The basics:

• Cadootz launched nationwide at Target with school-friendly snack packs
• Nomie offers organic, shelf-stable meals for children ages 2 to 6
• Both brands aim to combine nutrition, convenience and kid-friendly taste
• Startups are targeting gaps in the growing kids’ food market

Two New Jersey brands are trying to take the stress out of feeding kids by offering healthier options designed to appeal to picky eaters while also giving parents more convenient choices.

As families settle back into the rhythm of school schedules, the start of a fresh academic year can be a chance to reset eating habits. It’s also a key moment for companies to connect with parents looking for easy ways to put healthier, kid-approved selections in lunchboxes and dinner tables.

That’s exactly why Millburn-based organic cheese cracker brand cadootz included a school-friendly snack pack format as part of its retail debut this summer at Target’s 2,000-plus stores nationwide. Hectic days are also what Jersey City startup Nomie had in mind with its newly launched line of organic, shelf-stable, just-add-water meals for children that can be eaten on the go.

NJBIZ recently talked with the parents who founded those companies about the inspiration behind their brands, gaps in the current market and changes they hope to bring to the kids’ food category.

Crunch time

Cadootz was born in 2023 after Rachel Mansfield and her husband, Jordan Carpenter, struggled to find snacks for their three boys that balanced convenience, taste and nutrition.

A cookbook author, recipe developer and content creator, Mansfield had already been making her own crackers at home and saw an opportunity to turn that idea into a product parents could easily grab off the supermarket shelf.

“Like so many businesses, cadootz started with a problem we were trying to solve in our own home. With three young boys, snacks are a big part of everyday life, and we constantly found ourselves wishing there were better options,” the Hillsborough native shared.

“We wanted something made with organic, whole-food ingredients that had protein, but also tasted good enough that our kids would actually ask for it. That became our mission from day one: taking the stress and guilt out of snack time by creating snacks kids crave and parents can genuinely feel good about serving,” she went on.

Designed as a healthier alternative to traditional snack aisle staples, the brand’s lineup of bite-sized protein-packed crackers come in three flavors: cheddar, sea salt and ranch. In addition to being certified organic, cadootz is gluten-free, nut-free, school-safe, kosher and made with extra virgin olive oil. It also contains no gums, emulsifiers, artificial dyes or natural flavors. The domestically produced brand is the first cracker to receive the Clean Label Project Purity Award.

Hitting shelves

Until recently, cadootz was mostly an online business, selling through its website and Amazon. And by tapping into Mansfield’s 1.5 million social media followers to get the word out, the brand has had a strong start.

In fact, cadootz sold out its first production run in less than two hours after launching online in January, the company said.

As part of its first brick-and-mortar distribution deal with Target, the brand’s traditional 4.23-ounce packages of all three flavors are available at the retailer’s stores and website. The individual snack packs are a Target exclusive that come eight to a box in cheddar and sea salt.

“Seeing cadootz on shelves at Target has been incredibly rewarding because it represents years of work, but what means the most is hearing from other parents,” Mansfield said. “When someone tells us their picky eater can’t get enough of cadootz, or that snack time has become just a little easier in their house, that’s the biggest win.”

‘An incredible milestone’

Carpenter added, “Launching nationally with Target just six months after introducing the brand has been an incredible milestone.”

“Target was always a retailer we admired because it’s where so many families already shop every week — my wife and I included,” he said. “But earning that opportunity meant building a product and a business that retailers could have confidence in … We spent years developing the product, understanding the category, building the right manufacturing relationships and creating a brand we believed could stand out on shelf.”

The Target partnership comes as cadootz looks to build on a recent $3 million-plus seed funding round led by Selva Ventures, a San Francisco-based early-stage investment firm focused on health, wellness and consumer packaged goods. As co-CEOs, Mansfield and Carpenter plan to use that capital to support their brand’s retail expansion and develop new formats and flavors.

Carpenter said, “Long term, our ambition is to build an enduring brand in the better-for-you snack space. We have exciting ideas for future products, but we’ll always stay focused on creating foods that solve real problems for families. We hope that in five years, cadootz is a brand parents instinctively reach for because they’ve come to trust us.”

A new start

While working in the better-for-you consumer packaged goods industry, Mansfield was also building a following on social media by sharing healthy recipes on the side. When her employer eventually saw the growing platform as a conflict of interest and let her go, she took it as a chance to go in a new direction.

Over the past decade, she has built a large online community around recipes and tips for busy families, written cookbooks and partnered with brands she believes in. Her content centers on making everyday meals and family life a bit easier for parents.

Carpenter officially joined Mansfield with her brand about five years ago after spending a decade working at New York City-based hedge funds and private equity firms in accounting and operations.

