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*Baby carrots or celery chopped in small stalks with some type of dip. Some kids also eat cherry or grape tomatoes.
* Any kind of fruit cut up or whole if it's already small (like blueberries or blackberries). Also with a dip (plain yogurt works well)
* pasta (elbow macaroni or some kind of fun shape) with Parmesan cheese on the side
* crackers and cheese already sliced
* the yogurt that comes in a tube. Those can be frozen.
* unsalted peanuts or pistachios (if the school allows)
* If you can make homemade chicken nuggets those can be healthy
* tuna fish
* grilled chicken cut up or in a sandwich
* canadian bacon is not too bad and can fit on a cracker
* juice in a thermos as opposed to a juice box. Stuff like apple cider works surprisingly well.
* water with a little fruit squeezed over it to get a bit of flavor in it
* vanilla wafers can be a nice treat
* ditto a small pack of fruit chews every once in a while
Those small round flat breads they sell for sandwiches work great for kid lunches too.
It sounds like a big waste of money to me. Nobody I know would bother with it. I don't know anyone who sends Lunchables for a kid's lunch either, though...you don't have any way to keep it cold, and it doesn't seem like much food to most kids.
It might be possible though if you marketed it toward kids with allergies, and were in a big enough city to have a lot of kids like that, with parents who had the money to spend on it. You'd probably have to have some kind of gimmick like cute packaging, so that the kids actually cared about it, and you wouldn't be able to share a kitchen with other businesses because of the fear of cross-contamination.
It sounds like a big waste of money to me. Nobody I know would bother with it. I don't know anyone who sends Lunchables for a kid's lunch either, though...you don't have any way to keep it cold, and it doesn't seem like much food to most kids.
It might be possible though if you marketed it toward kids with allergies, and were in a big enough city to have a lot of kids like that, with parents who had the money to spend on it. You'd probably have to have some kind of gimmick like cute packaging, so that the kids actually cared about it, and you wouldn't be able to share a kitchen with other businesses because of the fear of cross-contamination.
Oh I think it could work for the right price. She probably needs to target a city with a good number of middle/upper middle class families but not a lot of stay at home moms. Those are the people who would be looking for something like this IMO. Both parents working, but not well off enough for a full time nanny. In NYC, a neighborhood like Park Slope or the Upper West Side could work, especially if it was a service offered through a local supermarket.
I do like the idea of creating healthier prepackaged lunches. However, I also think it would be difficult to get the proposed model to work. Many parents who are really busy just have their kids buy lunch at school. Many parents who are very health conscious are going to want to make their own lunches. Parents on the tightest budgets (who don't get free school lunches) are going to look for the cheapest options, and unfortunately healthy lunches delivered to your door are not going to be cheap. Therefore, it would be hard to find a market. I did subscribe to an online grocery delivery service for awhile (Webvan), and I loved it. However, the company failed for a number of reasons. I also know there are companies like Schwanns that deliver dinners, though I've never tried them. Maybe you can look at these types of companies to see what worked and what didn't.
I do agree with Hedgehog that allergy friendly meals may work, but you would have to be really careful. My oldest daughter is allergic to milk, and I must admit I have grown quite tired of packing meals for her all the time. She has never been able to eat a school lunch, and we also need to pack food for parties, after school activities etc. She just attended a sleepover this past weekend, and we had to pack a large bag of food for her. It gets tiring, and I admit I get lazy and don't always pack her the best food. There were a number of days I just threw an Uncrustable in a bag, even though I thought they were the dumb and horribly unhealthy when they came out. We stopped doing that though after she had an allergic reaction at lunch on a day she was eating an Uncrustable. I don't know if that was the cause, but that was the end of my packing that unhealthy food option.
Oh I think it could work for the right price. She probably needs to target a city with a good number of middle/upper middle class families but not a lot of stay at home moms. Those are the people who would be looking for something like this IMO. Both parents working, but not well off enough for a full time nanny. In NYC, a neighborhood like Park Slope or the Upper West Side could work, especially if it was a service offered through a local supermarket.
My city is like that, but a prepackaged "adult" healthy lunch business just folded after two months here. The costs associated with buying from limited local vendors as well as the mediocre food quality were not a good combination.
We also have had a healthy pet food delivery business try to make it here. There is a LOT of discretionary income here, but even the CEOs I know don't do premade. My kids make their own.
OP, I would do a very specific business plan first.
