Hello, this is Anna Kennedy at Women’s Radio Station, voice of Women Worldwide, and we’re talking all things autism. My guest today is Alessandra Besta, and I’m going to be talking to you first of all about what I’ve been up to. So, we’re preparing for Autumn’s Got Talent roadshow in St. Ives, and how beautiful is the sunshine at the moment? I’ve been seeing pictures of St. Ives, and I’m just thinking, oh my god, I’m so lucky to be going there in a few weeks time.

All our performers are really excited. We’re also doing something exciting next week, which is something new, and we’re collaborating with Autism Reality Experience, which is a sensory bus, so basically what it is, it’s you get an experience of what it’s like to have a sensory overload, and we’re going to be working with first responders, so we’re going to be working with firemen, policemen, and ambulance service, so they’re all going to have this experience, and it’s to raise awareness about autism, but also to show them what it’s like to have sensory overload, so we’re really excited about that. I think we’ve got something like 180 people coming to experience the whole day, so we’re going to be very busy.

We’re also still looking for some nominations for the Autism Hero Awards. We have 12 different categories, so the closing date, we’ve extended it now to September the 5th. We had three or four of the basically options that we’re looking for a few more, so if you know of any siblings, if you know of any top journalists that go the extra mile to really get across the point of autism, or the other one was sport, so sport we’re looking for some people who are very good at sport, so if you want to nominate, just check out our charity website, which is www.autismheroawards.com, so there’s 12 different categories there, so if you can send in your nominations, and then the judges will be ready on 10th of September, which is going to be really difficult for them to choose three for each category.

So, Alessandra, welcome. Thank you for having me here, Anna, and it’s wonderful to hear all this stuff that you’re doing, right, in another stop. Yeah, we were chatting last week, we were actually on Sky, and we’re doing the Chrissy B Show, because I have my regular slot, so today you’re on radio with me, so we’re going to talk a little bit about you’re a mum of a young man with autism, and just talk about being the founder of functional food, so let’s talk a little bit about you some.

Okay, so I always wonder what was first, chicken or egg, so I think that my son and his autism was the foundation for the company, in a sense that he really struggled to eat, he will avoid food at all costs, he will say no to everything, and I had to really think outside of the box, about how to get nutrition into him, how to keep him away from hospitals, and strangely enough, he was attracted to beautiful looking little chocolates I was making, so I then researched the functional medicine and natural super foods from around the world, to think about how can I squeeze more nutrition into that, so that if he was to have one chocolate a day, it will be something that was keeping him alive. And it has, and it still is in many ways, he’s 13 now, he’s going through puberty, and he’s very often relapsing with his difficulties to eat, and if we can get him a one chocolate that has another omega 3 and healthy fats in them, and some protein that’s better than nothing, and very often it’s something that will kick start his appetite, the chocolates are very much also inspired by autism, in terms of their sensory profile, they have textures and smell and shapes, and my son constantly challenges me by making me create new flavors and new versions of it, so we have now a range of 24 different flavors, and each one will have different health compounds in them, the chocolates are craving killers, so you can’t really have too many of those, which is great, they’re quite filling as well, yes, they have proteins in them, they have minerals, vitamins, in terms of the autism community, one specific chocolate has probiotic and calcium in it, so when I started selling those chocolates on Facebook and publicizing to the general public, very often parents will approach me, and their children will be on gluten and dairy-free diets, so that means they were missing other nutrients, so the idea was, okay, you normally will get some probiotic from dairy, and you will get calcium from dairy, but if you have that in chocolate, it’s better than nothing, so now for a general public, for anybody, they can have a chocolate with healthy compounds in them, and don’t have to worry about the excess calories. Yeah, there’s a lot of parents that are very worried about their children, because our kids are so restricted with their diet, I remember Patrick when he was younger, he used to say things, oh, I ate yesterday, so I don’t eat to eat today, well, you actually need to eat every day Patrick, and it was a real struggle, or eating the same things over and over again, same brand, war be tied you, if you bought a different brand, they would know straight away, so this is the constant worry that parents of children and adults who are on the autism spectrum have, so any tips that you can make? So I think, as a nation, we are overweight and malnourished, there is very little minerals in the food that we eat today, for a very good brain function and nerve system function, which is fundamentally what our children are struggling with, things like magnesium, potassium, calcium, copper, all the mineral parts are absolutely essential, and if you worry about, okay, well, my child won’t swallow a pill, you can very easily buy a supplement in cup shield that you open, put it in a drink, they flavor it, they’re not the same as antibiotic where the person can actually test how bitter they are, also I have never seen more companies who are now providing suspension form of minerals and vitamins, so you can buy it in liquid form, they test strawberries, I used to look for this for my son, that’s why I used to put magnesium into chocolate, because there was no magnesium in liquid form, where now you can actually buy it, which is fantastic, you will see the big difference in the way they function when they have enough minerals, so the dream for my company, for instance, looking ahead, is to think about if a young person with Asperger’s Syndrome living in independent living, and they were to have a pizza every day, which very often is the case, where they are very much having the same food, that we will produce the kind of pizza that will have a different nutritional value for each of the day, so that throughout the week he has had the whole spectrum of nutrition.

