Jennifer Garner

Company: Once Upon a FarmTitle: Co-founder & Chief Brand OfficerIndustry: Food/RestaurantNotable in 2024: Garner continued to advocate for encouraging kids' exploratory and independent eating, as Once Upon a Farm added three new snack lines and a new line of organic pasta meals for toddlers.

There is much more attention being placed today on ultra-processed snacks and unhealthy foods that comprise a significant portion of the world's diet. Globally, poor diets are contributing to 340 million children lacking essential nutrients and vitamins including iron and vitamin A. In the U.S., almost 60% of food products for babies and toddlers are not in compliance with the standards for nutrition set by the World Health Organization.

Co-founded by actress Jennifer Garner, Cassandra Curtis, Ari Raz, and John Foraker — who had run the Annie's organics brand before it was sold to General Mills — Once Upon a Farm is a childhood nutrition company focused on creating healthy snacks and meals for children. The company aims to provide food that is convenient for parents while focusing on creating minimally processed and organic products, which can be found in grocery and retail stores around the country, including in Target, Walmart, and Whole Foods.

A practice that sets Once Upon a Farm apart from competitors is the use of high-pressure processing (HPP), used to kill harmful bacteria including listeria and E.coli, and in place of the commonly used high-heat pasteurization, which increases shelf life but degrades nutrients. The company also tests for contaminants, pesticides, and heavy metals in its products.

Garner joined Once Upon a Farm in 2017, looking for a company to partner with early on, she told "Live Naturally" in an interview. At the time, the brand was earning under $1 million in revenue. Now, the company's products are sold in over 16,000 stores and it generates annual revenue of over $100 million, according to multiple reports.

The mission was not new for the actress and entrepreneur, who had been working with Save the Children, a non-profit addressing food insecurity. But Garner wanted to create change in another way, and heard from a manager at Save the Children Action Network that private companies were having a large philanthropic impact. What was supposed to be a one hour meeting extended into hours and knew she wanted to be part of the company.

"The brand makes perfect sense to me," she told Live Naturally.

"I did make my kids food, but it wasn't easy. There were times when I wanted to reach to the store, but what you could buy and what I was making at home didn't look or smell the same. The store-bought tasted like baby food, but what I was making tasted like real food."

The company's best sellers include variety packs of whole milk smoothie pouches and overnight oats. In 2024, Once Upon a Farm grew dramatically, expanding to three new snack lines including Tractor Wheels Toddler Soft-Baked Bars, Fruit & Veggie Puffs, and Coconut Melts. In addition, new pouches with organic dairy were introduced as well as organic pasta meals made for toddlers.

Once Upon a Farm also works with Save the Children to help provide meals to children living in communities facing food insecurity. Through the "A Million Meals Initiative" the companies have provided 792,864 meals to date. By 2025, they hope to deliver 1,000,000 meals to children in food insecure areas.

Last October, the company also pledged to purchase seven million pounds of apples and pears, or 30% of its produce, according to Inc., through the Equitable Food Initiative, a nonprofit certification program to support farmworkers.