A Single Mom's Dream Come True
Interview with Marni Esposito and Cynthia Rae
By Mindi Englart

Introduction: It was a pleasure to interview the owners of Moon Rocks Gourmet Cookies in Hamden, CT. When Marni was 50, she asked her mother, Cynthia Rae (a.k.a. Mama Moon Rocks), who’d raised her as a single mom, to go into business with her. Now their cookie company has dozens of flavors and ships themed gift baskets all over the country. YELP calls Moon Rocks “The best cookies in Connecticut!” Cynthia and Marni are extremely warm, loving, inclusive women. I’m delighted to help you get to know more about them and their story of resilience, perseverance, and faith.

​ME: Tell us about Moon Rocks. How long have you been in business? And why cookies?
MARNI: Seven years. Our first sale was at the East Rock Festival in New Haven on September 13, 2014. It was a good moment.
MAMA MOON ROCKS: I was a single mom. Marni’s father left when she was 5. He “left left.” We lived in Brooklyn and Marni’s 80-year-old grandmother watched her while I worked. I started work as a bookkeeper when I was 16. I was the only woman in culinary school.
I then worked three jobs so I could put myself through culinary school. That’s where I made the original maple chocolate chip cookie from scratch. My professor let me stay after school and use the kitchen. It took 4–6 months for me to perfect the recipe. I really wanted a certain texture.
After culinary school, I went back to bookkeeping. But I kept making cookies and gave them to friends and family.
ME: Did you sell them?
MAMA MOON ROCKS: No one ever paid me!
MARNI: “You don’t even get paid now!”
MAMA MOON ROCKS: People were always saying that I had to do something with my cookies. Forty years went by and Marni had the idea for the shop. She said, “We can’t go into business with one cookie. Can you make flavors?” And as long as I live I’ll never forget that moment. I told her, “I don’t know, but I’ve waited my whole life to be asked.”
We were terrible poor. My husband left me in $10,000 debt. I’ve always been a strong woman. I wanted to clear my name. The most important thing in my life has always been my daughter. I was going to take care of her, pay my debts, and make a life.
We moved a lot. Each time I got offered a better job, we moved. Once I got a job in the Catskill Mountains when Marni was about 10 years old. It was a seasonal job and I couldn’t bring Marni, so she stayed with a cousin.
MARNI: We moved 8–10 times between kindergarten and 8th grade.
ME: Is that why you’re so friendly?
MARNI: I had no choice. I had to learn.
MAMA MOON ROCKS: Eventually, we moved to Connecticut for a job and stayed with friends and then settled here.
I knew that the consequences of what I did as a single mom affected Marni, so I chose carefully. I always thought about what I said to her, what I showed her, what I believed. And somehow it worked!
The other thing my life taught me was that I could not repeat the terrible things that were done to me. I believe we have to love our neighbors, the real way. With our hearts.
MARNI: She raised me with gratitude. Whatever little we had, we were grateful. That’s why we have the “gratitude wall” in the shop. It’s not only for the customers; it’s for us too.
MAMA MOON ROCKS: It was very hard being a single mother. There were times we didn’t have enough to eat. I would make macaroni and put a little butter on it.
MARNI: The irony is that we feed people now. I never thought about that.
ME: You’re both so strong. What’s your secret?
MAMA MOON ROCKS: We are religious, but it’s not about religion. It’s about faith. Whatever happens, I always think “this is God at work.” I just knew I had to have complete and utter faith. I always told Marni that things would work out.
MARNI: What she means is, things are going to work out the way they’re supposed to. And once it works out, then you can see it. In hindsight, many people can see how things worked out for the best.
MAMA MOON ROCKS: Whatever is happening to you right now is going to pass. You have a choice. You can choose to destroy you or you can choose to let it make you stronger. Have faith that even if it doesn’t work out the way you want it to, it will work out. I think if you’re putting negative thoughts out to the universe that’s what your experience will be. Therefore, I’m going to work toward making it work.
MARNI: I think this last point is very important. Things are going to work out one way or another. You may as well participate.
MAMA MOON ROCKS: It doesn’t matter what your religion is. Rabbi Hillel said, “If you save one person you save the world.”
MARNI: Our business is a complete reflection of what we’re talking about in this conversation. One cookie, one gift basket, one customer at a time. Our customers become part of the Moon Rocks family. There are so many customers that are part of our ethos. For example, Sharon is our oldest customer. When she comes in and needs a hug, I have to give her my love.
MAMA MOON ROCKS: I never got what I needed when I was younger. Moon Rocks is the vehicle for me to live what I believe and to create the kind of loving extended family I always wanted.
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Learn more about Moon Rocks: www.moonrocksgourmetcookies.com or on facebook at www.facebook.com/MoonRocksGourmetCookies/
The Single Mothers Discount Card, LLC (SMDCard) mission is to help level the economic playing field for single-mother families, one purchase at a time. We partner single moms with businesses that offer them discounts, as they would for students or seniors. Learn more at www.singlemothersdiscountcard.com