We are starting with chocolates, we have some crackers, and then we are moving into other essential foods, where we will look into how to make a digestive biscuits that have more in them than just sugar and carbs and fat, I’m sure everyone else would love that, not just people with autism. Yeah, you’ve brought some chocolates for me to try for Angelo, because he gets quite constipated, so can you just tell me a little bit about the chocolates and how many do I have to give him, and if other people are interested in purchasing these chocolates, where do they go? So, our chocolates call no no, no no cocoa, and also because the chocolates have no gluten, no dairy, no nuts, no artificial ingredients, no preservative, no yeast, no sulfates, etc. So, we’re saying no to a lot of things.

We’re also saying no to exclusion, and our team know no, it’s made of people who are with special needs who actually make those chocolates now. To answer your questions, the no no cocoa milky, it’s specifically formulated to work as a support for the digestive system, so young people with autism very often like just simple milk chocolate. And what we have inside is the calcium, which supports the digestive system, and then the probiotic, which it’s alive, and inulin.

So, out of the cases that I work with in terms of nutrition for autism, 90% will be constipated, and so two or three of those chocolates should be a maximum for a young person to have. We have them in a 30 gram lunch box sort of snack pack, and there’s eight chocolates in them, so two a day should be sufficient. Ideally, they won’t be able to detect any difference between the dairy-free milk or milky chocolate, and the one that we have.

So, how long would it take, do you reckon, for me to see a difference in Angelore? You should be able to see it instantly, the same day. If you are monitoring your young person’s bowel movement, you should be able to see it, which I will advise. That’s the best thing to do.

Then you see whether it’s working or not. You can get the chocolate at no no hyphen cocoa with acocoa.com, and any platforms like Yamball, not on the high street, if you are already a member. Alright, well, thank you, Alexandra.

We’re just going to take a break now, so we’re at Women’s Radio Station talking all things autism, and we’ll be back in a few minutes just to talk to Alexandra. Welcome to Women’s Radio Station, the voice of Women World One. So, I do glitter for a living.

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It’s Anna Kennedy talking all things autism and my guest today is Alessandra Bester. Tell me about Team Nono because I’ve been to your kitchen and I’ve met some of your students and they’re so proud of what they do. Tell me a little bit about why did you want to have students working in your kitchen and what’s the plan? Being a mum of young men with autism, when I set up my company from my council flat home kitchen, I noticed how my son was more interested in what was going on there than to do his activities.

A lot of the tasks involved in production are very suitable for a young person to do. My son is severely autistic and he was still able to attend a lot of the tasks. I’ve had a lot of network with the autism community.

I’ve been running charity myself. I’ve supported people in Camden. I was quite well aware of the young people who are now ahead of my son, who we can try on and see what the work experience in a small setting like ours will be something that we can start with.

In the future, as we expand and become a larger producer, a larger manufacturer, then we can transition them over the years into more of a real job. I’m also networking with other London-based startup companies, where we can, after initial training, pass on the students too. It was a no-brainer.

We paired up with the Alfreda Redbone Camden latent project and the year three students who were specifically on a program that was to prepare them for an employment. They joined in and we are learning so much from them. The first thing we are learning is the enthusiasm.

They are so grateful to be able to have somewhere to go and something to do. You could clearly see that when I was in your kitchen. They’re very enthusiastic.

They have a fantastic impact on the rest of the team, who can be really kind of dark and I’ve got to do my work. The students come in and everything kind of brightens up. Learning that their actual adjustment in terms of as an employer, what I have to do to adjust them to work, it’s actually just the key person who is there to talk to them, rather than their ability or lack of ability to attend a task.

They can pretty much do everything you ask them for. They just need someone to manage their anxiety. That’s pretty much it.

How do you transition them? Do you start off with small chunks of tasks if you like? I think the most important part is to find what they’re really good at and what they really enjoy. Being a startup company, you have to do everything. From unpacking something that just came in, putting a sticker on a box to repack the ingredients or mix things to then make the chocolate.

There’s hundreds of different stages of the production. We’re kind of trying to put them through the whole process of production and we are observing then at which point they have really achieved a lot or really particularly enjoyed that task. Then we’re looking into pushing them in that direction or if they’re able to choose.

