About Us

Strong Family Bonds LLC is a specialty food manufacturing firm located in Thurston Co., WA since 2018.

Our products are sold under food and beverages, predominantly herbs and spices, including marinades, sauces and other cooking related items.

Our brand is gluten free, free/low sodium, free/low fat, and contains no high fructose corn syrup or fillers.

 

What We Do and Will Create

Our mission is to help make good food into great cuisine by offering a unique and flavor elevating taste of SGT. Hart's BBQ Sauce by providing handcrafted premium condiments to people who enjoy complex and concentrated flavors and appreciate a memorable dining experience making our brand the taste that welcomes you HOME!

Our vision is to become a national condiment brand and open several smokehouse restaurants, a factory and distribution, placing the PNW as well as Washington State on the map again as home to another terrific brand.

My most recent achievement is the approval of our MBE, WBE, and DBE certification as well as our Trademark pending status for our BBQ sauce brand.

 

About Makieda Hart – Mastermind of the company

I am a busy mom of 4, married to my high school sweetheart. I grew up an AF brat, married my Army Soldier (now retired), and I am the proud mom of an Army NG veteran. My professional background is in the administrative field but left the industry at the end of 2016 to pursue entrepreneurship. I enjoy the freedom working for myself allows (the opportunity to learn new things and being able to put my own spin of creativity). So, I decided to market the love of one of two of my favorite food condiments and become a condiment manufacturer. My favorite condiments are Mustard and BBQ sauce, and it just so happens that my husband created a sauce in late 98/99 which we only shared with friends and family. I found a local mentor and spent hours learning from her experience so as to fast-tack getting my brand on the market that year (4 months later in fact); bringing to the world my startup company, Strong Family Bonds LLC maker of SGT Hart’s BBQ Sauce - the taste that welcomes you HOME!

My hobbies included cooking, activism, being a dance mom and soon to be a show dog grandmum. I also wanted to give back to the community and so in 2020 I founded a free business directory for Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) named South Sound BIPOC. We are a free business directory for BIPOC business specializing in mentoring, providing resources, and supplying workshops, seminars, and a brand awareness platform website.

 

About SGT. Hart & How Our Sauce Came To Be

SGT Hart (Ret) grew up in a small village in rural Alaska.  There were no roads going in or out. His father had a small plane and that’s how they traveled around the villages, at least the ones that they couldn’t get to by boat.  He grew up on the Kuskokwim River in McGrath, Alaska. The Kuskokwim River runs all the way to the western coast of Alaska, ending in Bethel.

There was supply barge that came up the river during the summer months to deliver bulk supplies, and the things that couldn’t be flown in.  His family had a subsistence license, so they hunted, ran a trap line and fished with rod and reel and set net. Since items had to be flown in, there was mainly dehydrated goods, as cans were heavy and added weight to the plane, the family had some canned items, but mostly dehydrated items.  But because of the subsistence license, they always had meat. They would freeze it, dry it, cure it and smoke it in their smokehouse.

Later when they moved to Anchorage, city life, he and his father spent a lot of time on the grill and the smokers. It continued to be a learning experience and a bonding time between him and his father, even during and after his military career.

After graduating High School, SGT Hart chose to follow one of his father’s earlier paths in life, joining the Army.  7 years later while stationed in Germany that the BBQ sauce began. While in Germany from 1998-2001, SGT Hart and his team would frequently gather to barbeque.  There would always be massive amounts of meat cooking all day. These get togethers helped to build esprit de corps within the team, a strong bond of loyalty, and trust amongst the Soldiers and their families; giving a stronger family (team) bond between all.

During one of these gatherings, SGT Hart ran out of sauce. Needing to Soldier Up, adapt, overcome, he searched the pantry pulled out ingredients that he thought would make a good barbeque sauce, items that he thought tasted good in barbeque sauce.  The sauce was the talk of the gathering and he continued to make it during the remainder of his time there.

Returning stateside with his family, the tempo of things changed, and the BBQ sauce was kind of retired.  14 years later when a family friend asked him to enter a local amateur BBQ competition that the sauce came out of retirement.  People other than family and friends got an opportunity to taste the sauce, and again it was a hit. People were coming back for the sauce and requests to purchase or find where it could be purchased.

SGT Hart's BBQ Sauce continued to be a family and friend favorite at barbeques and parties with frequent questions of “When are you going to start selling this?”

Now through Strong Family Bonds LLC, our family offers you SGT Hart’s BBQ Sauce with its unique sweet and smoky flavor.  It’s a product used to make every meal distinctively memorable, and our hope is to continue to build that strong family bond between families and friends as they share a meal. 

So, level up the taste of your meal with the sweet and smoky flavor that will enhances your foods flavor and tantalize your taste buds. Grab a bottle or two for your next BBQ and let our unique flavors be “the taste that welcomes you “HOME.”