Parenting the millennial way makes its mark on food preparation

The US Census Bureau has recently published a report looking at the characteristics of the Millennial generation – that group of people aged 18-34 – which is proving particularly interesting in light of experiences and attitudes to parenthood and parenting. 

The report concluded that millennials increasingly remain at home with their parents and delay starting a family. More than half of this generation have concluded that marriage and children are not important steps in becoming an adult. However, this doesn’t mean that they are turning away from these life events – but the timing and the way they are achieved differs from previous generations. Whilst there is a definite trend towards marrying later, the report noted that co-residential living arrangements – with boyfriends or girlfriends, began at the same age as their parents married. This type of living arrangement is the fastest growing amongst young adults – so it may be no surprise to learn that 40% of all births in the United States currently are to unmarried women.

There has been a rise in the number of young women in the workforce since 1975 – increasing from just under half in 1975 to over two thirds currently. During the same period the share of young men aged 25-34 in the workplace has remained about the same. Additionally – and probably of more importance to manufacturers of baby food – young women have made significant economic gains: the median income of those aged 25-34 has increased from US$23,000 to US$29,000 between 1975 and 2016 whilst the percentage of young women earning US$60,000+ has increased from 2% to 13% during the same period. Additionally millennials reportedly place a high value on food experiences, local food, health, high quality and convenience, whilst most millennial mothers work outside the home and are increasingly looking for products that take the chore out of food preparation. Given this set of circumstances it is no surprise that there are so many high-end local baby food delivery services starting up within the United States.

Most recently (March 2017) it was announced that a food delivery start-up named Thistle is launching a brand new product line called Thistle Baby, that will provide a weekly delivery of nutritious, organic, and pre-prepped ingredients that can be used to make baby food at a cost of around US$2 per meal. Thistle Baby meal kits come in vacuum-sealed bags of pre-portioned, flash-frozen organic ingredients that parents can steam and puree however they’d like, then add the provided spices to their babies’ own tastes. Because parents are able to control how much spice they put into the meals they really are able to learn their baby’s preferences while instilling healthy eating habits.

This isn’t the only home delivery option available –  a number of other e-commerce food businesses deliver complete meals or meal kits to the door, most of which can be individually customised to suit individual babies’ needs or indeed preferences. Most of these are locally based: Lily & Bella in Dallas delivers organic ingredients and recipes to make baby food at home; Los Angeles-based Caer offers low-sugar organic, prepared baby foods for delivery; and NurtureLife in Chicago offers ready-to-eat meals tailored to kids’ developmental stage and food preferences.

According to a recent Nielsen survey, globally 14% of consumers are already buying groceries and household goods online and via mobiles, with a further 30% prepared to do so. GlobalData puts the value of the US wet baby meals market at US$1.52 billion in 2016 and even a 14% share of this would represent a significant figure.