We’re also looking into this. For instance, we have someone who really didn’t like sticky things and then end up being very good at sticking everything and overcome his own issues around there. We have another student who is particularly good at counting.

I met that young man. We’re giving him a lot of tasks around that. He was when I went in and he was so proud to show me what he’d been doing.

We’ve never been more organized than since he’s been with us. What I really like about the chocolates is the way they’re beautifully presented, the colors, the shapes, the boxes. To look at them, they’re attractive to eat.

For me, it’s like a biggie. If it doesn’t look attractive, maybe you just don’t want to try them. There’s something about them, the shapes, the colors, the smells.

I’ve been in your flat and I see how small it is. You live there as well, so it must be extremely difficult for you as a family. You can just feel how passionate about what you do.

I don’t find it difficult. The only thing that I find it difficult is that I can take more people in. Yeah, it’s frustrating.

It is frustrating. The dream of moving into a bigger space and getting more people involved to support the students and to be able to see a good progress made and then transition them onto another job. That’s basically what we are aiming at from January.

That’s ultimately the dream. So you’re looking for a new kitchen, a bigger kitchen. Yes, which costs money.

It’s also the kind of location of the kitchen that it’s a predicament. The way you’re looking for it. If we were to be a manufacturer, we would be moving outside of London.

But to be able to provide work experience to people, you need easy access, you need a central location. We’re based in Camden, and we are working very hard with Camden Council to be able to allocate a space. And then we will need support and investment from other sources to just equip the kitchen, basically.

And then volunteers or anyone who wants to work, who wants to have the experience of shaping people with special needs into long-term, loyal employees. Because I think that’s basically what we are looking at. Because when you groom someone to work for you, they will stay for a very long time, and you will really harvest the efforts at some point.

It may be not straight away, but you will have a loyal employee. Yeah, I’ve spoken to some adults that are fed up of volunteering at charity shops. They want to be paid because they don’t feel like they can move on.

And I know that from my own son Patrick, so he’s starting a new job next week. So he’s very excited to start full-time employment at Pinewood Studios. So he’s really excited, but I can see the anxiety build-up as well, because obviously it’s a new environment.

He’s going to have to be dealing with new people, new job. So it’s all, you know, he’s just got to support them as much as we possibly can. So I can see that you are going to progress.

I know you said you were preparing already for Christmas. Yeah, that’s our biggest sales, obviously, being in the gifting industry. Yeah.

And we are hoping to earn as much money from the Christmas period to make that January kitchen relocation possible. So all you have to do is buy a box of chocolate and eat, not without guilt, that it’s not bad for you. It’s not good for you because it is.

But more like eat with the joy that that box of chocolate can actually make a difference to someone’s life. We do really provide value and purpose for those young people and not only people with autism, but we have single moms in our team. We have students.

We have people with mental health issues and they perfectly complement each other as well. So you got to lots of different shows as well to show your products. So where do you go? So we are in the allergy and free from show in a couple of weeks.

Products are allergy friendly and we are making desperate efforts to provide more choices for people who have allergies. And in November, the Food Matter Live, which is the biggest food industry event, I’m doing a talk on functional foods and specifically the importance of adding functional foods to your diet if you are on a free from diet because people are missing out. Free from doesn’t mean healthy.

So if you are on gluten free diet and you eat some starchy bread, you’re definitely not getting enough protein or probiotic or fiber, et cetera, et cetera. So I’m going to include autism into my presentation. So very humbled for me to be invited to speak at such a big event.

It’s spreading the word really, isn’t it? It’s about making people aware. So obviously we’ve got our expo next year, which we have every year at Brunel University. You obviously showed your chocolates there and lots of people that were trying them I saw, including myself.

So hopefully we can have you speak at the expo as well and just to raise more awareness about what you do. So thank you very much, Alessandra. And I wish you the best of luck.

You’re truly a hard worker. You’re truly passionate about what you do. You’re an inspirational mom.

And yeah, I look forward to watching this space and see how you get on. So thank you, Voice of Women Worldwide. It’s women’s radio station talking all things autism.

So people are interested in purchasing your chocolates, Alessandra. Where can they find you? So nono-koko.com. It’s the website. And at No No Koko UK, it’s the social link where you can find us.

And if you’re interested or you want some help talking about either your children or your adult who’s on the autism spectrum, it’s www.annaKennedyonline.com. And you can follow me on social media on Twitter, which is atannaKennedy1. Welcome to Women’s Radio Station, the voice of women worldwide. Hungry? An average woman eats about two to three kilos of lipstick in her lifetime.

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