 to why in the morning. Tuesday, entrepreneurship Tuesday at Y254 channel is where you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Ashira is where you can find me across all my social in this particular session we dive into an interview that looks at organic food products. This is a sort of business and how they give back to the society. So there's a quote by none other than Robertson really saying that if you think the price of organic food is expensive have you priced cancer lately? Good thought there, right? So in the studio I'm joined by Terry Gato and she is the owner and founder of Ella Organics. Hey Terry. Hi. Happy Tuesday. How are you? I am fine. How are you? I'm doing good. Good. So Terry, the whole story about Ella Organics you guys do a lot. Yes, I have to say in the community. Yeah. Take us through what is what Ella Organics is all about. Okay. So Ella Organics is a nutrition company. So we majorly deal with impacting educational knowledge in terms of nutrition and we are a hundred percent on the special needs community. So the children living with special needs, the parents and the caregivers. So you know to achieve any milestone be it a stable child or a special needs child your nutritional level has to be a hundred percent you know because there's no way you can walk if your muscles are weak. So a major goal is to ensure that these children attain their milestones through their nutritional health. Yeah. Alright. I'm going to ask a very cliche question right now. Is the organic food expensive? Okay. That is one very common misconception but organic food is not expensive. Let me give you an example of our products. We usually have jam, organic jam. Now a 300 ml of organic jam is usually goes for 300, 300 Bob. So when you compare that with our competitors out there it's quite pricey. But think of it like this. I'm not just buying the the jar. I'm buying nutrition because our jam is purely organic in terms of even preparation. We don't do preservatives. We don't do chemicals. It's just pure organic. So you're not just taking in jam. You're taking in fruits. If it's a grape jam, you're taking in the grapes. You're getting vitamins. You're getting every nutrient that you can get from a fruit. You get it from there. Okay now you are making it all interesting. Let's dive into what sort of products do all organics have for us. Okay so a lot of organics has a range of products. We do organic jam. We do organic yogurt. We also do organic tacos. You see the idea is to make common food exciting but still very nutritious. Yeah and we also do we buy organic products from the farm and we resell them. All right when you speak about organic yogurt what does that into you? Okay so organic yogurt is first of all our milk is gotten from organically fed cows and the preparation is also organic. You see you can either buy organic food product. You can get a kill like that. Yeah okay. You can either buy organic food that is from the the farm or you can make it organically. When I mean organically is you don't do preservatives, you don't do chemicals, you don't do additives, no food color, just the the product itself. All right going back to the jams, the products. Let's speak about the lifespan considering that there's no preservatives so take us through that. Okay so we don't use chemical lice preservatives. Let me give an example for our jam if we are using if you're making Zabibis. Zabibis is our grape and strawberry jam so we use lemon. Lemon juice is a very good organic preservative so of course you know it the shelf life is not that long. Okay so before you open it you you can have a shelf life of three months. After you open it of course you refrigerate it but our jam is so nice you will finish it in two weeks. Okay so when did this actually start? So organics started in 2018 August. Yeah I was just sitting in the house and I was thinking of my daughter and I thought you know I need cash so I just said and I have a background in food nutrition and food science so I thought you know why not to do something with my own hands and I started making organic jam. Okay so there are very many jams out there but I wanted to have an unfair advantage you know what's my unfair advantage is that my products are organic and they're very affordable so yeah it started like that and then now through the years and challenges of the years it directed to now from profit-making to actually helping the community. Okay we'll get to that point and take us through the process of making let's start with your product the jam. Okay. If I want to pin up a jam with a strawberry what is the process like? Where do you get your raw materials? How do you get to like make the jams to the final product whereby you actually can them? Okay so like I said we get our products from organically grown farm products so there's this market in it's in Nairobi and the farmers the people sell their vendors are from organic they are they do it from organic so that's why we get our products and I'll say you want strawberry jam. Yes. Okay so strawberry jam we get our strawberries of course we go through the process of cleaning them and picking the ripe ones and then now we start now the production process which includes boiling and then mashing and then now adding the preservative and then now we do a cunning process so our cunning process entails boiling the of course we put them in glass jars for longer shelf life and then now we boil them so it's it's prooftight. Okay so there's no entry of any microorganisms and I tell you if you put it on the shelf for three months when you open it it will be still fresh it will retain the color and everything and the nutrients are oh my god it's just amazing. So how many productions do you do probably in weekly or monthly? Okay so for organic products usually do by order remember it doesn't have a long shelf life so whenever we get orders usually we just do by order. And how credible do your clients feel when it comes to just assuring them that this our product is actually a good product it's healthy that have you guys been certified? Yeah yeah. Okay so one thing we ensure our clients are you know we go by the mantra that food is a best medicine I mean before you get to buying the medication use food first. So when you're buying our products you are a healthy person or you have a medical condition. Okay whatever you're looking for that nutrition let me give you an example like calcium or our organic yogurt. You see yogurt is very is very beneficial to our body because for example our digestive system. So when you come to me you have problems with your you have constipation and stuff I recommend you our yogurt. So you're not just buying it to just drink it it is actually going to help you see it's like medicine. Yeah so when you think of it like that don't just eat food because you're just eating it you know to fill your stomach eat food knowing I'll get this nutrient and this nutrient and this nutrient from whatever I go and buy. And someone is watching this conversation and they would