Jerico Roman is a special boy with very particular taste in food. The 10-year-old has autism, and his particular form comes with extreme oral aversion to certain tastes and textures, which has resulted in severe eating challenges. His mother, Jenna Roman, has struggled with finding foods Jerico would eat after she began introducing textured food to the boy when he was 8 months old .

A particular brand of waffles became Jenna’s saving grace, as Jerico loved them and would eat them with no issue. The waffle mix was created by Nature’s Path, a Canadian-based company specializing in organic grain-based foods and cereal. The company’s frozen maple cinnamon waffle were one of the only things Jenna could get Jerico to eat, so when the company discontinued the flavor, Jenna became desperate. CBS picked up Roman’s struggle and highlighted her frustration:

“I’m just trying to feed my son, I’ve been through so much around him just eating, something that would be simple for other children but it’s an extremely hard challenge for my son.”

Roman created a GoFundMe along with a desperate plea for anyone who could help locate and cover the costs of any remaining stock of the frozen waffles. She also hoped to raise enough to purchase a chest freezer to store the waffles in. In the description of the fundraiser she shares about the extreme struggles she’s faced in trying to keep her son fed:

“I’ve tried everything including intense feeding therapy but it triggered major anxiety around eating which triggered his migraines which then he stops eating/drinking and regresses. It’s a vicious cycle.”

After reaching out to Nature’s Path, the company generously set out to gather any remaining stock around the United States to deliver to Roman, who lives in Vancouver  with her three sons. She also asked for recipes that she could use to try and replicate her son’s favorite food.

The single mother’s cry for help was met with much generosity. Many people reached out offering to send her their own stock of waffles in their freezers, and several store managers donated the remaining stock from their stores. As a result, Jenna had to buy not one but two chest freezers to hold all the waffles she was sent.

On top of that, Nature’s Path has gone a step further and adapted their frozen recipe to me made from scratch at home, sharing the kind gesture in a Twitter post:

Remember the story of Jerico and the @NaturesPath Maple Cinnamon waffles? Well, I am so happy to say our incredible R&D Team was able to adapt our recipe for home use – and we delivered the recipe and all the ingredients to Jerico & his mom Jenna today. Bon appetit!! 🧇 🧇 pic.twitter.com/0l22DqrLQm

— Samantha Falk (@samantha_falk) March 6, 2021

The R&D team had a tricky time making the adaptations, since some of the ingredients used in the frozen product are commercial grade and unavailable in grocery stores. After a month of trial and error, they had what they thought was a similar enough recipe to please Jerico’s picky palate. Going even further, the team told Jenna that if Jerico was unimpressed, they would go back to the drawing board until they find one that meets his standards.

In an update on the GoFundMe page, Jenna writes her deep thanks to everyone from Nature’s Path who have helped her in such incredible ways:

“Thank you Nature’s Path Team for understanding & caring to make this happen for Jerico. Most companies would not of gone this far to help and without you guys I don’t know what I would of done.”