Live vicariously through Holmdel residents, Rick and Monica Guarnaccia, who have taken their dreams off the drawing board and onto the shelves of many local market places!
The Guarnaccias, a local family of five, have launched a new small business, Natural G Foods, to provide healthy snacks for children, which is right up my alley as a mom of two young girls. Intrigued by how they got started, I sat down with Rick and Monica to get to know their passion and to hear about what it took to bring their idea to fruition...
Jen: First, what is your connection to Monmouth county?
Find out what's happening in Holmdel-Hazletwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Rick: We live in Holmdel and having 3 active daughters allows us to be extremely involved in the community. We left Manhattan several years ago and have enjoyed every moment living here. My wife, Monica, is currently an assistant teacher at the Mountain Hill School in Middletown, is active in the religious education department at St. Catharine’s Church, and is involved with one of our wonderful brand partners, the Mommy Moves Fitness group.
Find out what's happening in Holmdel-Hazletwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
I'm a soccer coach for the Holmdel Football Club (Holmdel FC), and run a couple of HYAA soccer programs. I've also coached several HYAA sports for a number of years. We also both volunteer extensively at the Village and Indian Hill Schools, where our daughters attend.
Monica: Our family of five also helps out a great local charity, Sylvia’s Children. The girls often donate part of their allowance and lemonade stand proceeds to Sylvia’s Children.
Jen: What inspired you to take the plunge into starting a new business?
Monica: We started producing granola bars in our kitchen a couple of years ago, and we were often told, "you should sell these!" by our friends who became big fans of the taste and all-natural ingredients. As parents of active children, finding snacks that combined real nutrition and great taste was a regular challenge, so we began to take the advice about turning the bars into a business seriously
Jen: There are a lot of granola bars out there, how is the Wave Bar™ different from the other bars?
Monica: The short answer: Real fruits and veggies! Take a trip to the grocery store, and it is obvious that there are A LOT of granola bars out there. However, after researching many of the products, we found that most of them were loaded with a lot of sugar or high fructose corn syrup and didn’t use many real ingredients. We feel granola bars are still one of the perfect on-the-go snacks so we set out to make our’s healthier while not sacrificing flavor.
Rick: We aren’t aware of any other granola bars out there where the 1st ingredient listed is naturally dried fruits and vegetables. Each Wave bar contains ½ serving of veggies (5 different ones: carrots, pumpkin, beets, kale and broccoli) and a ½ serving of fruit (per USDA).
We spent the last year working with a team of extremely talented natural food product developers in Colorado and a well known nutritionist to take our original recipe and make it truly special with real benefits. We currently offer 2 flavors: mixed berry and baked apple. Some additional highlights of our all-natural bars include:
- no refined sugar
- no high fructose corn syrup
- all non-GMO ingredients
- provide a good source of fiber
- low in sodium
- provide 430mg of omega 3’s
- vegan and Certified Kosher
Monica: Although we had our kids in mind when developing this unique snack, the taste and health factors are greatly appreciated by adults, as well.
Jen: How did you know what connections you needed to make with natural food experts? And tell us more about your journey to figure out where to start before having a final product to launch.
Rick: We spent over a year doing extensive research, attending natural food trade shows, and developing great relationships and partnerships along the way.
A key partnership for us (but it’s more like a big brother partner) is an incredible NJ-based company called Sneaky Pete’s Beverage. They have created a delicious, fruit flavored, OAT-based beverage. We are so grateful for their input and support and really look forward to the day when we can do the same for a new brand that also has a great mission.
Jen: So, what led to the name, "Wave Bar”? I've got a feeling it's a Jersey Shore connection, am I right?
Monica: Yes! You can often find us boogey boarding and surfing on the New Jersey shore.
Our family's love for the ocean helped drive our decision making process when we named our 1st product the "Wave Bar." We wanted to come up with a fun name that kids can resonate with, and that we could also incorporate into our company story and philosophy. Our primary mission is to help promote and fuel active family lifestyles and the concept of the ocean and wave bar fit together perfectly.
Jen: How is your family involved in the business?
Rick: Monica and I both wear a lot of hats (operations, sales, financials, legal, social media, marketing, even making deliveries almost daily). Most of the local markets have welcomed us with open arms.
Also, our 3 daughters have become an integral part of our in-store product demos (there’s some fun pictures on our Facebook page!) Our 2 older daughters begged us to present our company and bars at a recent Indian Hill School Career Day in Holmdel. It is exciting to see them so proud of our family product, as they also were our primary taste testers while we developed the bars. Making a granola bar that is packed with 5 different veggies taste really good took A LOT of trials, and thankfully they were really patient (and honest!).
Jen: What is your dream for the Natural G business?
Rick: The unique nature of our product really creates an opportunity to educate children about what’s in their food. We aren’t trying to replace the importance of eating fresh fruit and veggies everyday, but people will always like to snack, and we want to help make it a healthier and tastier experience.
Our 1st flavors have been so successful and received such positive feedback, that many of our fans are asking for us to add new flavors, so we’d like to tackle that as soon as we can. After that, we’d like to explore other applications for the product.
Monica: We’re also looking to broaden our distribution so more people can enjoy our products. We will be an Exhibitor at the Natural Products Expo East in September in Baltimore, which we hope opens a lot of doors for us.
We have partnered up with a wonderful charity based, here, in Monmouth County called The Reaching All in Need Everyday Foundation (RAINE). When Sandy devastated the region, we were incredibly impressed with how hands on RAINE was by immediately helping out those in need. Our company's mission is to help promote healthier family lifestyles, and RAINE makes sure that the essential building blocks are in place to make that a reality. We hope to continue to grow as a company so more of our profits can help this great organization make our area a happier, kinder community.
Jen: Lastly, what advice do you have for someone on the fence about starting a new business?
Rick: We were expecting a roller coaster ride, and it has proven to be true, but we have enjoyed every moment of it. For example, watching kids leave a career day presentation chanting “Wave bars!, Wave bars!”, or getting a hand written letter saying how much they love our product is incredibly rewarding. But, you really must have absolute conviction about what you are doing. A few words of advice (some are clichés, but are now very clearly true!):
Don’t settle. The answer is there. You just have to want it enough.
Find a way to enjoy the ride everyday or it’s not worth it.
Listen to everyone, but trust your gut.
ALWAYS be honest and direct.
Jen: And, how can everyone get their hands on a Wave Bar?
Rick: Many local stores now carry us, including Dearborn Market and Cracked Olive Market, right here, in Holmdel, and we are also available on Amazon.com. Surf on over to our website for more details: www.wavebars.com!
A special thank you to the Guarnaccia's for being so open about their new business journey with me and the readers of PATCH.
This is an original post to PATCH and no payment was received for this interview. Photo credits to Natural G Foods.
