About Us — Poppy's

Meet the Team

Farida Yeamin (Poppy)

Founder, Operator
Beginning her work career in Canada in the early 2000s, Farida has gone from being a Manager at Popeye’s to being a Pharmacist Assistant at Sobeys to being a Command Centre Member at the Humber River Hospital. After the onset of COVID disrupting her regular career, it gave Farida sometime to think and follow her own passions, and thus, Poppy’s was born.
Farida now primarily handles production, and a mixture of in-person sales, direct and online marketing, and direct recruitment.
Phone: 416-890-5577
Whatsapp: Same as phone number
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/farida.poppy
Tashfin Awal (Rakin)

Owner, Executive

A serial entrepreneur and son of Farida, Tashfin has started many business, some of which were successes and failures. His most notable ventures include Lakefront Student Painting, a retired student painting company, and Cryptoflex Cloud Mining, an ongoing cryptocurrency, blockchain and metaversal investment company.

Tashfin now handles administration, legal, product design, finances, branding, web design, internal infrastructure, online sales, online marketing, human resources and more.
Coppr (links to all other pages): https://www.coppr.link/users/tashfin-awal

Our History

Like many other Bengalis, Farida was given a different nickname when she was younger, “Poppy”. It was her identity as Poppy with which she collected her childhood and adolescent experiences in Bangladesh. Food, clothing and money was scarce growing up, but she made the most of it with her family, and it was in this youth that she collected the unique ideas and family traditions that amount to her delicious foods.

Fast-forward a few years, and now Farida’s cooking and design has been acclaimed everywhere, to the point where Farida has requests from across the globe to send some of her delicious food.

That being said, her main priorities were still work and family, and despite being so well-loved, it was still difficult to make ends meet once she came to Canada in 2000. She’s worked many full-time and part-time jobs, including as a cashier at Winners, as a front desk associate at a Cash Shop, and as a Nursing Home staff. She’s worked hard till her ankles inflated and her wrists deteriorated, but still she kept going to provide for her family.

A screenshot of Farida making mango achar at home.

An old image of a younger Farida Yeamin — An old image of a younger Farida.

But when COVID struck and she was laid off from Humber River Hospital as a Command Center Staff Member, Farida finally had the time to pause and pursue other passions. One of them became sharing her processes for food-making, as she loved sharing as much as she could with others. The popularity from Farida’s posts refreshed the demand for her foods, and in particular, her achars (South Asian pickles). And so she began pickling fruits and vegetables and preparing frozen catering dishes as a side hustle to afford surviving through COVID.

That side hustle gained greater and greater traction in the Bengali community on Facebook, and soon, other communities also took interest in Farida’s cooking. With the overwhelming success, and now with Bengali grocery stores knocking on Farida’s door demanding her products, Farida needed to bring on help to scale her business to the next level, something she had never done before.

In comes her son, Tashfin, who she had given the nickname of "Rakin”. Tashfin, being fresh off of a successful business venture and onto developing his next one, took this opportunity to help grow his mom’s business out of their kitchen and help her gain the success she deserved. With new branding material, processes, online presence, and more, Poppy’s quickly grew to become a smash hit in the local communities.

Her whole life, Farida gave back to her loved ones and community whenever she could, and she brings that warmth into her new business Poppy’s, with the joy of giving to others the same delicious foods that her family has enjoyed for years.

Today, Poppy’s is a popular local brand

Touting over 25,000 jars sold, several employees, loving volunteers, over 13 retailers across the Greater Toronto Area, and invitations to prestigious events like The National Women’s Show and The Hudson Bay’s Beauty Gala. With Poppy’s passion, we only intend to bring more to kitchen tables across Canada, and soon enough, the rest of the world too!