Jamie and Rob Feuerman arrived at the front desk of the school I was working at in San Francisco almost five years ago. Jamie had been a lawyer, Rob, a technology guru, and they had started their family. They had to make two lunches a day to meet their kids’ differing tastes, shop too much in the week to deliver the kind of lunches that matched their family values, and noticed that most of the private schools in San Francisco didn’t have a school lunch program. So with a couple of brown lunch bags in tow, they came to talk to me about how they had decided to start making a difference with their new venture, Kid Chow, a school lunch program where they prepare and deliver healthy, fun, kid-friendly lunches to schools around the Bay Area.
With obesity, diabetes, and poor eating habits a stark reality among our nation’s children (and adults), Jamie and Rob took their love of food and nutrition to the next level. “We wanted to get kids back to the basics [and teach them] how to honor and celebrate what the Earth gives us, as well as get kids connected to whole foods as whole products that are kid-friendly,” Jamie said from her Noe Valley home, where she switched back and forth to answer incoming customer calls.
The way Kid Chow succeeds in their mission is to serve as many organic items that have all-natural ingredients that are hormone, nitrate, and trans-fat free—all from local farmers and sources at the time of the year when they are ripe and ready. “We have four menus a year because the Earth provides different things at the seasons. We may have grapes and strawberries in May and June, sugar snap peas in the spring, and celery and carrots in the winter.” They seem to have what it takes to get children, both young and old, to become responsible for their eating habits, as well as introduce them to menu items such as their Bombay Indian Wrap, Taco Wrap, and Chinese Chicken Salad. “If I can get kids away from the chicken-nugget craze and introduce them to ethnic flavors, then I’ve done my job.”
And with a high-end e-commerce Web site, kids as young as seven can learn how to order their Kid Chow lunch by picking and choosing one main item, three sides and a drink, all in the six dollar price range. Jamie even ran a survey this last year and found that most parents and kids go the ordering together. “My first grader orders for herself,” she says. “There is so much education in that. I tell her she has to pick a protein and a veggie, but then she can pick something else of her choice.” Right before her young consumer hits the order button, she can click on “Nutrition,” and the site calibrates the nutrition needed for her age. Middle-schoolers are even involved in customer feedback and Jamie enjoys the dialogue she has created with them. “One middle-schooler insisted that I don’t take the Caprese sandwich off the menu, but I had to explain to her that tomatoes weren’t in season, so we would bring back the sandwich when it would be tastier.”
How Else Is It Green?
One of Kid Chow’s selling points is that it is nearly all waste free. So instead of seeing those plastic Ziploc bags floating across the schoolyard, Kid Chow prides itself on packaging that is 90% biodegradable and/or recyclable. Jamie says that this is a natural extension of their mission. “The woman we use at Green Earth Office Supply is, literally, scouring the earth for new green packaging.” That translates into utensils made from non-GMO corn, potatoes, or wheat that can be put into the compost bin after used. And what about the container that holds a Caesar Salad? It’s made to look like its clear plastic counterpart, but is made from polylactic acid (PLA) from corn and potatoes, as well, which is also biodegradable and compostable. Kid Chow spends fifty cents on each bag for the green packaging and Jamie mentioned that even McDonald’s is starting to see the benefits of said packaging and utensils.
But there has to be a system in place, and not just at the grassroots level. Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, is known as the land of the rich hippies, but it’s the one Bay Area county that uses Kid Chow in its schools but nulls its waste-free status. “In Marin, homes can compost, but composting hasn’t reached the schools or a commercial level,” which Jamie says is odd. “There is a basic disconnect there between our customers and their local government. The schools are on the bandwagon, but the government authority hasn’t caught up.” She acknowledges that one way to change that may be to start with the kids. “At one Marin school, the kids made a board and tacked up all of our utensils and packaging. Then the older kids pointed to the items and showed the younger kids which bins the waste should go into.” So without the compost bin in place, they recycled instead. Not completely ideal, but it was a start, and it educated the kids along the way. “At Children’s Day School in San Francisco (the school where I worked) I think it was Ms. Brittany’s second grade class that started ‘The Recycling Rangers,’ which was great. It was the second graders responsibility to go to all of the other classrooms and educate the whole school about the Kid Chow waste program. It works great when the school is on board with our mission.”
Access and Affordability?
Since Governor Schwarzenegger enacted California’s School Junk Food Ban, the SB12 bill that establishes limits on fat and sugar content and portion size on all foods sold à la carte, in vending machines or at school stores, public schools have come on board. And with the bill becoming effective in July of this year, Jamie says that more public schools are calling because of Kid Chow’s focus on nutrition. “Right now we have two [public] schools, but we’ve grown to twenty-five Bay Area schools in total and are thinking about going national from getting calls from states like Colorado, Maine, and Vermont.”
And what about bringing the cost down for lower-income families? Jamie says that has been her focus this year. Kid Chow now allows customers to order only one time per week. She says that, for many families, spending ten dollars a week feels more manageable than buying Kid Chow for the month. “We also started the Peasant Lunch at $4.75 a bag. It’s not ‘peasant’ as in a peasant meal, but includes a small savory pie from Peasant Pies, a local San Francisco retailer, as well as one side, and a bottled water. We wanted to make sure that healthy food wouldn’t just be going to affluent people.” Jamie sees Kid Chow as a whole foods pantry that comes to you.
And what about the rest of us who have graduated from the classroom? There are plans to rollout to private businesses in the coming months. Naturally, it will be called Biz Chow. Jamie is excited about their recent developments. “When my daughter tells people that we’re Kid Chow, I’m really proud that Rob and I are doing something that really matters, and that our kids are part of the process.” And since I peeked into Kid Chow’s bag back when they first began, and ordered my own adult size lunch, I’ve already strategized my recruitment talk to my new co-workers. I think I’ll call it Green Brown Bag Lunch Days.
For more on kids' lunches, go to Parenting: Raising Kids: Nutrition.