Granola for the 21st Century

By Lorrie Baumann

By day, Margaret Barrow is a mild-mannered college professor who teaches composition and literature at Borough of Manhattan Community College. When she unleashes her vegan super powers, though, she’s on a mission to use the granola-based snacks she used to make just for herself as a tool to help her students make better lives for themselves. The product she’s making for that purpose is It’s NOLA, poppable snack balls made from oats, seeds and nuts.

The idea to turn the snack balls she’d been making at home for her own consumption into a business came from her students, she said. They’d been bringing snacks to her classes that her vegan sensibilities wouldn’t allow her to share, so she decided to bring the snack balls she’d been eating at home – they’re chia seed, pumpkin seed, flax seed and sunflower seed along with nuts, oats and spices mixed with a vegan binder to hold them together in crunchy balls. “I started making them for me and my family because I’m the only vegan, and I wanted to make something that we could all eat,” Barrow said. “My students had never had vegan before, and I was delighted to share it with them.”

The students liked the snacks so much that they started asking Barrow if she’d bring more so they could share with their family and friends. Then they started showing up at her home at night. Then some of them told her that she should really start a company and sell them. She said no.

Undaunted, students Mariem Sanoe and Candice Ricks took some of the snack balls to other New York colleges and New Jersey’s Rutgers University and passed them out to students there, along with a survey. Then they brought the results of their consumer research back to Barrow. “We think you should read these,” they told her. “You always told us to get evidence to support our arguments.”

Shocked, Barrow held out a hand for the surveys and started reading. “I was shocked. It was totally unexpected,” she said. “The surveys gave me a sense of the commitment and the belief that the students had. I was the person who was always their champion, and for the first time I felt I was on the opposite end of it.”
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Then she started thinking. “I’ve spent most of my life doing two things at once,” she said. “I’ve spent so much of my life juggling two goals at a time. I have a lot of energy.”
She consulted the business professors at her college, and she asked a lawyer if there was a way that she could use profits from an entrepreneurial project to support community college mentoring programs.

They didn’t tell her no, and maybe it wouldn’t matter if they had. Vegans are used to answering doubts about the positions they’ve staked out. Barrow started accepting a new identity as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of a small artisanal food business. “I asked the students to accept sweat equity to come into the company and help me,” she said. “I’ve been mentoring them while I’ve been learning about being an entrepreneur. I want to continue working on legacies of wealth with them.”

It’s Nola is a snack that’s intended as a fun and filling amuse bouche to soothe a between-meals hunger pang rather than as a substitute for a regular meal or any part of one. A serving is low in calories, low in sugar, low in sodium and low in fats and carbohydrates. “It’s filling without making you feel lethargic. It provides energy. It’s a true traditional snack, which means that you’re having something between meals to get you to the next meal. You don’t need to eat a whole bag,” Barrow said. “Most people say that they can eat three or four of these balls and they feel good. They’re addictive – that, I can say. They’re very uniquely flavored.”

It’s NOLA is offered in Luscious Cranberry Coconut and Sassy Mango Masala as well as Decadent Chewy Chocolate, which is the newest flavor. They’re packaged in stand-up pouches with either a single serving, a two-serving 12-count or a 24-count. “We’re working on getting them into cafes, so it’s a stand-up pouch that will work next to a cash register,” Barrow said.
Ten percent of the profits from It’s NOLA are dedicated to community college mentoring programs, with the funds to go directly to the programs rather than being funneled through a foundation or non-profit organization, Barrow said. “Ultimately I’d like to raise enough money so we can create housing for community college students,” she added. “Some of them live in the projects – they just don’t live in the greatest of circumstances while they’re being educated.”