All the mixing, blending and baking is starting to pay off for a Jacksonville University grad and her husband, whose Texas-based company’s granola is being included in the “swag bags” for celebrities and guests at the upcoming 2012 Sports Emmy Awards.
Pam Graves, a 2003 JU communications/public relations major, and her husband, Bobby, a UF graduate, received notice that their Nate & Sassy’s Gourmet Granola is one of only 30 products to be included in goodie bags for 800 influential people in sports broadcasting, celebrities, athletes and media at the event April 30 in New York.
“I’m just a tad bit excited,” owner Pam Graves said in a news release. “We will be packaging 800 bags of our most popular and signature granola, Marathon Endurance Mix, specially designed for athletes.”
The pair knew each other as teens, working together at The Crab Trap in Fernandina Beach, then reconnected on Facebook after 25 years and were recently married at The Ritz- Carlton, Amelia Island. Both are graduates of Fernandina Beach High School.
Since the launch of their website in 2011, high-end grocery store chains Central Market and Whole Foods have included their granola as a stocking item on their store shelves. The all-natural product online retailer Abe’s Market also added them to their list of premium gourmet natural products.
Nate & Sassy’s was born out of necessity in 2009, when Graves, a divorced mother of two, was laid off twice in six months due to the slow economy.
“I remembered a granola recipe that I had developed a few years before when I owned a bakery. The timing just never seemed right to do anything with it, until now,” she said in the news release. “The doors of opportunity just started flying open and one blessing has led to another and here we are….going to the Emmys.”
The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will present the 33rd annual Sports Emmy Awards April 30 at Frederick P. Rose Hall, home of Jazz at Lincoln Center
For more information on Pam and Bobby Graves’ story, visit www.nateandsassys.com.