Some of Joyce Zhu’s favorite holiday memories come from Chinese New Year celebrations at her parent’s home in New Jersey. The annual holiday, also called Lunar New Year, is a 15-day festival that features family reunions and feasts in China, and Chinese communities around the world. The holiday is tied to the lunar calendar, and depending on the year, can occur any time between January 21 and February 20. In 2023, Chinese New Year begins on January 22.

For last year’s celebrations, Joyce and her parents, Jane and Chaoying, dressed up in red for good luck and set off firecrackers in their backyard, prompting a neighbor to open their door and yell out, “Happy New Year!” One of their annual traditions is sitting down as a family to eat hotpot, a communal style of eating where everyone dips and cooks various thinly-sliced raw ingredients—meat, seafood, vegetables, and starches like rice cakes and noodles—in a simmering pot of broth at the center of the table.

“In China, everyone is off for at least two weeks and the whole country basically shuts down,” Joyce explains. “Being Chinese-Americans and celebrating here [in the US], it’s a one-day thing. We get together and give appreciation and think about how the year started and where we’re going.”

The sweeter the story

Joyce has much to be grateful for. 2023 marks the fifth anniversary of the launch of Numa Foods, a company she co-founded with her mom, Jane. Numa Foods makes healthy treats inspired by traditional Chinese candy recipes. They named their company after the Chinese characters for daughter ‘Nu’ and mother ‘Ma’.

Their entrepreneurial journey began in 2017, when Joyce, a management consultant who often traveled for work, had trouble satisfying her sweet tooth. Joyce was born with an autoimmune disease, and struggled to find snacks that helped her adhere to her diet while keeping sugar consumption low. When she expressed her frustration to her mom who was back home in New Jersey, Jane felt she could do something to help her daughter.

Jane was born and raised in Shanghai, one of the world’s largest seaports and a major industrial and commercial center of China. She and Joyce’s father, Chaoying, moved to the US for further education. Their daughter, Joyce, was born in South Carolina and raised in New Jersey, where the couple eventually settled.

“They are the classic immigrant story,” Joyce says of her parents, adding, “They had a few dollars in their pockets and one suitcase to their name.”

Thinking back to her childhood in Shanghai, Jane remembered a milk candy recipe that had been passed down from her own grandmother. She wondered if a reduced-sugar version of the recipe might work for her daughter. She set to work in her kitchen, gathering all-natural ingredients that included whole milk powder, whipped egg whites, brown rice syrup, nuts, and fruit. She recreated the chewy milk candy (also known as nougat) that is popular around Asia, and that her own mother used to make decades before in Shanghai.

Her experiment worked. Joyce called home to report that, not only did her mom’s homemade, low-sugar candy satisfy her sugar cravings, it also didn’t trigger any of the typical adverse symptoms caused by her autoimmune disorder. Joyce also shared the candies with her colleagues, many of whom had never tasted Asian milk candy before, and they loved it as well. Before long, Jane was preparing additional candies for her daughter to snack on and share with her friends and coworkers.

Joyce, an economics graduate from the University of Chicago, soon recognized a potential business opportunity. Joyce shares how she and her mom decided to test it out on their community:

Even as the mother-and-daughter team found local success with their handmade healthy sweets, it wasn’t a formal business, and they treated it as a side hustle. Joyce continued to maintain her day job, even though she wasn’t sure she saw a future for herself there. While discussing potential career moves with her mom, she mentioned her desire to work for a startup.

“Why don’t you start your own company?” was Jane’s gentle response, suggesting her daughter go all-in on founding her own food business. When Joyce realized how serious her mom was about supporting her, she decided to take the plunge and launch Numa Foods.