Jackie Loebenberg, co-founder of kosher ready meal company Eureka Cove tells JLife about the business’ vision for the future.
Jackie Loebenberg is currently based in London but has her eyes trained firmly north as she tells JLife about expanding the reach of Eureka Cove, a kosher food company she co-founded with her husband Richard.
Currently selling its range of kosher certified frozen ready meals – which includes lean beef ragu, meatballs with linguine, lasagne, spaghetti bolognese and gluten-free hake goujons – across the UK, Eureka Cove’s focus is on providing high quality, affordable and convenient kosher food that requires little preparation. But the business also has philanthropic aspirations and intent, in part inspired by Jackie’s own personal experiences, after both she and her mother were diagnosed with cancer.
“My mother had breast cancer in 2013 and she began to use the services of Chai Cancer Care. Then in 2016, a few months after we launched Eureka Cove, I found out I had the BRCA gene and was diagnosed with breast cancer too, so we embraced the facilities of Chai again,” she says. “As I was going through chemotherapy and operations, I vowed when I got through to give something back and hopefully assist others going through similar journeys.”
For every frozen meal Eureka Cove sells it is donating 25p to the cancer charity, and the company has also pledged to raise up to £25,000 over the next two years. “This is a new venture with a different sort of ethos,” continues Jackie, “we’ve obviously been affected by illness and so our thought process for developing Eureka Cove was that it should be a business for heart and soul. We’ve launched five frozen ready meals that are made from high quality and sustainable ingredients. We’re trying to cater for people living alone, students and young professionals who don’t always have time to cook. It’s kosher takeaway.”
Jackie stresses that the products aren’t only for the orthodox community, adding: “We’re also planning Eureka Essentials, which will sell good value kosher meat and poultry. We want to make kosher food available for everyone, and target people who perhaps were previously kosher but aren’t now because of the prices.”
The meals are currently stocked in 11 Tesco stores nationwide, including in Prestwich, Cheetham Hill and Altrincham, as well as being sold through online retailer Ocado and through selected independent kosher shops throughout Manchester and Salford such as Habers World, Shefa Mehadrin, Halpern’s Kosher Food Store, Kosher Savers and Kolbo.
Jackie’s background includes work in the children’s entertainment industry, as she was previously a licensing director for Abbey Home Entertainment. Asked about the surprising switch to food she says: “My experience in the food industry can’t match Richard, who has over 40 years’ worth, including a previous business called Great Food which has now been rebranded as Gosh Free From. It supplied supermarkets and also food services to companies like Pret a Manger, Marks & Spencer and Leon.”
But Jackie is confident in her ability to take the company to the next level, stating that she “delivers the PR, marketing, philosophy and philanthropic approach. I’m trying to build the brand and give something back to the community as well.”
Jackie and Richard aren’t stopping there, however, and have also come up with a range of innovative ways to reach out. “In order to celebrate the launch of Eureka Cove we’ve sponsored another division of the company, Eureka Education, which is run by educator Laurie Rosenberg.
“His mission is to travel throughout the UK, delivering messages and events to the community. We’ll be going into schools, community centres and synagogues and covering a wide range of topics. We want to address issues like recycling, keeping the oceans clean, anti-bullying and reducing knife crime. We’re quite an unusual company but we are still a food business.”
One of Eureka Education’s first forays north is an event at Broughton Jewish Primary School on 14th October to discuss Sukkot. “It will be a family event under the auspices of Rabbi Perlman, where people can create their own festival and Laurie will be assisted by a well-known children’s entertainer – we’re expecting this to be presented to around 250 people,” says Jackie, “and we’ve invited Louise Hager of Chai Cancer Care to be our guest speaker.”
With plans in the pipeline for Jump for Charity, an event involving bungee trampolines potentially being set up at Tesco stores, as well as a new range of vegetable dishes mooted for Eureka Cove, Jackie admits she’s “now probably busier than I’ve ever been.”
“I wasn’t as involved in the business before my cancer diagnosis,” she says. “It was a tough year – I had 15 blasts of chemotherapy and a major operation. It wasn’t a bundle of joy but it’s done now, so my approach is just to get on with it. That is what gives me my focus for the future. I think there’s so much we can do to make a difference. It’s just a question of going for it.
“My general philosophy is that I want to do something now – I don’t want to have things done ‘in memory of’. Nobody knows what’s in store, so I say ‘do it, do it now and don’t hang about’.” With Jackie’s determination, passion and and enthusiasm behind it, Eureka Cove looks set to be a force to be reckoned with in the food industry and beyond…
For more information, visit Eurekacove.com.