Debbie Fred always loved baking, but her struggles with feeding her young children on the go, each of whom has a food intolerance, eventually led to her founding her own business, Paleo Eats, in 2012.

She began by splitting her time between making muffins and granola with working as an MRI technician. But in 2014, she found a contracted food producer and a gluten-free kitchen, and decided to focus on her most popular product, her paleo-diet-friendly nutrition bars.

“That’s when the hobby turned into a career,” Fred said.

Fred isn’t the only food manufacturer in Bend who has capitalized on the growing national popularity of food bars. Matt Sybrant, key industry coordinator for Economic Development for Central Oregon, said at least six of the approximately 65 food-product companies in the region focus primarily on some form of food or energy bar. Several founders moved companies to the region for a lifestyle that fits their products, while others grew up here and built a company because of what they found lacking in the local marketplace.

Two of the most established food brands in Bend, Picky Bars and Bounce Foods, announced that their bars will be sold in Trader Joe’s grocery stores across the country within six months of one another, a rarity for a grocer that sells a vast majority of its products under private labels.

“And the fact that we’re both from Bend is pretty crazy,” said Picky Bars co-founder Jesse Thomas.

As for Fred, Paleo Eats’ products can now be found in more than 80 stores across the country, as well as on Amazon. She said she recently began working with a food broker based out of Connecticut, with the hope of getting her bars into more stores on the East Coast.

“You can take them skiing, hiking, biking, in school lunches,” Fred said. “They’re versatile.”

As a category, food bars encompass a variety of products, including oat-based granola bars, like those made by Quaker Oats Co., energy bars, nut bars and bars designed to help people diet. In general, food bars range from less than $1 up to $5, and can be safely stored at room temperature.

While different segments of the food bar market experience different market effects, the category overall is growing in a hurry.

Packaged Facts, which provides market research reports on food and beverages, wrote that retail sales of nutritional and granola bars grew by more than 31 percent between 2009 and 2014. The study projects the market in the United States for bars to grow an additional 30 percent, to $7.7 billion, by 2019.

The market study cites an increased focus on healthy eating and a shift away from traditional sit-down meals as factors in that growth. In Central Oregon, bar manufacturers have gravitated toward the industry for many of the same reasons.

Ashleigh Mitchell founded Goodkid Foods, which makes bars for young children, in 2012 because she struggled to find healthy options for her kids.

“My attention was drawn to the amount of sugar that was in kids bars,” Mitchell said Wednesday.

Mitchell said that Goodkid bars mainly utilize fruit flavors — including lemons, raisins and apples — rather than chocolate, and have 5 grams of sugar per bar, less than bars made by Quaker and Nature Valley. She added that Goodkid bars can be found in Newport Avenue Market and the Bend Athletic Club’s store, among other local shops, and the community’s increased focus on healthy living has helped her get a local foothold.

“This community is very aware of health as a contributing factor to happiness,” Mitchell said of Central Oregon. “Certainly, there’s familiarity with subjects like sugar content; people are well aware of that.”

For Picky Bars, which was founded by performance athletes seeking a bar with natural ingredients to help refuel athletes, portability is key.

Thomas said bars are ideal for eating before and during a long run or bike ride, given their small size and relative caloric density.

“I can get 1,000 calories in my jersey pocket,” Thomas said.

Because Bend has a large population of both amateur and professional athletes, Thomas added that being a bar company based in Bend has helped the company’s brand both locally and nationally.

“We have a brand that people identify with, that’s aspirational, educational and fun,” Thomas said.

The emphasis on portability and healthy eating helps local stores sell bars as well. Newport Avenue Market is a common first stop for local food-product companies in Bend, and Joe Anzaldo, general manager for the store, said local bars tend to sell particularly well. Anzaldo said the city has a relatively high number of residents who don’t work traditional 9-to-5 jobs, which allows them to spend more of the work day on outdoor activities.

“I think those energy bars in particular play right into that,” he said.

Anzaldo added that working with local food companies more generally helps the store stay competitive against larger chain grocers. He said as many as 90 percent of the local companies he meets with eventually end up on the shelves. That allows the grocer to stay ahead of the curve while providing local food-makers, including bar companies, with needed exposure and a more stable platform than a weekly farmers market.

“Ultimately, local products set you apart from someone else, from Fred Meyer, from Safeway,” Anzaldo said.

Of course, some food companies move to Bend for the same reasons many other new arrivals do, citing the region’s quality of life.

In 2004, Andy Hannagan founded Bounce Foods in Australia, and slowly grew the brand into what he called “The Clif Bars of Australia.”

“We’re a startup here, but we’re established in other territories,” Hannagan said.

With sales on three continents, Hannagan could have moved anywhere in the country when the company decided to expand into the United States in 2014. He had been traveling to McMinnville to work with a contracted food manufacturer since the beginning, but moved to the other side of the state in August 2014, citing quality of life. As of 2016, the company has 12 employees in the United States, including three in Bend.

“Bend chose us,” Hannagan said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com