides nutritious meals to hungry children.
Yummy Spoon is sold on Amazon and at www.yummyspoon.com.
