“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.
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