Growing an Entrepreneurial Business

My Own Meals, Inc. is the industry leader in the manufacturing and marketing of shelf stable kosher food. Our primary markets are institutions, food service, vending, web sales, international exports, and emergency food for disaster planning and relief. We are very proud of the work we do and continue to share our knowledge and capabilities with customers facing special dietary challenges and kosher meal planning.

We value our reputation as the source for consistently high-quality, low-cost kosher meals. Our customers recognize our outstanding customer service and our ability to take on their dietary challenges to discover cost effective alternative solutions.

We look forward to continuing our journey as market opportunities change and evolve.

Our Origins – Shelf Stable Nutritious Children’s Meals

Mary Anne Jackson founded the Corporation in 1986, introducing shelf stable Children’s Meals and creating a new healthy Children’s Meals Market. It was an innovative endeavor and a bit ahead of its time because shelf stable food items, other than canned goods, were not widely available in the US. Consumers were left confused about where to find the products in the store, and challenged grocers to establish where and how to merchandise this new shelf stable, prepared meals category.

Jackson created our brand name so that it has the acronym of MOM™, a name that inspires comfort, especially among young children. M.O.M.™ children’s meals were marketed to attract two types of customers – both parents and their children. We needed to motivate parents to buy a wholesome My Own Meal® while equally important, their children had to love the taste and ask for more.

Our commercial jingle became, “Serve the ones you love, My Own Meal®.”

Inspiring other entrepreneurs, Jackson shared her story of creating My Own Meals, Inc. and became the cover story for INC Magazine, Continental Airlines’ Profiles magazine, and Entrepreneurial Woman magazine. Featured in articles in Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, newspapers and trade journals, Jackson and the Company’s story became widely known.

Consumers discovered M.O.M.™ children’s meals through stories appearing in consumer magazines and through radio and TV broadcasts both in the US and internationally.

Moving On To New Opportunities

As major food companies entered into the children’s meals market, and competition became more challenging and expensive for an entrepreneurial player, we shifted our focus to the adult meal market. At about the same time, an unexpected challenge materialized – war.

After September 11, 2001, Operation Iraqi Freedom commandeered US shelf stable, food production capacity to support the war effort. Without production capacity for an indeterminable future period of time, My Own Meals would not be able to re-supply stores in its national roll out of its children’s meals.

With challenges come opportunities. The Department of Defense needed kosher and halal meals for some of its soldiers – a new food program never before in the military’s system. Military procurement personnel were charged with finding solutions of where to source and how to deliver kosher and halal meals to active soldiers.

Changing from Children’s Meals to Shelf Stable Kosher Food for Adults

My Own Meals was about to change history by creating an entirely new ration program and procurement process for the US Military. Working under an unfunded government contract, MOM’s private funds were invested to develop both a new ration program, as well as kosher and halal products.

During what would become a five-year undertaking, My Own Meals created US Military Meals Ready to Eat (MRE) that met religious dietary needs. My Own Meals sent samples to army and marine chaplains for field testing, coordinated efforts of both the Jewish and Muslim communities, and worked with Congress and the GAO (Government Accounting Office), presenting proposals to the Pentagon and Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).

With the intent to provide both fresher food items and a sense of home to those serving our country, My Own Meals’ founder convinced the military to implement a commercial ration program. A “Letter from M.O.M.™” was included in each package to provide information to read.

To become skilled at government contracting rules and operations, My Own Meals became a non-military government contractor, bidding and winning contracts with suppliers that would otherwise not deal with government bureaucracy. In addition, My Own Meals President & Founder became a board member for eight years and eventual Chairman of the Research and Development Associates, Inc., an industry-government association to make connections and learn.

Finally, on January 16, 1996, seven military agencies met at the Pentagon and agreed to implement My Own Meals’s kosher and halal “Meals, Ready to Eat” program. As part of the program, MOM management insisted that MOM™ shelf stable meals be included as part of the MRE funded program and not a Chaplaincy funded program. In this way, the kosher MREs became part of the military subsistence procurement system and available to all requiring a religious diet, instead of being relegated to a “special request” or “religious accommodation” status if purchased through the Chaplaincy.

More importantly, My Own Meals was permitted to bid on the solicitation to supply MREs, a process usually reserved for three protected industrial base companies. It won its first defense contract in June 1996.

Our 1996 commercial MRE début introduced My Own Meal® kosher MREs and J&M® halal MREs to American and Allied Forces with great success and consumer appreciation. MOM™ succeeded as a vital defense contractor for two decades. And with brand name, commercial graphics on packages of the food components in the MREs, soldiers enjoyed the comfort of brands they recognize from home in every bite.

For almost two decades, My Own Meals received recognition in appreciation for its outstanding performance in supplying MOM™ kosher MREs and J&M® halal MREs, successfully meeting surges and slowdowns in demand, with 100% on-time deliveries.

As a vital defense contractor, My Own Meals, Inc. shipped more than thirty (30) million MREs throughout the world in support of military operations. Supply officers in field often referred to our MREs as the MOM MREs or the MOMs when ordering with DLA.

So popular and successful was our supply and procurement approach that the US Military continues to purchase commercial kosher and halal MREs today from other suppliers. In 2002, My Own Meals Founder & President was awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for Patriotic Civilian Service from the Department of the Army, the highest medal awarded civilians for commitment and success creating and supplying religious rations.

Beyond a Defense Contractor’s Mantle

While working with the military, My Own Meals also entered the institutional market with its new line of adult shelf stable kosher food in microwavable plastic trays. MOM’s exceptional customer service and tasty, high-quality meals at reasonable prices, encouraged institutions to supplement or replace the frozen meals they were using.

 

As the US military business slowed and matured, our institutional business continued to grow and develop. MOM™ vegetarian MREs remain part of an international military’s food program.

Consumers displaced by hurricanes over the years also welcomed MOM™ shelf stable meals which were distributed by FEMA.

My Own Meal® and J&M® shelf stable food products have been distributed and enjoyed all over the world, from under the polar ice cap to the reaches of astronauts on the Space Station; from jet fighters in the Netherlands to hospital patients back home.

Children and adults requiring meat or vegetarian meals find a tasty solution to meal planning. Religious Jews no longer need to search the snack aisles to find some kosher certified foods to eat when away from home. Instead, they bring nutritious My Own Meal® shelf stable meals with them.

Wherever challenges to meet specialized food demands exist, My Own Meal® delicious meals provide innovative solutions.