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Date: 3/22/2022
HOLYOKE – Jake’s Kids was started by Holyoke resident Dara Davignon on the day she officially adopted her son Jake.
Davignon comes from a background of product development and retail and wanted to put her skills to use in an attainable and meaningful way.
“I really wanted to volunteer somewhere to help foster children or go back to school to become a social worker to help foster children, but I could not figure out how to find the time to do all that and to shift careers right now isn’t really the most ideal for me, so I was like ‘how could I help and still maintain my time to have a full time job and be a mom?’” said Davignon.
Davignon previously opened Lactation Cookie Express, a business that makes lactation cookie mixes for nursing and pumping mothers with low milk supply, in 2018.
Only a few years later, she decided to open Jake’s Kids in order to provide non-lactation cookie mixes for both kids and adults. Five percent of all proceeds from Jake’s Kids are donated to the Wonderfund of Massachusetts.
“That’s my way of giving back right now and I hope in the future that I have more free time to be able to volunteer and to dedicate time to help foster children directly, but right now this is what I’m doing and it’s starting small, but I really have great plans for it and I hope that I can make a difference.”
According to Davignon, these funds are used to help spread awareness about fostering children and to help the 424,000 children in foster care in the United States who have been affected by abuse, neglect and trauma.
Jake’s Kids currently sells chocolate chip, magic rainbow and smores cookie mixes. Davignon has a commercial bakery located in Massachusetts that helps her make the mixes, though she said that she developed the recipes on her own.
She hopes to expand to sell pancake mixes as well.
“That’s one of my goals for 2022,” said Davignon.
The cookie mixes are available on the Jake’s Kids website, on Amazon and at a few local retailers in the Pioneer Valley.
“I’ve gotten a ton of local support. More so than I even expected,” said Davignon.
All Delaney’s Markets, Joey’s Deli in Agawam and Outside of the Box in Ludlow sell Jake’s Kids mixes.
“I hope to expand to more local stores too and I do some fundraising with schools as well, so in addition to selling directly to customers I do fundraising with schools in New England,” said Davignon.
Throughout this journey, Davignon said that her favorite part of owning Jake’s Kids has been being able to share the story of her and her son and to spread awareness of the importance of fostering and adopting.
“I love telling the story of my son and I. I had a very positive experience with fostering and adopting and I hope that it encourages other people to maybe think about it. What I like to say is open your mind, open your heart and open your home,” she said.
Davignon encouraged people to buy products from Jake’s Kids in order to help give back to foster children and to enjoy a delicious, locally made, specialty product.
“They’re cookies for a cause. They give back and that makes them special,” she said.
Those interested in learning more about Jake’s Kids are encouraged to visit their website at https://jakeskids.com/.