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ABOUT HAPPY BELLY
happy belly is owned and operated by monica jerminario and brandon bjerke
from Monica: I started Happy Belly in 2012. At that point, I had been diagnosed with Celiac Disease for a number of years and was completely exhausted by the gluten free baked goods that were on the market. The ingredients were always lacking in nutrition, taste, and texture. The list of additives, modifiers, and heavily processed ingredients never sat right with me. I started experimenting with my own version of gluten free baking. I had a few years of culinary experience as a chef that helped me with the flavors, food combinations, and processes. I had an MFA that helped me with the concept, creativity, and overall aesthetic. I put those two together and created Happy Belly.
Happy Belly started with gluten free, vegan, and organic catering. I was hired by a local socially conscious business to cook and bake daily for their employees. It turned into the best incubator—I was able to test a lot of my techniques and recipes on the smaller scale before moving the business forward. I started the Hudson Farmers Market in the winter of 2014. Around that time I also started developing a line of wholesale baked goods that I began offering customers. Eight years ago my husband transitioned into the business, bringing with him ten years of organic food industry experience and systems management. Together, we’ve decided to have a four tiered approach to Happy Belly: farmers markets; wholesale accounts; catering; and social outreach.
about OUR ROLES
we are a collaborative team that honors and highlights each other's talents and gifts/ monica is the woman behind the food and the concept/ brandon is the man making sure the happy belly ship is operating smoothly, the face at the farmers market, and the ultimate taste-tester
our mission is to enliven and encourage through food/ we teach that food is a vehicle for self love and self care/ we help our customers set down their apprehensions by creating treats that are made with conscious intention, nutrient dense ingredients, and full-filling flavors
we have both lived the healing power of food/ being together for 22 years and working through monica's pre-celiac diagnosis, we both saw how much food either can give life or drain life/ we seek to pass on that culled experience
we want you to enjoy yourselves, your health, your body, your cravings without shame/ we want you to listen to what your body is saying, what it's telling you it needs, it has ultimate wisdom, and is a guiding force on your path/ we still love food like we did as children-- with wild abandon!
about OUR BACKGROUNDS
our cultural backgrounds really lend to our mission, they are important in understanding our story:
brandon is chinese, scandinavian, celtic, and his deepest roots in the pacific islands/ monica is italian, spanish, celtic, and her deepest roots in the middle east/ we bonded through food/ we found our identity through food
we saw ourselves around the table, talking story, and really experiencing where we came from every night with our families/ this is a heritage that we share despite being from different backgrounds/ we saw the core principles are not different between chinese families and italian families, food always took center stage/ we infuse this history into everything we create because it is who we are
we have both been in the food industry since we've been young/ in addition to working in various restaurants in nj and ny, brandon worked for a decade at a local organic food producer and distribution center-- working his way up from roaster to chief operating officer through the years-- before leaving to help grow the happy belly vision/ monica grew up in a farming family, worked the green markets in nyc from 14 to 18, worked as a sous chef in albany ny for a number of years, and then did her graduate thesis work on local food justice issues before starting happy belly