When Elizabeth Pantoja Lennon heard that her husband, Gregory Lennon, was in jeopardy of losing his commercial trucking license (CDL) due to poor health (diabetes), she decided to come up with a healthy snack that he would love to eat. The result was a “100% plant-based spread dip” that resembles hummus.
She wanted to make something that was along the lines of hummus, but was also loaded with protein, and all of the essential vitamins that Greg would need to keep him strong and healthy.
“She brought a bowl of it to the exact chair that I’m sitting in right now,” said Greg [laughing]. “At the time, my blood sugars were high, and I needed to lose weight and get in better health. So I tried the bowl of the spread dip. I ended up polishing off the whole bowl, and I asked, ‘Do you got any more of this, honey?’ I ate the second bowl, and said, ‘You should sell this stuff!’ It was the original flavor – the exact recipe that she still makes to this day. It turned out to be the perfect snack – something that I enjoyed snacking on, before watching the news and going to bed. The dip that I had been eating was causing me to gain weight, and I was disqualified from driving my truck.”
The spread-dip that Greg loved so much turned out to be called “Happeas.”
That was in 2020. Then the pandemic hit, just as Elizabeth and Greg began to take the concoction on the road, to farmer’s markets.
“It was tough, because people couldn’t sample it,” said Greg. “But we ended up selling it based on us describing it. People liked the idea that it was healthier than hummus, but similar – the texture and the flavor is amazing. Being in Buffalo (based out of Silver Creek) we decided to come up with a Buffalo wing flavor (using Frank’s) that is also popular. And then there’s a jalapeño.”
Elizabeth also came up with an indie flavor that has been extremely popular. It has a mixture of turmeric and ginger, giving it a Middle Eastern flavor profile.
All of the different Happeas flavors are not only delicious, they are also remarkably healthy. That’s because they are plant-based, organic, and incorporate a blend of chickpeas, green peas, and nutritional yeast. Combined with the rest of the herbs and spices, Happeas ensures that there are all of the essential vitamins and minerals to properly fortify the body.
Elizabeth discusses the health benefits at The Stagecoach Market
“I love to make something that’s good for my family, and for everyone,” Elizabeth told me. “It tastes good and it’s good for you. It’s something that is different. It’s more complete, with so many nutrients. This is the whole thing. Hummus is just chickpeas, tahini, water, oil, and spice for taste. Happeas has nutritional yeast that has all of the vitamins. I don’t even take vitamins anymore because it’s all in the spread -dip, and it’s natural eating. That means that your body absorbs it better. And parsley (for example) is one of my natural preservatives. Then there’s the onion and the garlic. People love that there is so much flavor, and all of the ingredients are so healthy.”
Being all natural, with no artificial preservatives, Elizabeth and Greg began to run into some stumbling blocks. While Happeas was making a name for itself on the farmer’s market circuit, they needed to get it on the shelves of the supermarket shelves. But with a one-week shelf life, that meant that they would have to visit all of the stores once a week to ensure that any of the Happeas containers that weren’t sold within the expiration date, were removed and replaced with fresh (PBA free) containers. They couldn’t just load up a store shelf, because of the limited shelf life.
That’s when Elizabeth, who was formerly a bio chemist, began to research ways to extend the shelf life of the product.
“We were at places like the East Aurora Co-op,” explained Elizabeth and Greg. “And we were trying to get our foot into the doors of Dash’s and The Lexington Co-op. We were not ready to approach places like Tops and Wegmans, because we were still doing small batches – the production workload would have been too much. Plus we needed to extend the shelf life. That’s when we learned about high pressure processing (HPP – uses hydrostatic pressure to prevent harmful microbes). We had a Zoom meeting with Frank Cavallaro – COO of Ithaca Hummus – who was so helpful, and he works for the competition [laughing]. After speaking with Frank, we were invited down to Miami to visit the headquarters for the company that makes the machine for the process of the high pressure cold pasteurization. We saw how it was packaged and sealed, by loading it into a chamber, and into tubes, and ten minutes later it came out great!”
With the new HPP process, Happeas would have a shelf life of 100 days! The only problem was that there was no machine in NYS that would do smaller batch runs for smaller businesses. Currently, Elizabeth and Greg are appealing to Grow-NY and the State of NY, to help bring a facility to (possibly) Buffalo. It would be the first HPP facility in NY for use by small businesses. While they are weighing the possibilities, they are preparing to send their HPP samples to The Cornell Food Product Development Lab (FPDL) for texture, taste, color, etc. Six months later, they will get their results, at which time they will essentially have the green light to begin their HPP packaged production runs.
“This will allow us to ship further,” said Greg. “And the products can stay on the shelves longer.”
As they patiently await the green light, Elizabeth and Greg are planning on applying to the Launch NY competition, and possibly other competitions for investments and resources. What they have realized is that they need to be on the shelves of larger markets, and they need to be in additional markets around the country, to justify the business model.
The HPP packaging technology will allow them to open more doors, and to explore the full potential and the possibilities of happeas, which is music to my wife’s ears. She is officially addicted to the stuff – every Sunday at The Stagecoach Market I am told to bring four tubs home. Her two favorites are the original and the indie, but now we’re adding the jalapeño to our tacos, which is delightful – the blend of green peas makes it similar to guacamole.
“I use it in place of mayonnaise for my tunafish,” said Greg. “There are so many different uses. It’s great on sandwiches, and in salads. We eat it on everything.”
In case you were wondering, thanks to Happeas, Greg is happier and healthier than ever. He’s happy that he has a tasty treat that he considers guiltless eating. Plus, he’s lost weight and is feeling much better overall.
Now, we need to get Happeas onto the shelves of more markets, and into the hands of more customers, so that everyone can benefit from this miraculous product that was with heart, by Elizabeth, with the help of Mother Nature, who always has all of our best interests in mind.
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