Jennifer Wiese, CEO and Founder of Bee Free
I’m a 53 year old wife, mother of 4 sons and business owner. Born into a family of 3rd generation dairymen in Ft. Wayne, IN I learned the value of hard work and resilience at a young age. I earned a BS in Applied Sciences and Technology from Ball State University. Community involvement has always been important to me and I’ve spent my life volunteering: schools, museums, events, church. My passion for taking care of my family and desire to chart a new path for other families of children with special needs lead me to start a food business in 2010. I’m passionate about helping others and making a change in our world. I love God, my family and my country.
How it started: Modern warriors need primal food. BeeFree was created for our son, who is growing up fighting the battle against autism. He's a real-life warrior, armed with a gluten/casein-free diet and overcoming one day at a time.
Each of us has our own unique battles to fight every day that require our time, focus and energy. But inside us all is a warrior’s heart that yearns to rise above and conquer those challenges.
The Growing Pains of Being Gluten Free
From nothing to something. You’ve heard these timeless stories all too often, and it’s rare to find one that gives you all the feels worth repeating, however the trials, growing pains, and triumphs of BeeFree, a gluten, dairy, grain, and junk free snack company, is now 8 years in the making and is finally on the cusp of being a nationally recognized brand.
Think back to 2010, to Bieber Fever, Hannah Montana, and the iPhone 4, a young mom was desperately working in the kitchen trying to create something for her son with autism to eat; at wits end, and fed up. Meet Jen: mother, wife, advocate, and soon to be entrepreneur.
63,445 batches later, Jen finally had what she thought didn’t taste like cardboard, in the form of mac and cheese, chicken nuggets, and cake; the ideal diet of a 7-year old. She remembers saying to herself, ‘I think I might really have something here,’ and with the encouragement from her autism support group, BeeFree Gluten Free was born.
After years of perfecting recipes, enduring the growing pains, and with the sole intention of sharing the success she’d found with going gluten free with other moms and families going through the same struggles, Jen’s products were starting to generate interest from local grocers. In 2012 BeeFree became grocery bound, and now can be found in over 850 stores in almost 30 states from the Midwest to the west coast.
When asked what it’s like running a nationally known bakery in her home, Jen simply says “I remember when I knew everyone by name at the local pizza dive because I would drop off handmade gluten free dough before every visit so August wouldn’t feel excluded because he couldn’t have regular dough. And I wouldn’t change it for the world. I remind myself of that when I want to take off my apron; that this isn’t Pizza Hut and this is no longer just a hobby anymore. Then my determination and commitment to loyal friends, supportive families, and employees is what keeps me going.”
BeeFree Timeline
2010: Jen and her mom made muffins, lemon cake, and cookies including vegan cowboy, snickerdoodle, and chocolate crinkle every Thursday for the weekend’s farmers markets.
2014: 4 flavors of Warrior Mix were introduced to the product line, thanks to the encouragement from Jen’s paleo friendly crossfit family.
2017: BeeFree launched their own gluten free pizza dough and a new flavor of Warrior Mix.
2018: First quarter: new 3oz bags of Warrior Mix released for sale in convenience stores.
The Wiese Family
In the next few years BeeFree hopes to be in stores in all 50 states and a recognizable household brand. BeeFree wants to continue to use its platform to support autism research organizations, and to employ even more young adults and teens living on the autism spectrum.
For Jen and her family, a healthy lifestyle has turned into their livelihood. They are a completely family run business and all the flavors of BeeFree’s Warrior Mix are named after someone in the family. Jen is the face, passion and vision, but her business partner is her husband, and all their products are “teenage taste tested” and approved by her 4 boys. In Jen’s case the growing pains have been worth it. They saw a 22% growth in revenue in 2017 and project to double sales in 2018.
Jen’s goal was to share her recipe success with other moms who may be struggling with the same thing. BeeFree Gluten Free’s goal was to create a great tasting, gluten-free snack fuel for people who enjoy a clean eating lifestyle. “We try to be innovative at BeeFree, we see a need and a great cause and provide a solution. But it’s always been important to me that as we grow and establish a brand identity for ourselves, that we keep that homemade feel” said Jen, entrepreneur, CEO and founder of BeeFree.
Look for BeeFree Gluten Free Warrior Mix in the health food section at most health food stores, or online at beefreeglutenfree.com
Certified Paleo:
Grain-Free Gluten-Free: 
Keto Certified: 
