Special-Needs Business Profile: Gak's Snacks

Jill Robbins started Gak's Snacks in October, 2005.

"Gak's Snacks' mission is to make it easier for children and families with food allergies to enjoy wholesome, delicious baked goods with everyone else," explains Robbins. "We offer organic cookies and apple coffee cake for convenience, cookie dough (soon) for a quick homemade feel, and a cookbook and ingredients for those who bake. We are mostly web-based, but have started to offer our products in stores, restaurants, schools and other institutions as well."

Robbins is the mother of a son with food allergies. "We have known about our son's allergies since he was about a year old, so it has always played a role in our planning of meals and snacks, at home and elsewhere," she says. "We have always had an Epipen with him for almost that long. And, as he tells us, he knows how to read the food labels as well as we do!"

Although she still works "on a very part-time basis" as a psychologist, Robbins says running Gak's Snacks is "more than a full time job. Despite everyone telling me it would be an incredible amount of work, it is hard to imagine how much there really is to do. But it is exciting and worthwhile, so I love doing it."

"When I see kids with and without food allergies all getting the same Gak's Snacks cookies in the school lunch line, so that allergies are not an issue, I feel the success," says Robbins. "I also anticipate continued rapid growth. Our products are not just for people with allergies. They are for anyone who wants the no cholesterol, no trans fat, organic, whole grain, great tasting treats we offer."

"I get appreciative feedback from customers almost every day," says Robbins. "Every single one is meaningful to me. I feel good about providing such a needed service." She gets a positive response from her son, too. "He's proud of the business. He likes that it all happened in response to his needs."

What inspired you to start your business?

The short answer is that I wanted kids with multiple food allergies like my son to be able to join in social events involving food, but we couldn't find baked goods that didn't contain eggs and dairy, and that weren't made in a facility with peanuts or tree nuts.

The long answer is that I hadn't intended to start a business! I baked so that my son could bring his own piece of birthday cake to birthday parties, or his own muffin or sweet bread to restaurants, or so that he could have a cookie at home with a friend. After a few years, my repeated efforts paid off -- my creations transformed from inedible to delicious. My husband and others encouraged me to write a cookbook of baked treats, because it can be such a challenge to bake without eggs, dairy, nuts, and wheat. About a year ago, when the cookbook was almost complete, people encouraged me to produce actual baked goods, since not everyone has time to bake, and because they loved what I was baking.

How did you go about getting it started?

I took steps to see if it made sense. I went to SCORE (a volunteer organization of retired business executives) to learn some basics, earned my certification in safe food preparation, sampled my products, and spent six months calling ingredient companies to see if I could find the ingredients I needed from companies with good practices with regard to allergen cross contamination. Before long, I was having my facility designed.

Would you recommend that other parents do what you've done?

Starting a business involves countless responsibilities, enormous hard work, overcoming anxiety and obstacles, and commitment. Yet, these efforts are rewarded with the business' growth, with the excitement of creation, and with the satisfaction and gratitude of customers. I'd recommend it to anyone who goes at it with his or her eyes fully open.

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