Meet Sheniz Wilkie, the creative force behind Noorish Foods, a culinary venture that’s all about superfoods to elevate your life. With a passion for quality ingredients and a commitment to sustainability, Sheniz has turned her love for food into a business that nourishes both body and soul.
Get to know the inspiring maker behind Noorish Foods and discover how she’s making waves with her business.
Tell us a bit about your background, and why Noorish Foods started
Back in the early 2000’s my brother and I did a Vipassana meditation course. It changed our outlook on life and we became vegetarians together. There were so few options for vegetarians at the time that we decided to open Noorish Conscious Eatery and Yoga Studio in Edmonton in 2011. We were optimistic about the desire to bring more raw and vegan-inspired cuisine to Edmonton and were warmly welcomed as an urban eco-village so to speak.
We had a great 8 years living in community with our staff, cultivating a 1 acre farm plot that inspired a menu of locally-grown seasonal eats and we proudly pioneered the farm to table experience.
Right before the pandemic, a series of events led us to close the restaurant and launch an online product line of superfood-infused drink blends instead. We knew we had our hands on some very special recipes that could help people rebuild their immunity, restore their mental health, and find a way to thrive once again. We couldn’t sit idle, so we began designing easy to use, nutrient-dense, hot chocolate, honey and chai mixes to support anxiety, immunity, stress and overall health.
What led you to make the decision to move Noorish Foods to Golden?
In 2020 with the rise of fear and uncertainty in cities from the pandemic, we decided it was time to make our move to the forest. We had a dream to raise our son Kalle in the mountains, grow pollinator-friendly gardens and get closer to living a more resilient life in harmony with nature.
With a shortage of commercial food processing kitchens in Golden, we decided to pack our products on Vancouver Island, and ship them across Alberta and BC from there.
What challenges do you face as a small business, in a competitive industry? Are there different challenges now having moved to Golden?
The biggest challenge about being in the consumer product goods (CPG) industry in Golden is certainly food processing and distribution. The cost to ship raw ingredients into Golden and then ship out finished products to larger consumer bases, or to simply ship online orders out, is so expensive from Golden that you’re already at a lesser advantage to your urban competitors.
Ultimately the challenge is that small scale food producers can’t survive in their “growth phase” as scaling up is near impossible without the economies of scale that you can get in larger cities like Vancouver (port city where your ingredients can arrive easily, warehouses that are equipped to fulfill orders on your behalf, distribution companies, etc). In the world of CPG, most companies don’t make it because they get stuck in what’s called the muddy middle.
When you’re small you have high margins but low volumes. You’re making your own product and moving all the product yourself… so your gains are high for the efforts you put in. But as you grow, you need to involve other larger players that take huge percentages (distribution companies, advertising companies, fulfillment centres, etc), so you need to jump into the volumes game in order to find a margin again. It’s actually a very hard game, which is why many growing brands quickly sell off to larger companies who can weather the storms better.
We honestly need more supportive resources like a food hub to support local farmers to “value-add” their produce and turn them into other viable food products for the market (jams, crackers, chutneys, salsas, etc) and to offer companies like Mamacita’s and Noorish a place to produce their products.
Your logo and packaging are well done. What can you tell other small producers who are just getting started, about branding and packaging design?
Stay true to what’s authentic and beautiful to you. Keep it simple. Study your successful competitors closely. People want to connect with the people behind the brand, so don’t be afraid to be soft, silly and playful with your content, to show the real vibe of who’s behind the product.
What are the goals for Noorish Foods – short term and long term?
• Short-term: Finding financial sustainability with another 100 vendors to sell our products across AB/BC.
• Long-term: Having a farm-gate store with locally curated products to support the region to build a more robust local food culture.
Become small scale beekeepers so the bees can enjoy our wildflower gardens and we can create a sustainable, locally-harvested honey source for our sunshine in a cup.
Where are your products available locally?
• Higher Ground
• Eat Pure Mountain Market
• Art Gallery of Golden
Anything else you want to share with people?
Supporting local brands and food producers is an incredible way of investing in our community’s food security. It strengthens our community resilience as a region, especially in the event of wildfires and other natural disasters that can threaten our food supply chain.
If you’re interested in more stories like this, check out our local business stories here.
