The idea of working “smarter not harder” when it comes to raising children is a mantra of Gina Cormier. Inspired by her experience as a first-time mom, she invented a product that materializes her philosophy. The Yummy Spoon was created out of a need to simplify feeding her children healthy food on-the-go.
“My son Tristian was my inspiration,” said Cormier. “I’ve always made my children food instead of buying the premade foods and with being a coach and being on-the-go all the time I needed something that was quick and clean to feed the kids. Not to mention something they would use.”
Cormier played soccer for The University of New Mexico and graduated with a degree in Elementary Education. After graduate school in Texas, she and her husband Zach Cormier, also a UNM alumnus, moved back to Albuquerque.
She began to think about developing her product when her now four-year-old son, Tristan was a baby.
“I wanted to feed Tristan away from the house—I wanted to feed him whole foods such as bananas, avocados and good rich vegetables,” said Cormier. “Bringing spoons, bowls and Tupperware became a huge mess.”
Armed with an idea, Cormier talked with her brother Paul Martello, a marketing professional, about the possibility of creating the Yummy Spoon.
“I thought it was a homerun idea,” said Martello. “I knew as soon as she told me about it, it would be a big hit.”
Encourage by Martello’s excitement for her product and advise, Cormier began to create prototypes of the Yummy Spoon.
“The first version was like a toothpaste tube with a spoon attached,” said Cormier. “After many designs we were able to come up with a soft, silicone design that was BPA free and easy to clean.”
Other products on the market for feeding children on-the-go didn’t work for Cormier’s family. Many popular brands caused her daughter, Colby to have stomach aches. These brands also had ingredients that she was comfortable feeding her children.
Cormier added that the store products were expensive and although touted as organic, had many preservatives.
While raising her family and developing her product, Cormier stays busy as the head varsity soccer coach at Sandia Preparatory School in Albuquerque.
“It’s a good mix to be able to be with my children, work on my product and coach soccer,” says Cormier.
The Yummy Spoon is on sale in several boutique stores in Calif., online and most recently became an exclusive product on Amazon.