We recently connected with Sarah Kupec and have shared our conversation below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love for you to start by sharing your thoughts about the pros and cons of family businesses.

I think family businesses are a HUGE part of the American Dream. Most people look at a family business as you get to work together and play together. You get to build something that can support not only your family now but generations to come. But, growing up with my Dad, Grandpa, and Uncle all working in the same industry and starting and ending multiple businesses together, I can tell you it isn’t always all that it is cracked up to be. The rewards are high but the risks are higher. If you fail, you fail your whole family. You also have to have the right people from your family working with you. The first thing you ALL need to understand is business is business and don’t take things personal. If you can do that and have a genuine respect for each other you will be able to make it work. My Dad and Uncle started working with my Grandpa when they were around 15. They are still working together to this day. Respect, hard work, a love of what you do, and patience is how you make a family business work. I personally don’t mind if my son joins my business. I have had great role models in how to make it work. I would just need to scale it up to be able to support him and his dreams.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Moose Meals is a freeze dried food company. We were started out of Covid with a dream to preserve food for our family long term. What it has grown into is much more. We currently sell candy, fruits, vegetables, meals, and we also do custom orders of all sorts of things. We fill all sorts of needs that we never knew we could. I have made teas, preserved wedding cakes, and done meal preps for busy families. Freeze drying is not dehydrating. There are many differences between the two but the most notable is that; freeze-dried foods retain the vast majority of the vitamins and minerals found in their original state. Freeze-dried food retains its nutrition because of the “cold, vacuum” process that is used to extract the water. Whereas, the nutritional value of dehydrated food is generally around 60% of equivalent fresh food. This loss is largely due to the heat used during dehydration which breaks down the food’s vitamins and minerals.
We do sell in a few different locations but, by far my favorite thing to do is try something new. So if you have questions are even a weird request we would love to try whatever it is.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

I manufacture most of our products. I say most because a few of our products are bought one way and then they are changed in the freeze dry process. All of our meals, fruits, and veggies are made/cut, stickered, packaged, and sealed by hand by me. I have learned many lessons along the way. The biggest lesson and first hurdle was getting the proper licensing, inspections, and permits needed to sell as a manufacturer. Thankfully I have a very nice brother-in-law that has been through it all and held my hand the whole way. The next lesson is what you can go cheap on and what you really should spend money on.
I knew not to skimp on the product. I have always made sure that the ingredients are fresh and high quality. But, in my quest during these crazy inflation times I skimped on my packaging/labels. I later had to change everything to make them more appealing and cohesive. I suffered the price of confusing my customers with the change, and the loss of money when tossing good labels.
I am constantly learning and growing. But I have learned to ask questions even if you think they are dumb. Someone out there has had the same one at some point. I am also learning which way I want this endeavor to go. With our type of business, we can go many directions. But narrowing it down will help us to scale a bit more.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

This whole business was founded off of being resilient. We fought through losing our jobs, we fought through Covid, and we fight every day to keep moving onward and upward. My husband and I both lost our jobs in the oil field due to Covid. We were trying to find a way to support our family, store food long term, and make our dollar go further. I happened across freeze drying. We were living pretty tightly and didn’t know exactly how we were going to buy the machine. So, I decided to start a business and have the business pay for it.
Well, that bit of genius grew into me being able to keep our son at home and not in daycare while being able to run a business and teach him real world lessons. We bought our first machine, sold mostly to friends and family. Then, one day my brother-in-law brought up scaling and selling in stores and other businesses. The rest is history but we never forget where we started and the struggle and fear we had in the beginning.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://moose-meals.constantcontactsites.com/
• Instagram: @moosemeals20
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/moosemeals