By 2022, they founded grt sht ventures, a fund designed to provide capital to startups “that have the ability to be around for the long term” in “the food, family, wellness space and beyond.”

While the couple wanted to find a healthy, kid-focused snack for their portfolio, they were unsuccessful in those searches. So, they decided to create one themselves.

“We spent years developing the product before launching because we knew if we were going to build a lasting brand, we had to get it right from day one,” Mansfield said.

‘A better solution’

As part of the nearly three-year process to transform Mansfield’s homemade cracker recipe into a bona fide snack brand, the duo worked with an R&D partner to turn the recipe into something that could be produced at scale.

Carpenter said, “Our experience investing in consumer brands also gave us insight into what successful retail partnerships look like and how to prepare for them … When we decided to build cadootz, we were able to apply those lessons to our own business.”

“One thing we’ve learned from building businesses is that consumers don’t need another product — they need a better solution. For us, that meant refusing to compromise. We weren’t willing to make something nutritious if kids didn’t love eating it, and we weren’t willing to make something delicious if it didn’t offer real nutritional value. Every ingredient has a purpose, every flavor went through countless rounds of testing, and everything comes back to creating a snack parents feel excited to buy again because their kids genuinely love it,” he said.

[Our sons are] our inspiration, our taste testers, and probably our most honest focus group.
– Rachel Mansfield, cadootz, co-founder

As for the name of the company, Mansfield said, “Like most parents, we’ve always had countless nicknames for our boys and ‘cadootz’ is a variation of one we’ve always called our youngest son, Cooper, who also happens to be our biggest snacker.”

“Since our children inspired this entire company, it felt fitting that the brand name came directly from our family,” she said, adding, “Our boys are 7, 5 and 3, and they’ve been part of this journey from the very beginning. They’re our inspiration, our taste testers, and probably our most honest focus group.”

Every decision matters

When it comes to challenges, Mansfield said the biggest is “balancing speed with patience.”

“As entrepreneurs, you’re naturally eager to move quickly, but building a food company requires a long-term mindset. There are countless decisions behind the scenes, from product development and sourcing to manufacturing and retail partnerships, and every one of them matters,” she said.

Mansfield went on, “At the same time, I am juggling my brand, our venture fund and raising our three beautiful boys, which is both our greatest motivation and our daily reminder of why we’re building this business in the first place. There is only so much of us to go around.”

Currently, cadootz has just two full-time employees – Mansfield and Carpenter.

“We’re intentionally operating with a lean team because it allows us to stay nimble and make thoughtful decisions as we grow. We also work with an incredible network of manufacturing, operations, marketing and retail partners who help us scale efficiently while staying focused on building a strong foundation,” Mansfield said

Easy meals on the go

Meanwhile, Nomie is tackling the dinner-hour challenge with meals designed to make it easier for parents to serve something nutritious to their little ones. Available in convenient, shelf-stable pouches, Nomie’s organic lineup of butternut mac & cheese, zucchini pesto pasta, and black beans & rice can be made in about 10 minutes by adding hot water.

Besides vegetables, each meal contains a balance of protein, fiber and healthy fats in an age-appropriate portion size. There are also no preservatives, artificial flavors, seed oils, added sugar or excessive sodium.

Geared toward kids between the ages of 2 and 6, Nomie aims to give parents another choice beyond frozen meals, traditional pouches or takeout. And while Nomie strives to offer a solution for parents after long workdays, it can also be an option for long car rides, plane trips, and after school activities because the meals don’t require a refrigerator or microwave.

Nomie kicked off direct-to-consumer sales via its website in June and expects shipments to begin later this month. The price ranges from $24.99 for a three-pack to $31.96 for a four-pack to $63.92 for an eight-pack to $95.88 for a 12-pack.

By the end of 2026, the brand is slated to hit Amazon.com. After that, it’s eyeing a push into retail with a focus first on regional natural and specialty stores.

‘No one else was building it’

Before starting Nomie, Roopa Annadatha spent 15 years managing operations and supply chain at corporations like Apple, Microsoft and Peloton. There, she gained valuable experience in bringing new products to market at scale.

“At Apple, the standard was that every touchpoint had to earn the customer’s trust — that shaped how I think about quality and experience. At Peloton, I watched a brand build real community loyalty by solving a genuine problem in people’s lives, not just selling them something,” she said.

After her son became a toddler and started eating real meals, Annadatha was frequently torn between wanting to feed him well but not always having the time to cook. As a result, she’d often reach for foods that didn’t give him the nutrition he needed.

“As a mom of two, I saw how quickly healthy intentions fall apart on busy weekdays and travel days, when you’re stuck choosing between convenience and real nutrition. I tried frozen kids’ meals, but I had to remember to order them, and they weren’t made for on-the-go. I tried boxed mac and cheese, but wanted something more substantial,” she said. “Eventually I was just cooking from scratch every night.”