GMI's Journey to Empower Moms Globally
Reprinted with permission from an interview by Thao Nguyen, GBJ reporter. June 2023 

Jane Li was born and raised in Jiangxi province, China. She studied political science at Shanghai Fudan University when her enthusiasm towards social justice was fed. With a great passion for becoming an investigative reporter, she realized many societal civil issues in China and started her first career in a non-profit sector called “Save the Children”. Later, she attended the University of Hong Kong to enrich her knowledge of non-profit organization management. She resigned her job as a philanthropy adviser in Beijing to commit herself as a Chief Volunteer for GMI in 2022. In 2023, She was selected as a Fellow of the PFP Program run by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, sponsored by the US State Department, because of this, she met the founder of the Single Mom Initiative Mindi and many other momtrepreneurs, as well as other women empowerment organizations during her fellowship exchange in the United States. GlobalMoms Initiatives (GMI) is a non-profit and non-governmental organization that connects mothers around the world with social, professional, and financial resources as they strive to achieve physical and mental well-being.
 
     GMI Founder Jane Li knows how hard and challenging it is to become a mother when she started her maternity journey nine years ago. Witnessing a lot of obstacles with which a mom has to face has urged Li to start her GMI journey.
     ​“The pressure of trying to balance everything while still having enough time for family life made me think about how we could support each other better,” said Li, “I am shocked by many suicides in our community such as moms jumping off buildings, even some of them who were pregnant at that time.”
     GMI was launched in Sep 2021 when the pandemic hit hard in China and around the world. That was the time when women, especially those who were in their maternity and early motherhood stage were stroked harshly. Job loss, unstable income, kid, and family’s health crises were major negative consequences, which subsequently led them to exhaustion, said Li.
     ​With a lofty vision of creating an equal world where global moms can reach their full potential, GMI’s mission is to inspire and motivate every mom to achieve her goals and facilitate her journey by providing relevant resources, programs, and mentorship.
 
Making motherhood a pathway to further success
     Conventional wisdom suggests that motherhood is the tipping point in a woman’s life stage, said Denise Valenti a communications officer in Princeton University, where women are expected to leave their labor force and trade-off between family and social life.
     Because of that situation, the idea of “MomQ” is created by GMI as an exclusive index, besides IQ and EQ, to indicate mom’s power and leadership capability. The primary objective of setting this index is to reshape public perception towards women in their motherhood stage. Subsequently, it provides employers a fresh yet fair evaluation of women’s employability post-maternity. It also increases moms’ confidence and revamp their sanguine level in both professional and personal life.
     In order to develop and bring about the application of “MomQ” index, GMI established a #MomQActionResearch, a non-profit research institution run by scholars and professors from prestigious universities in China, to constantly conduct pertinent research and analysis of moms’ characteristics and needs. The critical findings from their research can be generalized to redefine moms’ identities and better shape the index.
     To achieve that goal, GMI launched the first social program named “MomStory100” one month after the organization was born to encourage moms to share their stories of life struggles, feelings, and dreams. The program is operated on social media platforms like Facebook and WeChat.  Furthermore, “MomStory100” leverages those stories as a touch point to raise voices for moms’ justice and increase public’s awareness of moms’ true identities and developmental needs. Later that year, GMI introduced a Mom Writer Prize to incentivize more moms to participate in this program and spread out its brand awareness.
     The success of “MomStory100” has motivated Li and her team to launch the second initiative called “MomCEO100”, a women and mom entrepreneur empowerment plan. The purpose of “MomCEO100” is to provide relevant training and resources for female entrepreneurs in their early stage of start-ups such as peer mentoring, business toolkits, coach, and counsellors. The club’s membership has a privilege to connect with industry influencers, top-notch investors, and venture capital firms.
 
