Jessica Welsch and Stephanie Williams are happy. The pair, who are sisters, are not just amiable, but full-on, radiantly joyful. They hug you upon meeting you for the first time, smile incessantly, joke with each other at every opportunity.

It doesn't come as too much of a surprise, then, that the product at the center of the company they created in 2010 resembles one of the great American "fun foods"--the Popsicle. But Welsch and Williams' frozen pops are more serious--and more nutritious--than the chilly orange or cherry confections we're familiar with. And the sisters don't actually manufacture the pops--they sell kits that allow you to make them yourself.

The HopeFULL Company produces small, easily transported kits containing a neoprene bag, silicone molds, Popsicle-type sticks that also double as spoons, and a card stack of recipes for super-healthy frozen pops made of things like kale and beets.  

Originally conceived as a way to help cancer patients deal with the food issues brought on by chemo, the kits are now used by a wide variety of customers, from those facing life-threatening illnesses to parents who are trying to help their kids eat more nutritiously.

"Each pop is a healthy serving of hope," says Welsch. "That's where the name came from, and that's our company mission. We're not just giving people recipes and silicone molds, we also want to be giving them encouragement and affirmation."

The Birth of a Serious Treat

Like many companies, HopeFULL started through a bit of serendipity.

Welsch and Williams, who grew up in New Brighton, had children at about the same time--their five-year-old daughters were born just months apart--and soon found themselves brainstorming about how to develop the entrepreneurial inclinations that they also shared.

For two years, they worked to develop Flowerchild Foods, an organic food business geared toward children. Their idea was to offer bite-sized portions for kids who are transitioning to solid food. Williams explains that that the mini-morsels, to be sold frozen, were like veggie meatballs with some wholesome ingredients like quinoa, cheese, and sweet potatoes, and allowed kids to feed themselves with a minimum of mess.

Although there was a clear market niche for the foods, manufacturing them proved to be a problem. The sisters went through five manufacturers, all of whom balked at trying to recreate their recipes, and that was before they even tried to tackle the intricacies of getting the product in grocery stores.

As they were gearing up to delve deeper into the manufacturing issues, a family friend, Suzette, approached them about making food for her as she underwent chemotherapy for leukemia.

Like many chemo patients, Suzette had numerous well-meaning friends and family who brought her home-cooked meals, but the smell of food made her nauseous, and mouth sores from the chemo made it hard to eat. As a result, she stopped eating, and her doctors threatened to put her on a feeding tube if she didn't start getting necessary nutrients. She asked Welsch and Williams if they could draw on their baby-food-making skills and come up with a solution.

"We love cooking, we both see it as an adventure," says Williams. "So this was a great challenge for us."

The pair researched the nutritional needs of cancer patients, and blended together ingredients like beets and kale with sweeter tastes like sunflower butter. When the resulting frozen pops proved to be a huge hit with Suzette, they knew they were on to something.

Bypassing Production Problems

Moving from a frozen kids' treat with manufacturing challenges to an adult food product that's also frozen wasn't exactly the leap that the HopeFULL founders wanted to make.

Knowing they'd discover many of the same obstacles--especially when they already had so much investment in Flowerchild--they worked to create a different way to deliver the product.

The result was the kit, which allows customers to create as many pops as they want on their own, and to transport them to hospitals and clinics easily by putting them in the neoprene bag. By selling the kits instead of the pops themselves, HopeFULL bypasses all the thorny manufacturing and shelf-space issues that arise with new food products.

The kits are now sold in a few stores, such as the Harvest Moon co-op in Long Lake, but the main sales channel is the HopeFULL website, where they are selling briskly.

As Welsch and Williams have discovered, the kits' appeal goes beyond their original purpose of helping those with food challenges; they also attract customers who are simply trying to eat in more healthy ways. Since the recipes that are included are packed with nutrition and call for simple ingredients, they're perfect for anyone, Welsch says.

"Personally, as a busy mom, I can understand the convenience of them," she notes. "I rarely have time to sit down and make a snack with beets and leafy greens and just the right amount of healthy fat. But if I make some of these in advance, I can have all that."

Hopeful About HopeFULL

As the company moves forward, the sisters are enjoying tweaking recipes and constantly coming up with new combinations for the pops.

They laugh often while recalling what they attempt, but insist that sometimes the ingredients that sound like the worst choices turn out to be the most delicious. For example, Williams notes, a recipe that depends on red cabbage is one of her favorites.

From the way they easily finish each other's sentences, it's obvious that they've mastered the give-and-take of running a business together. They complement each other, both believe, and each has her own skill set that helps keep the company growing.

In terms of the company's future, Williams says that their kindergarten-age daughters are already talking about running it when they grow up. Given the business acumen and incandescence of their mothers, it's likely that they'll be able to keep the happiness flowing, too.

Elizabeth Millard is Innovation and Jobs Editor of The Line.

Photos, top to bottom:

Stephanie Williams (l.) and Jessica Welsch: HopeFULL founders

The HopeFULL frozen-pop kit

A screen grab from the HopeFULL website, featuring purple pops

Williams and Welsch in conversation with writer Elizabeth Millard

Photos of Williams, Welsch, and kit by Bill Kelley