A Tribute to the SBI Minerva Lifetime Achievement Award Winner
By Jessica O. Swink
Editor, Small Business Insight
All photos contributed.
It all started with three trees.
“In the back yard, I had a plum, a fig and a crabapple tree, which are three of the worst fruits to make jam with, but they make some of the most delicious jams,” says Rowena Fullinwider, former owner and founder of Rowena’s. “I decided I couldn’t let all that fruit sit around. Crabapples are a pain in the neck, but there’s just nothing like the jam.”
Little did she know at the time, she was on her way to building an iconic gourmet food store set in quaint Norfolk, and constructing a legacy that would follow her for years to come.
“So that’s how I got started,” she says quite factually. “I gave it all away, of course. And then came the almond pound cake, and everybody loves that.”
While she and a friend were raising money for opera education in the schools, Fullinwider then decided to put her cake baking talents to good use and decided to sell cakes to raise money for the program. In just a few years, Fullinwider and others were able to raise about $5,000 to buy tapes, machines and materials for school children.
“It’s interesting because they would have never been exposed to that. And for some of them, it was life changing,” she explains. “Ten years later, I had three or four people come to me and say that it gave them the courage to use their instruments professionally to see if they could earn a living with it.”
Still, at this point, Fullinwider will explain that she was quite happy with her current career as a chemist and biologist at Children’s Hospital for the King’s Daughters, and had no desire to start her own business.
After becoming involved with Operation Smile, word got around of her sweet baking talents and there quickly became a demand for her cakes to be bought for the doctors involved with the program. She quickly found herself looking for a kitchen with the capacities to support such an order.
“You have to (bake and cook) in a legitimate place,” she explains. “I started making them in church kitchens, which are always certified. Then, we found this place, and I told my husband, ‘We can get this started and you can take it over. I’ll stay at King’s Daughters.”
(After all, she once again politely smiles and states that she was very happy with her current position at the hospital.)
“So this place was all broken. It had a door and one window, so we rehashed it and built a building inside of it. At first, we started off renting just one little section, which is currently the store. Then we ended up renting it all,” she says.
After a few years, Rowena was running the store entirely on her own, building a highly desired recipe for years to come.
Of course, the road to sweet success always has a few bumps along the way. In the 1990s, the FDA and Congress were working together to pass legislation to require all food processors to add nutritional labeling to their products. One of the parts of the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 was to make small businesses owners have their food products undergo laboratory analysis.
“You see, Congress had a good idea. We needed all that. Then, the FDA got a hold of it and gummed it all up,” Fullinwider says. She explains that the Act would have shut many gourmet food companies down, as the FDA was requiring food to be analyzed once a quarter through certified labs, at the capacity of those working labs. Should a technician make a mistake, the burden would be on the small business owner to cover all costs.
“As a chemist, I knew how expensive all of the testing would be,” Fullinwider says. “All I wanted was a small business exception. Well, now they all have it. It’s so much more reasonable.”
Achieving this victory wasn’t easy. For three years, she worked with lawyers and even testified before Congress.
“All of the big guys with lawyers and dark suits got up and testified. Then it was my turn,” she says. “I don’t even remember what I said. You only have three minutes. But at the end, men actually stood up on their chairs in the back and clapped.”
So the bill was thrown out and was re-written. It can now be found in the Congressional Record under Rowena’s Bill, and was passed at the tail end of Clinton’s first budget.
As a result, about 8,000-9,000 small gourmet food companies across the country were able to stay in business.
“I stay on top of legislature, and I think all small business people should,” she says. “Small businesses have more regulations than just about any body, and it’s harder and more expensive for us to deal with.”
Although she has officially stepped down as owner and passed the reigns to a capable and determined John McCormick, she still continues to stay busy in the community.
Ask Rowena, and she will tell you that she has no immediate plans.
“I really haven’t had a chance to take a breath. Chemo keeps me pretty busy. I’m just waiting to feel better, although I’m doing very well,” she says.
“Basically, having been an 8-year ovarian cancer patient, I was telling someone once that there are some days when you don’t want to get out of bed, but you just have a schedule that keeps you going and you do get out of bed and you stay involved. And I think staying involved, whether it’s church or family, is critical,” she says. “It all comes down to people and relationships and helping one-on-one, even if it you are not physically well.”
- Who were the other 2011 SBI Minerva Award Honorees? Click here to find out!
