About 33 million Americans have at least one food allergy, according to nonprofit group Food Allergy Research & Education. Some of these people have multiple food allergies, taking extra precaution whenever they eat.

Angie Nelson worried for her son Liam after finding out he was born with food allergies. Instead of sitting back and trying to find options for him, Nelson created her own business: Safer Plate, which she would later rename after her son.

Founded in 2019 and renamed in 2023, Liam’s is an Eden Prairie-based company with eight full-time employees. It sells eight types of frozen meals that are free of eggs, fish, shellfish, milk, peanuts, tree nuts, soy, sesame, and wheat and gluten – some of the most common allergies.

Consumers can find Liam’s frozen meals in grocery stores around eight states throughout the Midwest – including Minnesota – and the East Coast. The company also recently got a big boost out east when Boston Public Schools started providing its meals for K-12 students. It’s the first K-12 school to partner with Liam’s, and Nelson hopes to get more districts on board.

Liam’s president Kevin Wencel said the Boston district reached out after the school’s dietician found the meals at a local grocery store. It was the opportunity the company had been waiting for.

“We’re taking advantage of this growing awareness that we’re out here doing this,” Wencel said. “It’s not every student that needs these meals—it’s just 10% of the students—but it’s so important for that population.”

Wencel said Liam’s does not yet have a contract with Boston Public Schools, but the company plans to keep sending meals there as long as the school district keeps asking. The district feeds over 150 kids with food allergies.

As far as Minnesota schools go, Wencel said the company is “very close” to getting their meals in Minnesota school districts as well as colleges, despite some challenges.

“The challenge with any school is funding,” Wencel said. “We’re working hard to make sure our meals are affordable. We’re trying to figure out how to make sure that there’s equity in what it is we’re providing.”

Corporate chef Gil Junge, who was previously the head chef at Mayo Clinic, has been the mastermind behind creating the meals. He said he was motivated to help those with food allergies after a trip to a school Minnesota school to eat lunch with the students. While there, he saw a boy sitting alone at a table due to a sign saying, “no peanuts at this table.”

“The lack of availability in our public-school systems across the nation for these types of meals is pretty big,” Junge said. “There needs to be a solution for kids with food allergies, and that is a big driving force for me.”

Liam’s offers eight frozen meals for consumers, ranging from pulled pork to chicken alfredo rotini . Wencel said there are plans for the company to make more and experiment with other foods.

When Nelson first started Safter Plate, the company was serving meal kits around the Twin Cities. As demand grew for the meals to reach people further away, Safer Plate became Liam’s in 2023 and shifted gears to focus on frozen meals.

Junge joined the Liam’s team to take what he learned about specialty foods from Mayo and use that skillset to impact kids’ lives.

“I joined Safer Plate to work with a company that would accommodate many different levels of meals or food for as many individuals as we can reach,” Junge said.

The goal of Liam’s is to help those who struggle with food allergies, Wencel said. To them, trust in their product is the most important component, and Wencel said it is a key factor in what motivates the company to keep going.

“One of the founding values of this company is trust,” Wencel said. “We’re able to produce these complete meals at a USDA-certified facility that never has the top nine food allergies ever enter our building. The first time the package is opened is by the consumer who really needs to trust that it’s a safe meal.”