When I made my own lunch for school I chose pumpernickel bread, put a slice of sharp cheddar cheese on each slice, baked beans, a thin slice of onion and crisp bacon. It's a hearty sandwich and one I still use when I hunt. If I don't have pumpernickel I use raisin bread. The cheese keeps the beans from soaking into the bread. Mmmmmmm good. An apple or two tops it off.
Laurie, there was a company like that right here in my neighborhood (the Hudson Valley region of NY, about 1 hour north of NYC). The lasted for a year or so. Their business model was to work with local day cares and schools to deliver lunch each morning, the difference was they were making the food that morning, not sending it on ahead. Parents would then order food online at least 48 hours ahead with the ability to cancel before 8am the day of if their child would be out sick (I think there was also an option to order on shorter notice for a fee). They offered a nice variety of hot and cold food choices...sandwiches, quesadillas, chili, soups, and various dinner type dishes all with a homemade treat and the option to buy a drink.
This worked really well and the response I heard of was great. For the most part the prices were pretty reasonable, anywhere from $3-6 per day. Of course parents could do their own food for much less but for the quality and convenience it worked.
As I mentioned, they only lasted a year. My understanding is that after one school year they shut down for a few weeks in the summer to move to an actual commercial kitchen. The intention was to also expand the business to have dinner ordering available as well. Around the expected re-opening date an email went out that it was being delayed, then at the end of the summer an announcement that they would not be reopening at all as there were problems with requirements the town had for the new building that could not be worked out with the landlord (I know they were moving into an existing space but I don't know if it was previously a restaurant or if this was a brand new kitchen install). Here is a link to an article that had been written about the owner when they first started.
My thoughts as a parent are that I thought this was a great service. I especially liked that it was being delivered the same day for two reasons, as previously mentioned then there are no storage issues and because it allowed for a hot food option. We used it mostly one day at week out of the three my little one was in care, the other days I could just as easily make a sandwich and send that in for far less. I liked that this service was giving us a variety we didn't already have. I'm sure it is very tough and then it keeps you more local, but I think that is the business model that could be more successful than trying to make a prepackaged meal replacement.
My city is like that, but a prepackaged "adult" healthy lunch business just folded after two months here. The costs associated with buying from limited local vendors as well as the mediocre food quality were not a good combination.
We also have had a healthy pet food delivery business try to make it here. There is a LOT of discretionary income here, but even the CEOs I know don't do premade. My kids make their own.
OP, I would do a very specific business plan first.
I could see cost becoming a very big issue. They key would be to deliver quality food at an affordable price, and that could be a challenge. It also has to be really convenient (like maybe have an app you can download on your phone for ordering).
Quote:
Originally Posted by HV_Mom
Laurie, there was a company like that right here in my neighborhood (the Hudson Valley region of NY, about 1 hour north of NYC). The lasted for a year or so. Their business model was to work with local day cares and schools to deliver lunch each morning, the difference was they were making the food that morning, not sending it on ahead. Parents would then order food online at least 48 hours ahead with the ability to cancel before 8am the day of if their child would be out sick (I think there was also an option to order on shorter notice for a fee). They offered a nice variety of hot and cold food choices...sandwiches, quesadillas, chili, soups, and various dinner type dishes all with a homemade treat and the option to buy a drink.
This worked really well and the response I heard of was great. For the most part the prices were pretty reasonable, anywhere from $3-6 per day. Of course parents could do their own food for much less but for the quality and convenience it worked.
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OP, I think that right there is key as well. If you have options that are a bit more inconvenient to make at home (like chilli) and it could cost not much more than it would cost to buy lunch at school, I really think it could work. But you have to start small and local. It would also be cool if you could deliver it straight to the school (like leave it at the front desk for the kid to come pick up) for those mornings we parents get caught out there. LOL
I don't honestly think dropping it at the front desk of the school will be a option.
Parents can drop a lunch from time to time for there kids,
But the school will not be allowing a complication to the school cafeteria to use the Front Desk as there drop point. The school Office staff is not there to hand out, monitor the distribution of lunch's.
OP, 20 years ago the notion of pre-made patties for burgers was not as popular as it is today. So, your idea may work if you target the right kind of people (where there are less stay-at-home moms), mostly upper middle class.
If I have to buy a pre-made lunch for my kid, below is what I would expect:
1. It has to be preservative free.
2. should come in handy ready-made boxes where she is able to pop it in her cooler lunch bag.
3. It should contain at least one serving of meat (mainly protein), one serving of fruit, one serving of veggies and serving of dairy.
4. Give me the timetable of what will be given to my kid at least 1 week in advance.
5. Price: not more than $8.
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