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happy belly is owned and operated by monica jerminario and brandon bjerke
we are a collaborative team that honors and highlights each other's talents and gifts/ monica is the woman behind the food and the concept/ brandon is the man making sure the happy belly ship is operating smoothly, the face at the farmers market, and the ultimate taste-tester
our mission is to enliven and encourage through food/ we teach that food is a vehicle for self love and self care/ we help our customers set down their apprehensions by creating treats that are made with conscious intention, nutrient dense ingredients, and full-filling flavors
we have both lived the healing power of food/ being together for 21 years and working through monica's pre-celiac diagnosis, we both saw how much food either can give life or drain life/ we seek to pass on that culled experience
we want you to enjoy yourselves, your health, your body, your cravings without shame/ we want you to listen to what your body is saying, what it's telling you it needs, it has ultimate wisdom, and is a guiding force on your path/ we still love food like we did as children-- with wild abandon!
our cultural backgrounds really lend to our mission, they are important in understanding our story:
brandon is chinese, scandinavian, celtic, and his deepest roots in the pacific islands/ monica is italian, spanish, celtic, and her deepest roots in the middle east/ we bonded through food/ we found our identity through food
we saw ourselves around the table, talking story, and really experiencing where we came from every night with our families/ this is a heritage that we share despite being from different backgrounds/ we saw the core principles are not different between chinese families and italian families, food always took center stage/ we infuse this history into everything we create because it is who we are
we have both been in the food industry since we've been young/ in addition to working in various restaurants in nj and ny, brandon worked for a decade at a local organic food producer and distribution center-- working his way up from roaster to chief operating officer through the years-- before leaving to help grow the happy belly vision/ monica grew up in a farming family, worked the green markets in nyc from 14 to 18, worked as a sous chef in albany ny for a number of years, and then did her graduate thesis work on local food justice issues before starting happy belly