Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

After one of my children at the age of 2 was diagnosed with a serious case of iron deficiency, I wanted to find a supplement that was effective, easy to take, and without side effects. But I quickly realized there is a lack of quality kids supplements on the market. Supplements that are marketed as “healthy” are full of sugar, sucralose, soy, fillers, titanium dioxide, and harmful artificial ingredients. I saw that there really was a need for clean, healthy, sugar-free supplements. With over a decade of experience in the natural health industry, managing supply chains, sourcing ingredients, and developing natural health products, I knew that supplements can be formulated and manufactured free of unnecessary fillers, sweeteners, and preservatives. By founding KidStar Nutrients, I wanted to create nutrients so delicious kids would ask for them, and so healthy that parents would feel great giving them to their kids. At KidStar, we have formulated a range of clean nutrients for children and families—in particular, the BioFe products, our flagship product line. Iron deficiency is the number one nutrient deficiency in Canada and worldwide—and BioFe is designed to address this deficiency. BioFe is available in unflavoured drops, tasty chewables, and liquid, so that anyone in the family can take their iron easily. A lack of quality kids supplements on the market spurred us to find supplements that are effective, easy to take and without side effects. But supplements that are marketed as “healthy” are often full of sugar, sucralose, soy, fillers, titanium dioxide, and harmful artificial ingredients. We realized that there really was a need for clean, healthy, sugar-free supplements. We know that supplements can be formulated and manufactured free of unnecessary fillers, sweeteners, and preservatives. By founding KidStar Nutrients, we wanted to create nutrients so delicious kids would ask for them, and so healthy that parents would feel great giving them to their kids.

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

We help support our community by bringing awareness to nutritional deficiencies through social media, print, and online. Our social media reach has grown from 0 to more than 6,000 today, across different channels including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and others. Education is vitally important for parents and caregivers who may not always have the time or resources to research nutrition and health issues. We use our social media channels to educate consumers on how to recognize nutrient deficiencies, why it’s important to address those deficiencies, and where to find clean, quality supplements free of harmful additives. We also recently added a Practitioner Education Specialist to our team to help reach out to the hundreds of midwives and dietitians across Canada, to ensure their patients have access to our products through samples or discounts. We also directly support local and national charities, to help families that may not otherwise be able to afford nutritional supplements. Over the past four years, we have supported Mamas for Mamas, a national charitable organization that supports mothers and caregivers in crisis by providing ongoing support to individuals and families facing various poverty-related struggles. From the inception of the company, KidStar Nutrients has provided thousands of dollars worth of product donations each year to Mamas for Mamas to help them continue their amazing work supporting mothers and families in Canada. In addition to supporting Mamas for Mamas, we also help promote local charities wherever possible on our social media platforms to help those charities increase their reach and impact. Over the last four years we have reached more and more families who want what we offer—great quality products that taste awesome and work! Our products were made for everyone, from babies to seniors, with our primary focus on children. Parents love the ingredients and kids love taking the products. Reading reviews from parents on how much their kids like our products and, ultimately, how well their kids are doing after taking them, makes all the efforts of the last four years more than worth it. Supporting the health of our community is the greatest reward and motivation to keep doing what we do.

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

KidStar Nutrients is all about clean nutrients, free of anything artificial or harmful. All our products are also sugar free, sweetened with natural and beneficial sweeteners like xylitol and stevia, to make them delicious. Our products are made to be tasted and enjoyed. We had launched our products to market with health food stores and our e-commerce website mere days before the province was placed into lockdown in March 2020, in response to the pandemic. Launching a new website and product line during a pandemic had certainly presented some challenges, but we were determined to tackle them head on! We believed so strongly in our product line and what we had to offer the marketplace in terms of clean, effective nutritional supplements for kids and families, that we were determined to be successful. Four years on, we continue to deliver on our mission to create the cleanest nutrients without harmful additives. Consumer education is a key part of what drives KidStar. We focus on ways to help parents and families learn more about what nutrients help build strong, healthy children, and what risks and symptoms contribute to nutrient deficiencies—especially iron deficiency. Iron deficiency is the most common nutrient deficiency worldwide and it is prevalent among women and children in developed countries like Canada. Parents may not recognize the symptoms of low iron and iron deficiency, which can cause negative long-lasting effects on a child’s health. KidStar believes that education is the most important tool we have. Informed parents make informed decisions for their children. We have a marketplace that is primed for a company like KidStar Nutrients, with a demand fuelled by increasing consumer awareness of natural health products. We have forged solid partnerships with established manufacturers who support our vision for clean, sugar-free products. We have created amazing, research-backed products that are clean, healthy, and delicious. And most importantly, we have a growing customer base that shares our belief in the importance and effectiveness of our products.

