We love to empower and inspire mums, today’s story is by Mulu Sun on her motherhood journey and her passion behind Vandme. She is a mother and holds a MA (PPE) from Oxford and an MBA from London Business School. Over to Mulu…
About Mulu Sun
I’m a big foodie. Before having baby V, my husband and I loved trying different cuisines and restaurants – from Michelin starred restaurants in Peru to small family-run ones in Italy… We were so excited about the weaning journey with V and the world of flavours that we wanted to reveal to him.
But when he turned 6 months, it was much harder than I imagined. Looking after him while cooking from scratch twice every day was getting tiring and stressful at times especially in between all the other things parents have to do. He only wanted to eat vegetables and fruits – which was fine until he went to nursery where he just kept getting sick. Everyone said it was “normal” until one GP suggested a blood test. Turned out his iron level was low (1 in 8 toddlers in the UK has iron deficiency) which meant lower immunity. Not only did I feel like a failure despite having given all my attention and efforts, but mealtime also got even more stressful trying to ensure I’m providing the best nutritional balance for him. We started doing extensive research and meal plans with paediatricians and paediatric dieticians and the idea of V&Me was born. We wanted to share our learnings and hope no parent will ever feel the way I felt with their children. So we set out to provide the best for babies and toddlers. We named the business V&Me as it was truly inspired by the journey my son V took with us.
I quit my Chief of Staff role in a technology start-up and used my network to start assembling a team with the best experts.
I interviewed over 350 chefs looking for ones with fine dining backgrounds who are also parents and believe in what we do. We now have a team of professional chefs in our first Battersea kitchen, led by head chef David, a father of 2 boys. In his 20+ years career, he’s worked in many fine-dining institutions, private members clubs, most recently at Dominique Ansel’s and the Treehouse in London before joining us. Needless to say, all kitchen staff holds Food Safety & Hygiene certificates and follows the strictest norms in our brand new professional kitchen.
We are aiming to strike a balance between introducing new flavours and including old favourites. That is the result of testing over 250 recipes with 50 little tasters and having a little army of tasters trying new meals every week as we develop more.
We have looked at every single detail in the past 18 months – from the eco-friendly containers we have, to the carbon-neutral print shop we use. We don’t do extra packaging as we use all the money on what’s important: the best food and nothing else.
We want to pass on the learnings we’ve had and make parents’ life just a little bit easier. We are confident that we will change the way people perceive baby / toddler food entirely once they’ve tried our service.
V&Me’s mission
To help parents fulfil every child’s full potential, to bring up a new generation with the healthy starts everyone deserves
We promise to
- Rewrite the menu – baby food shouldn’t be just pouches of vegetables packed with
fruit juice, or frozen meals shipped around the country, we are creating food so fresh and tasty you will want to eat it yourself. - Redefine relationships – no more choice between cooking from scratch and having a bit of down time to ourselves, V&Me is here to give parents their time back – to spend with themselves and with their family.
- Reinvent the rules – gone are the days that mum does everything. Now everyone can feed the babies fresh, healthy meals, planned and cooked by professionals.
fruit juice, or frozen meals shipped around the country, we are creating food so fresh and tasty you will want to eat it yourself.How to order?
V&Me are Paediatric approved meal plans for babies and toddlers (7m – 3y). Freshly cooked and delivered to your door every morning, Monday – Saturday. You can read Kensington Mums review here. Its a great service for busy Mums on the go.
Price for a daily bundle (three meals) is £7.99 /day for babies and £10.99 / day for toddlers. We also have an option to “double up for family” for an extra £7.99 so that parents can have some with toddlers too for that all important mealtime together.
We are starting with delivery to limited post codes in SW London first as it’s my own community. We will cover Kensington, Chelsea, Westminster, Belgravia, Battersea and Clapham as we launch but we will be covering the whole of London in the next 12 months as we open more kitchens.
Exclusive discount for Kensington Mums
We are offering Kensington Mums an exclusive discount code
KENM20 – 20% off the first month if you subscribe before 12th March.
We have a few virtual Q&A sessions (all of which for free!) with paediatric dieticians coming in the next few weeks covering weaning, fussing eating, allergies etc. and will be organising a lot of social events and competitions – so please do follow us on social!
For more information please visit their website.