A social eco-system to accelerate moms’ success
      GMI has evolved to become a one-stop hub providing full-stack resources for moms to get her prepared, gear up and speed up her momentum of goal achievement. All those resources are linked together and complement each other to provide moms a full suite of knowledge, skill sets and network. They include “MomStory100” as a social sharing channel, “MomCEO100” as a business-oriented vocational hub, “Jobs4Moms” as an employment “agent”, “MomDesign100” as an educational hub targeting at sustainable designers from beginner to intermediate level, and “Space4Moms” as an offline community for social networking and supporting.
    In detail, “MomStory100” aids moms and women entrepreneurs from the “MomCEO100” club with storytelling skills so that they can develop their business narratives or sharing motivational stories to inspire them to achieve business success. “MomCEO100”, on the other hand, powers the “MomDesign100” in their seed stage businesses by providing one-on-one mentorship, vocational training workshops and networking.
     “Jobs4Moms” was born as a third-party platform or a “job agent” to connect moms with flexible and mom-friendly jobs across industries. Mom-friendly jobs mean they give moms several choices from either a part-time TikTok anchor host, a full-time business development coordinator or even a part-time office cleaner. This program specifically supports moms who have lost their jobs during the pandemic, the recently mass layoffs, or during their maternity leave to increase their financial security and social confidence. Members from “MomCEO100” or “MomDesign100” can also refer to this channel to increase their brands’ exposure or seeking for further employment opportunities.
 
Commercialization Empowers Sustainable Development
     The most common question that any NGO or social enterprises are frequently asked is how they get funded to sustain their organizations. GMI Founder shares that she aims to build GMI as a social eco-system not only for empowering moms, but also for members’ businesses’ connection and development. It means via GMI’s eco-system hub’s professional network, their partners have high chances of being connected with relevant business opportunities like new clients or potential employers. Thanks to that, if they succeed, they are encouraged to donate ten percent of any revenue generating from that collaboration to GMI’s “Ten Percent Giving” club, said Li. “We also call our schemes social business programs where we link social services, businesses and resources to support each other, reinforce each other’s opportunities, and ultimately to keep the momentum of our community.”
     Therefore, commercialization, in GMI’s regard, can be interpreted as a way of a social “return-on-investment” mechanism, where GMI “invests” in each member so that they have a willingness to “return”. Those “returns” are counted as an impetus to motivate GMI’s members to keep contributing and growing their community.
 
Social Capitalism and Time Banking
     As the name social eco-system suggests, GMI Founder leverages their non-financial resources of social capital to fund her NGO, and human capital is her primary resource. In this sense, human capital comes from the connections and contributions of their members and partners. From time to time, all the positive outcomes resulting from their activities are used as stimuli to not only fight for moms’ equality but also support associated partners’ businesses with relevant networking opportunities. In GMI, the “Ten Percent Giving” club is a mechanism of generating social capital, said Li.
     Talking about human capital, since GMI is mostly run by partnerships and volunteers, Li introduced a “100 Hour Club” to acknowledge every volunteer’s contribution when they spend 100 hours for GMI. This scheme is developed upon the “time-banking” principle, which is according to Li still not yet a prevalent concept in the development world. However, by applying this principle, is it a noteworthy milestone for each volunteer to reflect on their commitment and values.
     Theoretically, social capitalism is defined as any capitalist system that is structured with the ideology of liberty, equality, and justice. It explicitly values all forms of capital such as social capital, human capital, nature capital. “Instead of maximizing profit for the 1%, it involves profit maximization for all of society,” wrote Tristan Claridge.
 