The idea for Nomie came after an eight-hour flight during which her 18-month-old son essentially ate Goldfish and pretzels. That’s when Annadatha decided to come up with something that was as easy to grab as a snack but was actually a complete meal.

“There are nearly 19 million children in the U.S. between ages 2 and 6 and virtually no purpose-built organic meal solution for them,” she said. “I built Nomie because I needed it and no one else was building it.”

A new kind of meal

Annadatha said she spent a year working with families and pediatric nutritionists to create a complete meal packed with protein, fiber and veggies that require zero cooking.

Getting to a product that balanced taste, nutrition, cost and texture while sourcing certified-organic ingredients and finding a manufacturer with the necessary certifications and equipment took substantial research and development work, she said.

To make its meals shelf-stable without relying on refrigeration or conventional high-heat processing, Nomie uses a gentle cooking and freeze-drying process. Production occurs in New Jersey right now but will move to a co-manufacturer in Missouri as the company scales, according to Annadatha.

“The format matters as much as the nutrition. Freeze-drying preserves about 95% of the nutritional value of fresh ingredients while removing the moisture that requires refrigeration, so adding hot water simply rehydrates real food,” she said. “That means Nomie goes where other meals can’t – the airplane, the hotel room, the road trip, the cabin with no microwave.”

“It’s also a complete meal, so parents don’t have to piece one together on a busy night or do the mental math of protein, fiber and vegetables themselves. And the 2–6 age window itself is the gap: it’s been almost entirely ignored by the food industry, which hands parents a choice between processed pouches and an hour in the kitchen. Nomie is the first organic, complete pantry meal built for that age group and for what parenting actually looks like day to day,” she said.

Applying her corporate background

Annadatha credits her corporate background as “a big part of why Nomie works the way it does.”

“Building a just-add-water format that’s also the most nutrient-preserving process available for a pantry meal took a long time to get right and it drew directly on everything I’d learned about sourcing, scale and never cutting corners on quality,” she said.

“Because our process is so unique, very few manufacturers could even take it on, so we’ve had to learn everything the hard way, from sourcing partners to adapting recipes for scale without ever compromising our ingredients or organic certification. Operations is the difference between a great idea and a product that ships on time and tastes the same in batch 47 as it did in batch one,” Annadatha went on.

Over the next year, Annadatha hopes to get Nomie in “retail environments where parents are already shopping.”

“That’s the natural next step after we’ve spent this first stretch learning directly from families through getnomie.com. I’d also love to have grown beyond our three launch meals, Mac, ZuZu, and Beanie, to give families more variety to feed their kids without ever compromising on being organic and complete,” she shared.

Five years out, Annadatha hopes Nomie will grow to offer a full lineup of SKUs that are “the trusted, go-to pantry meal for families nationally.”

When it came time to name the venture, Annadatha said the title stems from how her toddler used to pronounce the word “yummy” when he was just starting to speak.

“It sounded like ‘nummy.’ I thought it was so cute and started playing around with variation and stuck on Nomie,” she explained. “So, he’s the inspiration behind the product and the name.”

Tackling picky eaters

Annadatha doesn’t have any direct employees right now. But she works with several contractors, including a design team handling graphics, packaging and the website; a fractional marketing partner working on outreach; and a public relations group focused on building visibility and credibility.

“I have made so many incredible connections over the past year while getting Nomie off the ground and they have all helped me get to where I am now … I have a strong community around me and can only imagine how I will feel when I get to build a team around Nomie,” she said.

As the force behind the company, Annadatha said, “Some days it’s a lot. Building Nomie has meant early mornings before school drop-off, calls during nap time, and pitching investors from my kids’ playroom.”

She continued, “Here’s the thing nobody tells you about starting a company with a toddler at home: the problem you’re solving shows up at dinner every single night. There’s no separating the work from parenting — my kids are my taste testers and my reminder of why this has to exist. Some days that’s the fuel that keeps everything moving.”

In fact, Annadatha said one of the most exciting aspects of her entrepreneurial journey has been seeing how much her 3-year-old son and 1-year-old daughter enjoy the meals.

“They’re my taste testers, so long before anyone else saw Nomie, I got to watch two of the pickiest critics I know dig into these meals without a fight. That’s how I knew I was on the right path to solving this problem. Now that we’re hearing the same thing from other families — parents telling us how easy it’s been for them, or that it saved a flight or a hotel stay with no kitchen,” she said. “That’s the most rewarding part. It’s proof this isn’t just my family’s problem, it’s every family’s problem, and we’re actually fixing it.”