Panela Lemon was founded on Marilyn’s deep passion for a healthy and natural lifestyle and the belief that delicious treats don’t have to sacrifice health. She learnt the art of baking from her mom, so her healthy treats have in them the special ingredients of heart and home. Combining her value for health and her learned skills, Panela Lemon was born.
Marilyn immigrated to Canada from Columbia in April 2014. When she moved to Canada, she had the opportunity to learn the electrical trade. Not only did the job introduce her to some wonderful people, but it also gave her the confidence and funds to follow her long-time dream of creating a business in the food industry, doing what she loved most.
“Panela Lemon represents who I am, my background and my passions.”
Her delicious vegan stuffed cookies are each uniquely filled and made with clean ingredients, free of any preservatives, and artificial dyes and flavourings. They aim to provide fun and creative ways of eating healthy. They are sweetened with raw organic Colombian panela and organic coconut sugar.
Question: How are you supporting other local businesses?
Answer: We try to source as much as possible our ingredients from local / Canadian companies. Our packaging materials, such as labels, are from Vancouver-based companies. In that way, we also participate in the support local cycle. We make our healthy treats out of Coho Commissary in Vancouver. We work with Piquant Marketing for help with branding and advertising and Good to Grow for business consulting. We source our ingredients locally from Left Coast Naturals, Sunco Foods, Jiva Organics, Organic Matters Foods, and Snow Cap.
Question: What social and environmental practices are you proud of?
Answer: We are a fairly low energy-intensive business, but we are adding solar to our production within the next year. We do our best to provide an ideal work environment for our employees and place an extra focus on youth employment. Also, we are working on some charity projects to give away some of our products to people in need. Our products are vegan and have minimal waste. We arrange our production and storage to obtain minimum waste. We encourage buyers to buy our cookies without packaging to minimize the use of plastic.
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