Like many entrepreneurs, Paola Loot-Bronfman started her business by fulfilling a personal need. In 2010 she was preparing to return to her job in Ateneo de Manila after having given birth to her first child, her daughter Sjofn. Concerned that Sjofn wouldn’t have enough milk to drink while she was at work and being a researcher by profession, she began looking for the best way to boost her milk supply so that she would be able to pump enough to store for her child while she was away. This led to her discovering lactation treats.
Paola and two of her daughters, Sjofn and Semira.
“I started with the most basic most widely used recipe for lactation treats,” she said. Being from a family of bakers, Paola chose to tweak the recipe a little, using less sugar as a preference and experimenting with different galactagogues (natural milk making ingredients like oats and fenugreek) to create treats she was happy to consume.
“At first it was just for me, but then later as I made mommy friends and when other friends gave birth that year, it became my standard present at baby showers or as a form of congratulations on the baby’s arrival, and then one of my friends said ‘why don’t you sell it?’ And Mommy Treats grew from there.”
Firing up the milk train
Her lactation brownies remain one of her best sellers.
In a candid interview with Mommy Mundo, which was aired on IGTV, Paola recounts how she began just baking at home, setting up a website and social media pages, and figuring out e-commerce by herself. She fondly narrates how she first joined a Mommy Mundo event, setting up a single table as her booth. “I didn’t know what I was doing. I literally just put my treats on the table, and then people started inquiring, asking about them, eating them, enjoying them. And I had to tell dads and kids that these were lactation treats, but that they could eat them too. Those were always the funny conversations because they’re not sure if they should be eating them,” she said laughing. (For the record, lactation treats can be enjoyed by anyone of any age! If you happen to be a breastfeeding mother then they simply give the benefit of increasing your milk supply.)
That first event turned into two, then three, then four, until she was a staple vendor at Mommy Mundo events. With her fast growing customer base, she refined her website, hired baking assistants, and found ways to better streamline the processes from production to delivery. Soon she began collaborating with other brands to create other types of treats, such as lactation ice cream (a collaboration with Merry Moo).
Without her realising it Mommy Treats became the Philippine pioneer in lactation treats. Many other bakeries and businesses have followed suit, a fact that Paola says with pride. “I am glad that people started copying the business idea. First, competition keeps you on your toes. Second, it helps spread awareness on breastfeeding and its benefits for both mommy and baby.”
Breastfeeding advocacy
Always innovating, she and her bakers come up with more varied treats each year!
Paola is a firm believer in breastfeeding–both for mother and child–and it is her belief in the process that really drove the business in difficult times. “I don’t just do this for myself or because it’s my business and also one of my babies. I do this for the moms. Very often we get moms who text us in the middle of the night, asking questions like ‘do the treats work’ or ‘how quickly can you deliver’ or things like that, and I know what that’s like. I know what it is to be up in the middle of the night, trying to feed your baby and wondering if they’ve eaten enough. I was once that mom, and I want to help those moms. More than a business, Mommy Treats is here to support moms and tell them that it’s okay, we’re here for you.”
It was this sentiment that became the most important criteria for Paola when it came to trying to find an assistant or operations manager. Married to an expat, she knew that it was only a matter of time before her family would be relocated to another country. “It is so hard to try to duplicate yourself. I wanted someone who would be like me both in terms of how the business is run and in terms of how to care for our moms. I was very lucky to find the person that I found, and I’m very lucky to have my bakers and my riders.”
After a year and a half of hands-on training with Mommy Treats’ operations manager, Paola felt confident enough to move to Beijing with her husband and, by then, three daughters. She kept track of the business everyday, communicating with her OM online. Paola still does most of the admin work for Mommy Treats, and so being available to her team is an important part of the business. “It can be tricky. There are moments when you feel you need to be physically present, but then of course there’s the barrier of not actually being able to do that and you learn to work with what you have and then let go and make peace with what you can’t change.”
TREATing COVID
The breadth of Mommy Treats is that it supports not just her business, but all the businesses she has collaborated with to create unique treats.
Beijing was a relatively short assignment for her husband, however, and soon they moved to the United States, right before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world. While Paola was prepared to run her business from afar and from a different time zone, she wasn’t quite prepared for the challenges of a strict quarantine.
“At first we couldn’t bake and we couldn’t deliver,” she said. “But after a while we realised we had to open up, we had to! Moms were relying on us, my bakers were relying on the work, our riders–though not solely ours–needed the income. I had to make a decision to pivot, and that pivot wasn’t to change the business exactly, but to further invest in my people. As a business we were on survival mode, but the family we had become as a company and the customers we have needed us to survive, and so we did what we could and what we had to–which was to keep operating.”
A personal reward
Paola acknowledges that there are still challenges being brought by the quarantine and the time zone difference, but despite these she knows she is doing the best thing for herself and her business. This feeling is reinforced every time a mom messages the company or leaves a comment on their social media pages thanking them for the milk supply or just for the treat. “It makes me feel so good when moms share their stories or post about our treats. I love it when a mom says she feels like this treat is like her reward for breastfeeding or for whatever it was she did that day. When I see posts like that I feel rewarded too. I love knowing that we help moms in more ways than one.”
To learn more about Mommy Treats, visit their website at http://mommytreats.com/ and purchase lactation treats, prenatal treats and more at both Mommy Treats and the Mommy Mundo Shop!
About the writer
Rachel Kelly Davis has been a published writer since the age of 14, often writing features, essays, and cover pieces. In 2016 she started writing poetry, leaving index cards of her poems all over the world and posting the photos she is sent by the people who find them. She has worked in communications for over a decade, wearing various hats ranging from digital marketing and SEO practitioner, brand strategist, and investor relations officer. Most recently she was the Associate Vice President for Customer Experience (Public Affairs) at WSP Inc., a public relations company based in the Philippines. Currently she is happily raising 5-year-old Valentina and 2-month old Levi Grey while taking charge of Mommy Mundo’s web content. Follow her on Instagram @arkaydee
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