So, what is “time banking”?
     According to Investopia, time banking is a trading system for services, where people exchange their labor-time based credits with each other instead of money, or in other words, time is seen as a token to trade among people. It means one person can exchange their time of repairing one’s home in a return for their help to take care of their children. It can be considered as a community currency in which every citizen can benefit from using it. The term “time banking” was coined and trademarked by American lawyer Edgar Cahn, who advocated its use to supplement government’s social services such as elderly care. In China, “Time-banking” has been facilitated by Beijing government and Shanghai Municipal for supporting the elderly amid the aging dilemma, said Global Times.
     “It’s kind of a resource exchange system, which is in parallel with money system,” said Li. Moreover, it is people’s good will and resource to do, and people can gain more than lost because they want to improve their skills or expand their human capital for their businesses via networking which can be done by offering their resources to help others.
 
How is “time banking” applied in GMI?
     Li creates a timesheet excel file to track every volunteer’s work and time per project. It’s a way to measure their contribution and work, said Li. The “coin” returned to them is their social return such as exclusive access to unavailable resources or networking to potential employers or partners. “If you complete 100 hours for our GMI and being recorded on the system, you become our permanent members who can have exclusive access to our prioritized benefits,” said Li, “like link to your new jobs or investors.”
     Moreover, GMI Founder shares her ambition to transform this NGO to a transnational social enterprise in the future. Therefore, in long-run, those volunteers and partners who are “coined” with “100 Hour” time-banking “notes” could have a chance to become their shareholders. By that time, their contribution can be converted to a more concrete and tangible value rewards.
      Li closed the interview with a charming smile and confidently believed in the good causes GMI has generated for society in the race for gender equality, as well as the positive impacts that GMI has brought about for moms globally.

Learn more about the Global Moms Initiative at www.globalmomsinitiative.com

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Inspiring Mompreneurs
By Jamine Ackert
​
​Many single moms have demonstrated incredible resilience and entrepreneurial spirit by establishing successful businesses while managing the responsibilities of parenthood. Here are a few examples of successful businesses created by single moms:

1. **Sara Blakely: Spanx**
   - Sara Blakely, a single mom, started Spanx, a revolutionary shapewear company. With a keen entrepreneurial spirit and determination, she turned her idea into a multi-million dollar business. Blakely is now recognized as one of the most successful self-made female billionaires.
2. **Joy Mangano: Ingenious Designs, LLC**
   - Joy Mangano, a single mother of three, is an inventor and entrepreneur known for her creation of the Miracle Mop. She founded Ingenious Designs, LLC, and her innovative products have made her a household name and a successful businesswoman.
3. **J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter Franchise**
   - J.K. Rowling, a single mother living on welfare, wrote the first Harry Potter novel while facing financial challenges. The success of the Harry Potter franchise turned her into one of the wealthiest and most influential authors in the world.
4. **Kendra Scott: Kendra Scott Jewelry**
   - Kendra Scott, a single mom, started her eponymous jewelry company from a spare room in her house. Her unique designs and commitment to family-friendly business practices have led to the brand's widespread success and recognition.
5. **Sophia Amoruso: Nasty Gal, Girlboss Media**
   - Sophia Amoruso, a single mom and founder of Nasty Gal, started her business by selling vintage clothing on eBay. Her success led to the creation of Nasty Gal as a global online fashion retailer. Amoruso also founded Girlboss Media, a platform empowering women in business.
6. **Ree Drummond: The Pioneer Woman**
   - Ree Drummond, a single mom and blogger, turned her passion for cooking and storytelling into a successful brand. The Pioneer Woman encompasses a blog, cookbooks, a food network show, and a product line, making Drummond a well-known figure in the culinary world.
7. **Liz Lange: Liz Lange Maternity**
   - Liz Lange, a single mom and fashion designer, founded Liz Lange Maternity. Her stylish and comfortable maternity wear revolutionized the industry, and her brand gained widespread recognition.

These examples illustrate that the challenges of single parenthood haven't deterred these women from pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. Through determination, creativity, and hard work, these single moms have built successful businesses that have left a lasting impact on various industries. Their stories serve as inspiration for others facing similar challenges, demonstrating that with resilience and passion, it's possible to achieve both personal and professional success.