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

KidStar Nutrients is a proudly Canadian, family-owned and family-run business. Our success is built on the strength of our relationships with our employees, families, suppliers, contractors, and customers. We strive to create and sustain an inclusive, supportive, and dynamic workplace where employees are encouraged to contribute in ways that help them grow as individuals and help the company grow as well. KidStar knows that work-life balance is vital for our employees. We provide a supportive and flexible work environment so that our employees can maintain healthy relationships in both work and family life and therefore contribute meaningfully to their work and the company. We also regularly provide employees with opportunities to learn various aspects of the business and encourage professional development through continuing education courses and mentoring. Caitlyn, CEO of KidStar, is passionate about creating more opportunities for female leaders and entrepreneurs like herself who are juggling their careers and motherhood and has joined panel discussions with Women in Nutraceuticals, a global organization supporting women leaders in the natural health industry. Caitlyn is driven to create more awareness around gender parity while pushing for organizations to allow women to balance multiple priorities and excel without having to choose between their careers and parenthood. As a supplier of nutritional supplements, KidStar also provides essential consumer education to support the relationships we have built with our customers. Increasing awareness around the risks and symptoms of nutrient deficiencies, like iron deficiency, is essential. Informed parents make informed decisions for their children. And lastly, our relationship with the greater community is vital to who we are as a company. We regularly donate products to local non-profits to help families that may not otherwise be able to afford nutritional supplements. KidStar strongly believes in giving back to the community because healthy individuals help build healthy communities. Building strong relationships with our customers, suppliers, and employees helps KidStar continue to support the health of our local and broader communities. Building healthy communities is the greatest reward and motivation to keep doing what we do.

Why do you think you should win the Premier’s People’s Choice Award?

KidStar Nutrients® is a Canadian natural health company founded by Caitlyn Vanderhaeghe and Kyle Head and based in Vancouver, BC. KidStar® makes clean nutrients that are pure with nothing to hide. Our mission is to help families raise happy and healthy kids by providing clean, pure, and research-backed nutrients that parents can trust, and kids love. KidStar’s products contain no sugar, preservatives, soy, gluten, wheat, yeast, benzoates, or artificial colours and artificial flavours. We believe that a nutritional supplement should only contain ingredients you need for optimal health and nothing more. KidStar has formulated a range of clean nutrients for children and families—particularly the BioFe products, our flagship product line. Iron deficiency is the number one nutrient deficiency in Canada and worldwide—and BioFe is designed to address this deficiency. BioFe is available in unflavoured drops, tasty chewable, and liquid, so that anyone in the family can take their iron easily. Any parent with a picky eater will tell you that they worry constantly whether their child is getting enough essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients like healthy fats and protein. Iron deficiency is far from the only nutrient-related issue common in children. Our other products are designed to address these deficiencies, and we plan to extend our range further. All our products are formulated with these key ideas in mind: clean, healthy, and delicious. Giving back to the community is very important to KidStar. Having successfully developed clean nutrients and brought them to market, we know that some families cannot access nutritional supplements for one reason or another but are as much in need of them as anyone else. Funds are always tight in a new company, but we still want to help in whatever way we can. Over the last four years we have reached more families who want what we offer—great quality products that taste awesome and work! Our products were made for everyone, from babies to seniors, with our primary focus on children. Parents love the ingredients and kids love taking the products. Reading reviews from parents on how much their kids like our products and, ultimately, how well their kids are doing after taking them, makes all the efforts of the last three years more than worth it. Supporting the health of our community is the greatest reward and motivation to keep doing what we do.