like to get into a similar sort of business. There's only a specific education of background what skills should I go for what is the process like for me to get it into a similar kind of a business. Okay so for me I have a background like I said I have a background in food science and nutrition. Also one thing is if you have a passion in whatever you set your mind to do trust you me you will do it because I mean YouTube is a best best teacher so just have a passion and no just you know just getting into the business for making money know what are you doing are you helping the community are you helping that one client who is going to come to you and say you know I want this product why are you getting into that business for all right so take us through what is it's on the screen right now I believe the couple of the oranges in a I think that's a cucumber right yeah that's a cucumber and orange slices. Okay so that is infused water so many people come to me and complain you know I don't like water I just stay leaves you know and I have to drink it because you know it will help my body. Oh yeah we are people who actually buy flavoured water. Yeah people who buy flavoured water so instead of going to the market and buy flavoured water take an orange slice slice it up a cucumber slice it up and put it in the water so not be just be drinking kawaii da water you'll be drinking water with vitamins you get so you're rather than eating an orange every day you can just be sipping on the vitamins every day and like cucumber cucumber is really good it has really good benefits for constipation so again we go back to whatever you put in your mouth be keen and know what nutrients you're getting and how it's helping your body and so that is a simple way of you know drinking water. Drinking water yeah all right so for someone who are like guys who always go to the shelves and they're looking for organic products what should they look out for okay so you know very many things are branded organic but they are not so just look at the preservative section is it chemicalized let me give you an example we go back to our job see someone can add food color so that the strawberries pop out you know and then you come to the shelf and then you see it's still organic but it's not red and you know shiny I tell you go for the one that is not red and shiny not all glamorous not all glamorous go to the one that is not red and shiny so there's just a few things you need to pick on like the preservatives what have what chemicals have been used are there any chemicals what is fortified there because if you like get like Unger there's there are some who are fortified with ion calcium and just be keen yeah all right when you look at the market space it's so much filled with the the preservatives chemicals sort of products that we actually consume how are you how are you ensuring what measures are you putting in place to to break into the market and get also spaces on the shelves in the supermarket okay let me give you an example with cancer see you get chemo it cures the cancer but it does a lot of damage to your body so when you're going to buy that product you of course you'll get full your time you'll get full but what are the ingredients of that product and what are they doing to your body so when you have that mind shift of you know I want fresh things that have not been chemicalized right from the farm you know we don't use fertilizers that are chemicalized you just use and it's so cheap because you can just use cow manure you see and you know you'll get your organic products so just be keen on uh what we're trying to do is we're trying to advocate for consumption of organic products other than chemicalized products because we know organic we're getting a hundred percent of the nutrients there what and for someone who you said it's biode if I need probably a jam or a yogurt I have to put in an order yeah so far since you started how is the business looking looking back uh the performance the business is looking really well because especially now that we have incorporated other other guys in the in the in the business so it's not being profit and it's not being you know helping the larger community so I'm really liking the direction that my venture is going and also I'm liking the testimonies that I get you know I used your product and I have a mind shift of now food I actually enjoy concerning food consuming food yeah so I love the direction that my business is taking all right now let's connect your business now to the community and how it's helping back people with special needs right connect us to what other programs are involved in when it comes to the community okay so um Ella Organics is uh I said a hundred percent for the special needs community uh let me define special needs special needs is your child with different abilities we try not to say disabilities because they're not disabled they just have different abilities so um and I am a parent of a childhood special needs so I know I have fast hand information and have fast fun fast hand experience of that so you get a mother a parent or a caregiver who is really struggling you know their child hasn't achieved their milestone and they don't know where to start and they don't know what to do you know yeah they're going through therapy but um remember whatever treatment you get nutrition is number one you see like I said food is the best medicine so you know they come and they complain my child is not being able to achieve any milestone they can't hold their head and you go back and you see their muscles are really weak maybe it's due to cerebral palsy you know their muscles are really weak so we incorporate nutrition with that so our company impacts knowledge to the special needs mothers on how to actually feed their children you know some things can be avoided like rickets you know just vitamin D in the sun culture on the side you see the information so we pass the information to these parents number two we these parents okay I've given you the information but you're like you know I don't have money to go and buy whatever you're telling me and there's this mind there's this mind shift this mindset of you know uh nutritious food is expensive but I tell you it's your egg there 10 shillings it's your skumawiki there so we try and give them that mind shift also and we bring income generating activities to them so let me give you an example our company we give you the nutritional knowledge and then also we ask you okay mommy which which what can you do you know I can't come work in your company I can come do the production and I pay you when I pay you you can go and buy whatever I'm telling you to do come and say okay don't talk in your company so what we've done we've partnered with other companies like this this company of cleaning services is partnered with them in the sense that a hundred percent of the employees are from parents with children disabilities uh with different abilities you see now you have income and it you've gotten all that from a lot of