School Lunches in UK

[BombayBen]

Hi guys - there is a lot of hubbub about 'teaching' parents to put 'healthy' snacks in their kids' school lunches but most parents are too busy working to find time to research the subject or to even go shopping in local shops as opposed to Supermarkets.. Now I live in a town that has around 8 schools and I am thinking - there is a market here - any ideas as to how I can market this? I would provide a selection of healthy lunches in biodegradable packs and the lunches would have nothing but the healthiest of foods in them - any ideas? suggestions? gimmicks? how would I capture this market?

[Smylietron]

I think, judging by Jamie Oliver's difficulties in that exact area, you might have trouble snaring the kids' attention. They're all used to fried junk and overprocessed goodies.

Gimmicks...make whatever you put in the lunches "kid friendly." Poppable food (you can eat a lot of it in one bite), shaped food, etc...maybe use sweet potatoes, as I've seen picky children dive right into dishes involving them...

Whatever you end up using, your mission sounds righteous, so good luck!

[bughut]

Hey Bombay ben,
To Quote Smilietron youre mission is truly righteous and i wish you humungus ammounts of luck. It will either bomb or youre gonna have a huge sucess on your hands.
Having put 3 sons through high school, I know the attraction is the local bakers who do a selection of scrumptious pastries and baguettes oh yes and chips (fries) But I do think that their parents for the most part are more educated in healthy options and it's more the peer pressure and fashion that dictates the venue of choice.
My 14 year old will go for rubbish 50% of the time, but he and his mates will try the healthy options NOT BECAUSE they're advertised as such, but because they look and sound good.
Mid October = soup and rolls I reckon. They all know and remember the comfort value of Grans soup and a sandwich or roll to go with or dip in is a CHEAP healthy lunch. As they get to know your scrummy menu you can slip in other healthy stuff and i reckon by the spring you'll have them all eating salad bowls & wraps
I'm actually well impressed with my own great idea and may give it a go too. only Bottled water and heathy tray bakes would use up any extra £'s they had left over. Woo hoo!
Very best of luck

[thetincook]

Way back in the day when I was working at a summer day camp, one of the moms ran a hot lunch program for the kids through her catering company. She would hand out monthly menus (lunch, bev, snack) to the parents when they picked up the kids, and the parents would buy a week a week at a time. The food was the usual kid friendly stuff. She also gave us staffers free food.

She ended up with a ~25-30% participation rate IRC. Not too bad when you are looking at almost 600 kids. The cooking was all done offsite at a pizza place she rented in the mornings. I remember she used to make deliveries with the this radio flyer wagon.


The other option is to bid for the food service contract for the schools. This option is a lot more work, and I don't know if it would work in the UK.

[BombayBen]

hey tincook - I would not really want to opt for a school contract as Sodexho run most of them - I am not particularly impressed by them. There are kids who will have the lunch the school provides and then there are parents who give their kids money to buy something and then there are parents who prefer to give their kids 'packed' lunches so the market I am looking to conquer is the ones with the money and the packed lunches

[Smylietron]

Ugh, I don't want to meet anyone who's particularly impressed by Sodexho. By some stroke of rotten luck I managed to get Sodexho running food services in every school I attended from junior high til I finished out my Bachelor's. In college we found out from an insider working with Sodexho that our food was one step above the fare served in prisons.

[BombayBen]

AMEN to that - I have actually worked in Army campsb (sodexho) and such and they are absolutely disgusting!! MAN talk about 'like we don't care'!! actually - I am not even sure that they think it's FOOD!!

[Ishbel]

You could flyer at the school gates, or try to get the student roll so that you can approach the parents directly.

A friend of mine ran a sandwich/soup/fruit service into offices in the city of London. Those city men and women would pay anything she wanted to get a fresh, top quality, unusual filling for their sandwiches. She sold the business on after about 2 years and made a fortune!

But I bet the dreaded UK 'elf n safety' will raise its ugly head re approaching school children, though...

[BombayBen]

I would not have a problem with health and safety as I am inspected regularly and always get a clean bill of health. I am also not planning to proposition the kids - rather their parents!

[Ishbel]

That's what I said.... flyer at the gates (the parents, not the kids) and try to get the student roll to contact the parents.