ONCE UPON A FARM

Cassandra Curtis was a food scientist who had developed cold-pressed juice products and saw no reason why the same technology couldn't be applied to baby food. Traditional baby food is heat-processed and shelf-stable, which extends shelf life but destroys nutrients and flavor.

Curtis started Once Upon a Farm in 2015 to make refrigerated, cold-pressed baby food using HPP (high-pressure processing) — the same technique used for premium juices. In 2017, the company recruited John Foraker, former CEO of Annie's Homegrown (which sold to General Mills for $820 million), as CEO, and Jennifer Garner as co-founder and chief brand officer.

Garner wasn't a celebrity endorser — she was involved in product development and became the public face of the brand. Foraker brought CPG scaling expertise from Annie's, and the combination of food science, a proven CPG operator, and a genuinely famous parent created a company that knew how to make the product, how to scale it, and how to sell it.

Premium refrigerated baby and toddler food sold through retail grocery stores and DTC. Once Upon a Farm products sit in the refrigerated section (not the shelf-stable baby food aisle), which signals freshness to parents and commands a price premium.

Squeeze pouches retail for $2.49 to $3.99 each — roughly 2x the price of shelf-stable competitors like Gerber. Revenue comes primarily from retail distribution (Whole Foods, Target, Kroger, Walmart, Costco) with a smaller DTC subscription business.

The cold-pressed HPP process is the key differentiator: it kills pathogens without heat, preserving nutrients, color, and flavor that heat processing destroys.

Baby food pouches — cold-pressed fruit and vegetable blends for babies 5+ months, sold refrigerated. Toddler snack pouches — more complex blends with oats, chia seeds, and superfoods for older kids.

Dairy-free smoothie pouches for kids. Refrigerated oat bars for toddlers.

Meals for toddlers in refrigerated cups. All products are USDA Organic, non-GMO, with no added sugar and no preservatives.

The ingredient lists read like something a human would actually make — "organic mangoes, organic bananas, organic coconut cream" — not the chemistry experiment on the back of a Gerber pouch.

Retail distribution expansion — going from Whole Foods and natural grocery stores into mass market retailers like Target, Walmart, and Costco, where the volume lives. Jennifer Garner's involvement drives massive earned media — every interview she does mentions the brand.

John Foraker's CPG playbook from Annie's Homegrown provided a proven framework for scaling a premium organic brand into mainstream retail. Refrigerated placement is both a challenge and a moat — once you secure refrigerated shelf space, it's harder for competitors to follow because refrigerated supply chains are expensive to build.

Category expansion from baby food into toddler snacks and kids' meals increases the customer lifetime value. Subscription DTC business creates recurring revenue and direct customer relationships.

Refrigerated supply chain is significantly more expensive and complex than shelf-stable — cold chain logistics, shorter shelf life, and refrigerated shelf space that grocery stores allocate sparingly. Price premium limits the addressable market — not every parent can or will pay $3.50 for a baby food pouch when Gerber costs $1.29.

Competing against Gerber (Nestle) and Beech-Nut who have decades of brand recognition and retailer relationships. The refrigerated baby food category is still small relative to shelf-stable, so Once Upon a Farm is both building the category and competing within it.

Scaling production while maintaining the cold-pressed HPP process requires specialized manufacturing. And the customer ages out — babies become toddlers become kids who want chicken nuggets, so the company has to keep expanding the product line to retain families.

Investors include CAVU Consumer Partners, Beechwood Capital, S2G Ventures, and Jennifer Garner as co-founder. Total funding exceeds $100 million across multiple rounds.