organics so we support impact and educates I like the way that it's also called up like you put everything through uh from just giving the informal skills to now actually uh creating job opportunities for the parents or the caregivers another aspect that is very crucial I believe is that as a mother or a parent a caregiver of a child with special needs um I believe that there's a time whereby your mindsets your mental health isn't it was a little bit unbalanced where traumatized experiences is there a sort of help when it comes to just giving them help to change their mindset and look forward to a better future yeah yeah uh what we do we encourage the centers because we work with the special needs centers it's easier to get to the parents through that so we work with the centers and encourage them to form something we call focus groups so when you have focus groups you can come and share out your feelings and you know when I you know a problem half uh our problem is half solved when you share it out and also with we've also partnered with uh psychologists and what we're trying to do is we're trying to get the young entrepreneurs you know like so we try and partner with uh people who are in psychology and they just come and advise these women and you just encourage them yeah so that's how we we deal with their mental health also okay so how is the business how do you ensure that uh that the business stays afloat okay so um you know uh our number one goal is first of all educate these women on their nutritional health of their children and number two is you know the jobs that we get if they can come and work at allow organics if they we can source them outsource them out to other companies at the end of the day we get something they get something because I train them like I train them on cleaning services and then when I outsource them to other companies whatever they get of course a company gets a little bit a cut yeah so that's how we keep our uh our company afloat all right and a couple of marketing channels that you guys are using okay uh right now is you know I usually say the best marketing channel is word of mouth because if they come and tell you I try an organic job it's really nice you you know you'd want to try rather than you just advertising but we try and cover each and every platform that we get so we are on social media at allow organics uh all platforms and also yeah word of mouth yeah so that's our platforms all right a couple of challenges that you faced as a company oh my god the mindset of these people like there's so many misconceptions on organic products so we have to like counter that and also to just change the mindset of these parents you know this is a parent who is struggling you know their husband has left them because of you know you have a special needs special needs child you don't have money you have like other five children there's medication there's so much there's so much this women go through and you know just coming and ensuring and telling them you know it's going to be okay it's just they look at you especially at my young person they look at me like sister you you don't know you have no experience and that's why I said I usually don't hide I have a special needs child so when I when I start with that you kind of feel at home oh we have pictures of giving back to the society you as a LL organics yeah giving back to the society and engaging in different programs so do you guys also give talks yeah educational educational talks okay take us through that okay so I usually visit the centers different centers of people with special needs and yeah that's when I when I say impacting knowledge that's what I do there I impart knowledge to them you know we have a conversation you know the parent comes to me my my child is struggling here and there and I impact the nutritional knowledge to them so when you say talks that's that's what we do oh fantastic so let's look at achievements because I'm so sure there are achievements stories looking back I'm sure you're like I am not regretting to get into this particular uh lane of what I'm doing currently okay so uh number one my biggest achievement is um that's our company was able to now incorporate the community because you know very many companies are like you know it's just my money my money my money but the fact that we were able to be to be to impact other people and even get other investors to come and you know join this journey that's my greatest achievement and also we have success stories of you know parents who come up and say you know I actually tried the method that you gave me and my my daughter or my son is you know improving and we also have other success stories of parents who come and say I actually went and tried that job and now I have income I can't buy whatever you're telling me to buy that's just that warms my heart the sense of feeling fulfillment yes okay so let's look at the vision of the company I don't want to give you a specific time frame so where does a logonics look like in a couple of years down the line um let's do a year first and so uh we have a couple of activities uh we are looking to to venture into uh so like um we want to reach uh five uh want to work with five special needs centers first because you know we can have one special needs center has like 80 families you get so we don't have to say you know 100 no we just want to work with five because I believe in baby steps so so and then we impact them with nutritional knowledge so if we can get like 100 success stories of different uh parents from different come from different centers that would be awesome and also we want to also grow our company our organic products reach out to many other farms and buy their products and actually have you can actually order you know I want groceries from an organic company and that would be awesome because there are very many farmers who their products just go to waste because they don't have that market yeah so how can people uh reach out to you on social media uh if they want to keep this conversation going and uh do you also have mentorship skills offering to the people uh our company's a baby so when I lie when I say I'll mentor anyone okay so actually I'm we are just being mentored right now but um yeah you can reach me on social media I'm the co-founder so Terry Gathu on every platform LinkedIn uh every every social media platform also our company Ella Organics uh on every platform yeah so yeah that's how you can reach us all right so thank you very much Terry for creating time to be with us and talking to us about Mattis pertaining organic food product thank you for having me all right so guys make sure you follow up with Terry uh Gathu uh co-founder of Ella Organics and they'll be updated on Mattis pertaining the right organic food that you should have and it's not expensive yes straight out so at Y244 channel so you can find us across all our social media handles at Michelle Ashira so you can find me across all my socials so we'll be right back with much more on why in the morning