Gerber

Means health, purity, trust

Memory brings back my first impression of this brand, walking through the tiled floors of the small grocery store with my mother, purchasing baby food. The tiny delicate jars with the image of an angelic baby with a sweet smile and a single curl on its head lined up so perfectly on each shelf. Anytime someone says baby food or baby products, the Gerber baby immediately pops into my head. Recently my niece posted an image of her son with the caption “my Gerber baby” and he did resemble the Gerber baby. She is amongst the 20-something generation yet the brand still means the same to her as it did to my mother, to me, and many generations from the early 1900’s till now. Gerber means health, purity, trust, nutrition and love. How many brands have been around this long and held such a strong love by their consumers? Dorothy Gerber was smart to suggest to her husband to start manufacturing strained baby foods in order to save women time in the kitchen while preparing and caring for their infants. Up until that time, food had to be strained and mashed by hand. A simple solution to a tedious time consuming task turned into a well-known brand loved and purchased by parents all over the world. And how many fathers over the years kept the baby jars to keep in their shop to put small parts, screws, nuts, and bolts in. Entire systems were developed around nailing the jar lids to wooden racks hung on walls so you could easily unscrew the jar from the shelf, get what you needed and screw it back onto the shelf. In the beginning it was not only a great baby food, it was also without knowing, a green product. I bet someone somewhere can walk into their father or grandfather’s garage and find Gerber baby jars hanging or standing on a shelf. Did Gerber grow up with America or has America grown up with Gerber?

Trudy, United States - 30 December 2010