Redefining Success: How Vitality Bowls Stays True to its Nutrition Mission
- Feb 19
- 3 min read
By Tara Gilad
Co-Founder & President, Vitality Bowls
As the co-founder of Vitality Bowls, a superfood café concept that began in Northern California and has since grown into a nationwide brand — my definition of success has evolved significantly. While traditional metrics like growth and scale matter, they’ve never told the full story. For me, success is rooted in purpose and the impact we make on others’ lives and my own family’s.
While I had already launched two companies, it was motherhood that reshaped my path. When our daughter was born with severe food allergies, it completely changed how we approached meals at home and on the go. I began preparing all of her food. I’ve always been passionate about health and wellness, but this experience ignited something deeper. That’s when my husband Roy and I created Vitality Bowls.
From day one, our mission wasn’t just to build a business, it was to make a real difference for families like ours and to make clean eating easier and safer for everyone. That mission continues to guide me today.
Redefining Success
At Vitality Bowls, we define success through lives touched, not just store counts. We focus on the guests we serve, the wellness we provide, and the dreams we help bring to life for local business owners.
Our cafés are allergy-friendly spaces for those with dietary restrictions and for anyone seeking nourishing, functional food. We’ve built our reputation using high-quality superfoods that offer real nutritional benefits. Each menu item is crafted to energize and support our guests’ wellness. When I hear that someone finally has a place where they can eat without worry, that’s when I know we’re doing something meaningful.
That commitment has shaped a company culture focused on care, inclusion, and health-forward living.
We’ve heard from countless guests who feel seen, safe, and supported at Vitality Bowls and those stories are the real markers of success.
Measuring Wins Through Franchising
When we began franchising in 2014, our vision expanded. Today, with more than 99 units open and in development, success also means empowering others. Supporting and mentoring franchisees has become one of the most rewarding parts of my role as a leader.
Watching new entrepreneurs thrive while staying rooted in our shared mission is a win that transcends numbers.
Internal Wins That Matter Most
When I reflect on my greatest personal wins, I always return to our “why”: to create clean, nutritious, and accessible options for people with food sensitivities. That sense of fulfillment knowing we’ve created a safe and welcoming space is something no spreadsheet can measure.
That same dedication to ingredient integrity, wellness, and real-world functionality inspired me to launch my fourth venture, My Flexy — a clean beauty, sleep, and wellness brand offering non-toxic essentials like organic tallow lip balm, collagen face masks, and breathable mouth tape for sleep. Just like Vitality Bowls, My Flexy is built around solving real problems with clean, effective, and beautifully designed solutions.
This time, I approached the wellness space through a different lens, reimagining self-care routines with the same purpose-driven mindset. With My Flexy, success also means helping people feel confident in their skin, supported in their rest, and aligned with products they can truly trust.
Creating a new brand from scratch reaffirmed what I’ve always believed: success isn’t just about scale, it’s about creating things that matter.
Whether through food, skincare, or sleep, helping others (and my own family) feel better, safer, and more empowered is what fuels my passion to keep going.
Health-forward living has never been a trend for me, it’s my foundation. Staying true to that has helped me build two purpose-led brands that uplift people’s lives. That, to me, is what success really looks like.
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