Sweetgreen wants to Educate and Elevate School Lunch

Back to basic, just what does that mean when it come to school lunch programs? In simple terms according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® “introducing fresh natural ‘real food’ to help students learn that ‘real food’ can taste good and be ‘better-for-you’.

So, when Sweetgreen announced its strategic partnership with FoodCorps to reimagine the school cafeteria experience, in order to guide students to experiment with real food, and empower them to make healthier choices every day. Our Grocerant Guru® said now that’s a good idea.

The program starts this school year, and will bring innovations to 15 cafeterias and 6,500 students in states across the country - Arkansas, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Virginia, which all encompass a geographically and socioeconomically diverse set of students. Learnings from the pilot programs will inform the program’s expansion in the 2020-2021 school year to 50 schools, engaging over 20,000 elementary school students in the U.S.

Sweetgreen provided $1 million in funding to support FoodCorps and its pilot programs, which are built on a human-centered design study and leverages technology in 3 areas:

·         Tasty Challenges: Powered by behavioral science research, taste testing models let students try fruits + veggies in different preparations, then vote on their favorites. This model enables students to have direct input on their menu.

       Flavor Bars: Kids can explore new tastes and customize their meals with self-serve spices and sauces. This provides an opportunity for students to make choices about their meal, explore new flavors, and become more connected to the cafeteria environment.

·       School Cafeteria 2.0: Students are empowered to lead discussions and decisions around school lunch and the cafeteria. This concept uses project-based learning to give students a voice in improvements to the cafeteria.

Jonathan Neman, co-founder and CEO of Sweetgreen  stated “There are over 100,000 school cafeterias in America — that’s seven times more than the number of McDonald’s in the United States, meaning school meals play an incredibly powerful role in how 30 million kids connect to what they eat,” … “Food served in schools offer a powerful opportunity to change the trajectory of the health of a generation.”

Sweetgreen also connected with experts in food, nutrition and policy to weigh in on why school lunch matters and to help bring attention to the current state of food in schools to the forefront. Notable leaders include Deb Eschmeyer (social impact entrepreneur and former executive director of First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” Initiative), Sam Kass (Former White House chef and senior policy advisor for Nutrition, partner at Acre Venture Partners) and Dan Giusti (Founder of Brigaid, former executive chef at 1789 in Washington, D.C., and former head chef at Noma in Copenhagen).

Curt Ellis, co-founder and CEO of FoodCorps  stated “Cafeterias offer an extraordinary opportunity to nourish students, yet too often they lack the joyful, welcoming experience that gets kids excited about eating healthy food,” …“Thanks to support from Sweetgreen, FoodCorps is piloting an initiative to reimagine school cafeterias shaped by the voices of the very people who are impacted most by school food—the students.”

 Furthering their commitment to healthy and nutritious food in schools, Sweetgreen will donate $1 from every seasonal bowl to FoodCorps, Monday, September 16 through Sunday, October 13, 2019.  Once again proving fast food fresh is not only ‘better-for-you’ it just might be better for all of us.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may have the clue you need to propel your continued success.

What’s for Dinner School District Cafeteria Food

Parents are working split-shifts, early mornings, evenings, and nights to keep the bills paid and a roof over the head and more and more school kids are left fending for themselves according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. 

Non-traditional fresh food retailers are driving change in meal and menu options within the Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat Grocerant niche according to Johnson.

One school district in Indiana has found a way to help parents and kids get a balanced meal on the table for dinner. WSBT first reported that Elkhart Community Schools students usually get breakfast and lunch at school, but on the weekends at home, they may be without food.

That's where the South Bend-based non-profit Cultivate comes in: it provides weekend meals to a small group of students in the elementary school pilot program.  Cultivates Jim Conklin stated “Mostly, we rescue food that’s been made but never served by catering companies, large food service businesses, like the school system," .. "You don't always think of a school." Simply put “It rescues the unused food.”

“Over-preparing is just part of what happens," said Conklin. "We take well-prepared food, combine it with other food and make individual frozen meals out if it." Twenty students will receive a backpack with eight individual frozen meals every Friday until the end of school.

Natalie Bickel, student services at Elkhart Community Schools stated, “we were wasting a lot of food,"  "There wasn't anything to do with the food. So they came to the school three times a week and rescued the food."

The Chamber of Commerce’s Leadership Academy Commerce helped get the pilot program going. “It’s making a big impact,” said Melissa Ramey, Chamber Leadership Academy. “I am proud of that. It was heartbreaking to hear that children go home on the weekends and that they don't have anything to eat.”

It's making a big difference in the lives of the students receiving the meals. The Elkhart school system wants to expand the food program to other schools.  How are you fighting food waste? 

Are you looking for a new partnership to drive sales? Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Battle for Share of Stomach

Freshii an Innovative Brand Creates an Innovative Platform

Success does leave clues one clue Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® reminds regular readers of this blog is differentiation does not mean different it means familiar but with a twist.  Freshii a fast growing health and wellness brand continues to exceed legacy food industry executive’s expectations in sales and growth direction. 

With a solid understanding of millennial parent’s ethos Freshii’s Lead Nutritionist, Andie Shapira, recently developed the kid-friendly menu that has become a platform to drive incremental top line sales and bottom line profits in a new avenue of distribution.

Freshii new platform is their School Lunch program. Shapria’s kid friendly program continues to further the brand’s mission to change the way the world eats this time targeting the next generation of eaters. With a menu of “nutrientdense, crave-worthy bowls, wraps and salads, there is no compromise for students or parents” according to Shapria.

Grocerant niche better for you food has found a home with Millennials and Millennial parents according to Johnson.  It those parents that insist on instilling healthy habits at a young age thus it is critical – and Freshii knows that nutritious lunch options are not always available to students. That is a twist of differentiation that has a halo of ‘better-for-you’ will find a home in many schools according to Johnson.

Shapira stated “The school lunch menu will provide the nutrients needed to fuel students’ days,” she says. “Slow-burning carbs like brown rice and quinoa provide  growing bodies with fiber, which helps to stabilize blood sugar, while healthy fats like avocado will keep kids fueled all afternoon. There’s no high-and-crash that you might see with less-than healthy options.”

Freshii’s is a brand with an invitation that Millennials, and parents of any age will place a high value on according to Johnson.  If success does leave clues and it does Freshii’s is a brand that many in the foodservice industry will try to copy.

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.