May 9, 2007 10:24 pm US/Pacific
SF Business Specializes In Organic School Lunches
by Sue Kwon
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5) ―
There's no trading lunches at San Francisco Friends school. The kids devour their lunch bags filled with organic turkey, cheese and pesto sandwiches and dried green beans.
It's a new brown bag movement started by Jamie Feuerman, co-founder of Kid Chow.
The San Francisco business started four years ago to fill the need for healthier school lunch options. Today, it delivers healthy brown bag lunches to 27 Bay Area schools. All ingredients are organic, locally grown when possible, and low in salt, sugar, and fat.
"Vegetables are fresh, crunchy, colorful and served with dip hummus and ranch. That's a great way to get kids to each healthy food. Make it taste great," Feuerman said.
Kid Chow chefs make sushi kid-friendly by filling the rolls with carrots instead of raw fish; they cut crust off whole wheat sandwiches.
A Kid Chow lunch costs $4.75 to $6.50. Parents order from an online menu and pay the price in advance.
Feuerman acknowledges that price is too high for most children in public schools when you compare that cost to the San Francisco school district's budget for lunch, 97 cents per child.
The inequity disturbs Jamie, but she realizes public schools are doing what they can with inadequate government funds. Organic food can be three-times more expensive.
She hopes SB12, a new law placing higher standards on school nutrition taking effect in July, will mobilize change at the community and government levels.
San Francisco Friends School is an independent school where director Cathy Hunter believes good nutrition plays an important role in learning. And despite what many might think, some say the kids actually grow to love the good stuff.
"If they haven't been exposed to sugar and fat they will comfortably settle into a life of eating healthy food," she said.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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