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Teen creator of Jack’s Rockin’ Toffee finds fame and success for his cause

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When Jack McKenna began thinking about his future at age 9, he didn’t just come up with ideas. He got a head start.

With the help of his family and friends before and after school, the Newport Beach resident launched his own company, Jack’s Rockin’ Toffee, as a backup plan in case his dreams of becoming a professional basketball player didn’t pan out. That was five years ago. Jack is now 14.

“I asked my mom, ‘Mom, what am I going to do if I don’t make it in the NBA?’” he said. “She said, ‘Do what you love, and success will follow.’”

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Jack knew he wanted to involve himself in something he was passionate about and found the answer in sweet treats. But not just any sweet treats. These are treats that anyone, including his little brother, Collin, can eat.

Collin suffers from Williams Syndrome — a genetic condition characterized by medical problems, including cardiovascular disease, developmental delays and learning disabilities — and the family says the boy feels better when eating a strict diet that discourages additives, preservatives and dyes.

Jack’s toffee fills the bill. It is also gluten-free.

Jack’s preparation for entrepreneurship involved watching YouTube videos to learn how to make toffee, and from there he developed his own blend of ingredients.

Jack said Collin was his inspiration.

“There wasn’t anything out there that he could eat,” Jack said of his brother. “I made this, and he loved it.”

Jack has committed to donating 10 percent of all of his earnings to the Williams Syndrome Assn. So far, he said, he has given more than $4,000 to the Michigan-based organization that provides resources for families dealing with the syndrome.

Over the past few years, Jack has rounded up friends to help him create his toffee, which is made of pretzels, caramel, chocolate and crunchy Himalayan sea salt. He then sold it outside of Newport Beach grocery stores.

But Jack’s market just got a whole lot bigger. He was recently named a winner on “Hatched,” a show on the CW television network that gives entrepreneurs the chance to win financial support for their endeavors from investor Joe Kincaid.

In Jack’s episode, the show’s premiere, which filmed in July and aired Saturday, he won over the three judges, who all said his toffee was delicious and a product they believed in. And people who signed up with the show to try the product all gave the taste a thumbs-up.

Jack said he is humbled by the reaction to his toffee.

“A lot of the other competitors on the show were adults, and I think mine was the only one that got a 100% rating,” he said. “That feels good.”

Winning the show means that Jack, an eighth-grader at Harbor Day School, has more time for schoolwork because the funds from “Hatched” has allowed him to hire a team to create the toffee.

“Now I’m just essentially the face of Jack’s Rockin’ Toffee,” Jack said, adding that he is meeting with packaging experts and owners of a factory that will help make and sell his brand.

He also said his product will also soon be distributed at Sam’s Club, as part of winning on the show, and he hopes to see it sold in other stores in the near future as well as online.

He said he expects to develop other products involving toffee, perhaps blending it with coffee and popcorn.

“I want to be in many aisles at the grocery store,” the teenager said, sounding like a veteran businessman. “I think that now that a lot of people know my story and how it’s spreading across the country, I think it’s really cool. I want Jack’s Rockin’ Toffee to be a household name, and it’s on its way to getting there.”

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