The Kitskitchen Girls
What inspired you girls to start kitskitchen?
The idea of healthy soup came from a personal need. Joni was told by her mom Wendy, an acupuncturist of Traditional Chinese Medicine, that she had a qui imbalance which was the cause of her regular headaches and lack of energy. Wendy recommended to eat soup regularly in order to heat the spleen and help her qui deficiency balance. Joni started making big batches of soup, and could not eat them all so began sharing with friends and co-workers at Lululemon. After introducing soup as a consistent meal in her diet she recognized improvement in multiple areas of health, mainly in her stomach. Better digestion, zero bloating and over all feeling fuller longer, AND while eating smaller amounts. Her friends and colleagues started asking her to bring more in – that’s when she realized the need for healthy soup and the lack of availability of it.
It’s a big commitment for a company to be organic and use local,
what made you decide to take this on?
When we say we make healthy, natural soup, we really take what that means seriously. Using local has several benefits in different aspects, but from a health perspective, because the food does not travel as far as they do from other provinces or countries, the time it takes to get to our plates is much less. Not only is the taste fresher, but the veggies also retain much more of their nutritional value. There are still many sprays on organic food in order to keep the bugs off when they are transported from a far distance. As with all produce, it can only posses the nutrients it is provided from its environment. We live in one of the cleanest countries on earth so we know our vegetables grown in our backyard contain full amounts of nutrients. We trust our neighbours and local family farms to give us the best quality products available.
How long do your soups last?
Because we don’t add preservatives to make the soups chemically last longer, our soups don’t last as long as canned soup or other alternatives. The shelf life also depends on the soup and it’s ingredients – the higher the acidity, the longer the soup lasts!
For example, we recommend our chicken + veggie soup with chicken meat and broth to be consumed within 10 days – but the tomato + red pepper is 30 days.
How do you see kitskitchen growing in the next few years?
What’s been really exciting is that things have happened really quickly for us, with the help of great partners and our supporters. We really couldn’t have done what we’ve done so far without them. We want to be an exciting, multi-faceted and innovated company. Our focus is to grow our existing product line (soup) but also add new products, while introducing new ideas and approaches about health and educating our customers around it.
What’s your favourite Juicery juice!?
Amy: I love Greens Four, it is my go-to. It feels so good and fresh to drink really at any time of the day. It’s a great start to the morning and a pick-me-up in the afternoon!
Joni: That is tough for me because I crave both Melon One and Greens Four all the time. My boyfriend usually drinks them before I can even have a sip, but those two I wake up thinking about.
