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Food Academy
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RUA
I, Alice, established Rua in 2018 as a freelance chef to provide assistance with healthy meals. When lockdown hit, I began crafting treats for a few local cafes. Initially, we supplied just two cafes, but now we distribute to over 50 independent retailers across Ireland each week. Our production hub is located in Hour Kitchen, Churchtown.
After giving birth to my baby, I started baking lactation cookies for myself and realized there was a lack of such products available for sale in Ireland. During the challenging days of breastfeeding, I relied on these cookies to nourish me, satisfy my sweet cravings, and boost my milk supply. Recognizing the need, I decided to make these cookies accessible to other mothers across Ireland through my business website, where we already offered seven other products, including our award-winning granola, peanut butter bites, tracker bites, two types of plant-based cookies, brownies, and truffle bites.
Our plant-based Chocolate Oatmeal 'Lactation' Cookies feature a blend of Irish oats, golden flaxseed (linseed), and Brewer’s Yeast sourced from the Wicklow Hops Company. Infused with sustainably sourced Callebaut 55% Dark Chocolate, these ingredients provide essential nutritional support for busy breastfeeding mothers, offering a convenient, superfood-packed snack that can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere.
Supported by strong anecdotal evidence from mothers, lactation cookies are believed to gently promote milk production. They contain key 'galactagogues' that aid in initiating and sustaining milk supply at a level meeting the baby's needs. We bake these cookies in small batches several times a week in our Churchtown kitchen, delivering them to cafes and mothers across Ireland.
At Rua, we embrace a zero waste ethos. Each of the eight wholefood and mostly plant-based sweet treats we produce is made to order, ensuring no food goes to waste. We've designed our products to adhere to this zero waste ethos, using offcuts from Hazelnut Brownies to create Hazelnut & Chocolate Truffle Bites, and transforming Tracker Bars into Tracker Balls to minimize waste.
Though we may be small, our commitment to supporting our community and beyond is unwavering. We've fundraised for organizations like the ISPCA, Unicef, and are hosting a bake sale next month to aid the people of Gaza. The growth of Rua has also generated several jobs in the area, and we're proud to have a dedicated team of five working in our kitchen, baking every day.
The Food Academy has been instrumental in shaping Rua's vision to introduce lactation cookies to a wider audience. It has served as an invaluable incubator for decision-making and idea generation, guiding our business's trajectory. Supervalu's values closely align with our own, as we are focused on waste reduction while nourishing mothers (and others!) across the country. Partnering with SuperValu, a family-friendly business, is the perfect opportunity to bring this vision to fruition.
