Margarita Womack's all-natural empanadas are available nationwide
Margarita Womack grew up in Colombia, learning how to cook traditional Colombian food in her father’s restaurant kitchen. She, along with husband Andy, joined the Union Kitchen family two years ago, accessing the communal kitchen and connecting with a culinary community. Today, Union Kitchen is a partner in the company’s success, with a 10% ownership stake in the fast-growing company that just opened a brand-new factory.
Originally, Margarita was a teacher and she has an Executive MBA from Georgetown University. She met the the son of the family that owns the Washington Capitals, and mentioned to him that as a hand-held food that can be made in a range of ways to fit a number of diets, empanadas would be great for sporting events. From that conversation, she got hooked up with Aramark, which said they’d like to feature her all-natural empanadas, but she’d have to go through a distributor, so now M’Panadas is distributed through Sysco.
Margarita says that “it’s grown exponentially” since then, with her team making 30,000 empandas in May of 2019. Now they’re “hoping for nationwide distribution,” she says — look for M’Panadas in a grocery store or at a sporting event in your home town!
