Imagine: homemade, preservative-free baby food for your child that you don’t have to make yourself. Windsor resident Tanya Valentine offers just the thing- a homemade baby food service. The service, called Urban Baby Food, offers four stages of food starting with children four months of age, and is designed for the first year of their lives, although Valentine can customize food for other ages.
“When I was first starting out and I was working 14 hours a day, for me, this (service) would have been ideal, this is what I would have looked for and I would have kept it all the way through until I was feeding my daughter from the table. That’s what I’d like to be able to offer,” Valentine said.
The mother of four, now in her early forties, couldn’t breastfeed with her first three children, and ended up feeding them baby food out of a jar. She worked full time with her first two children and didn’t have the time to make her own baby food.
By the time her third child came along, Valentine was a stay-at-home mom. This time, she began making her own baby food. She made her own rice cereal and mixed various fruits and vegetables into the cereal.
Urban Baby Food came about shortly after Valentine’s daughter was born, 11 months ago.
“This newest baby arrived and I started making baby food again, and I really enjoy it. It’s very emotional for me because I wasn’t able to do that for my first two kids because I was a working career woman and didn’t have the time. I still wanted to give those babies that start and I always felt that guilt,” Valentine said. She figured there had to be other people who felt similarly and so she decided to create the service to give parents the option of feeding their kids preservative-free, whole grain, organic food.
Valentine uses mainly whole grains, white rice, fruits and vegetables to craft a menu of purees, mashed food, baked fruits and vegetables, bites and soups, depending on the ages of her young clients. She also customizes orders if children have food allergies.
The ingredients that Valentine uses for the meals are purchased from local farmers’ markets and fruit and vegetable stands. She said now that most farmers’ markets are closed, she plans to get her ingredients at local organic food markets.
“I think people should use it (the service) because, in my mind, it’s getting the best nutritional start for your child,” Valentine said. “People are buying stuff in the markets that is mixed with preservatives; they don’t know what’s in there and how long it’s been on the shelf.”
Urban Baby Food has a wide range of customers, from grandmothers watching their grandchildren, to working parents and single mothers.
Urban Baby Food features a weekly service that allows customers to customize their baby food supply every week from the menu options. There is also a batch order option that allows customers to “take out the thinking; simply pick up a month’s worth of delicious homemade baby food.” Valentine said that she can also customize orders to last various amounts of time.
Due to the sensitive nature of the product, Urban Baby Food does not ship. Customers can pick up their order for free or have it delivered for a fee.
The service runs about $125 a week, but pricing depends on how much and what kind of food is requested.
The service is open to Sonoma County and surrounding counties, such as Napa and Mendocino, Valentine said.
To learn more about Urban Baby Food, go to www.urbanbabyfood.com or visit the Urban Baby Food Facebook page. Tanya Valentine can be reached by phone at 694-5467 or by email at [email protected].
