" I built The Dumpling in the hardest year of my life"

This is the story behind it.

Meet The Founder

Mallory Paul is a mother, a K–12 educator, and the founder and CEO of The Dumpling Co. (Relief Redesigned Ltd.). She has taught for 14 years, working as a K–8 generalist and teaching Physical Education, Sports Performance, Yoga, Dance, and Career & Personal Planning. She holds a Master’s in Inclusive Education and a Bachelor of Education from VIU, and a BA in Psychology from UVic.

“I understand bodies. I understand pain. I understand what it means to keep showing up when your body isn’t cooperating.”

Her background in movement, inclusive education, and psychology shapes every Dumpling. Each one offers soft, body-conforming cold comfort straight from the freezer, in six editions made for the bodies and moments that ordinary ice packs have overlooked: children, postpartum recovery, menopause, hemorrhoids, men’s recovery, and post-procedure care.

Every Dumpling is designed in Victoria, BC, and moulded in Canada by deliberate choice. From the very first sale, $1 from every Dumpling has gone to a Canadian charity partner.

Mallory still teaches while building The Dumpling Co. from Victoria, where she lives with her son.

Meet the Dumplings

I Came Home

I came back to Victoria in December 2024 with my two-year-old son. I had left a job I loved in Calgary, at a school I genuinely cared about, but I wanted my son to know the ocean. I wanted him to know his grandparents and his auntie. I wanted to come home.

The months that followed were hopeful. I was hired as a teacher here and walked into September 2025 ready for a fresh start.

"Within two weeks, everything fell apart."

Everything Changed

A few weeks into my new job, I was told that an administrative error meant my position would go to someone with more seniority. Just like that, I no longer had a contract. I was back to teaching on call.

Two days later, my son's daycare called. He was in agony. I called an ambulance. At the hospital, X-rays showed that his femur was broken. He was put in a spica cast, a full-body cast from his chest to his ankles, for five weeks. He couldn't walk. He couldn't move on his own. Every day, I carried him from room to room. He was so brave. When I was frustrated and heartbroken for him, he was the one who made me laugh. When the cast came off, he had to learn to walk all over again.

I didn't think twice. He's my whole world, and he needed me, so I stopped everything to be with him. That meant no work and no income. I applied for every support I could find and was denied. Then my body gave out too. The stress triggered a colitis flare, and I developed hemorrhoids: painful, humiliating, and impossible to ignore. I found myself in the bathroom with a Ziploc bag of ice from the freezer while my son needed me in the next room. There was no dignity in it.

That was THE MOMENT

"Why does nothing exist for this? Why is there no product that actually fits the human body in these private, painful moments?"

Why The Dumpling Exists

When my son finally came out of his cast, he had to relearn how to walk. He was scared of ice packs, those hard, frozen, clinical things that were supposed to help him heal. He wouldn’t use them, and I understood why. They weren’t made for him.

Then I started noticing who else they weren’t made for. That’s when The Dumpling became six editions instead of one.

Each Dumpling is made from platinum-cured silicone that stays soft and squishy straight from the freezer, and each one is shaped for where that person needs it most. One edition is for the new mom in the bathroom at 3 a.m. One is for the person who has never told anyone what they’re going through. One is for the child who is brave enough to keep going.

Every Dumpling is designed in Victoria, BC, and one dollar from each one supports a cause close to our hearts. Every edition is priced the same, because no one’s comfort matters more than anyone else’s.

Meet The Dumplings