Conscious Business of the Week: Healthy School Lunch by Revolution Foods

Triple Bottom Line Meals: Benefiting Kids, Planet and Profit

Conscious ventures are often in the business of breaking the myths of what is possible. In the case of scholastic performance, it has long been known that nutrition will either promote or impair it. Sadly, however, as academic administrators fell prey to the limiting belief that healthy meals were costly, it was the children who suffered.

This is where the social enterprise Revolution Foods stepped up to the challenge. And succeed they have in proving a healthy school lunch can be delicious, low cost and accessible to all. Moreover, they are yet another illustrious example of a conscious business skillfully achieving triple bottom line success.

A Healthy School Lunch Experience for All

Revolution Foods is changing the face of school lunches nationwide. With 125 employees and two commercial kitchens, they are currently delivering over 20,000 fresh, delicious meals to more than 100 schools in North and South California. They also have expansion efforts underway to move into Colorado and Washington DC.

Their innovation in operations and food sourcing have resulted in healthy meals that are just slightly more than the cost of a typical public school lunch (about $3.00). They serve schools in well-known affluent areas such as Marin County, however, their primary focus is serving low-income communities where nutrition is known to be poor. About 75% of their feeds go to schools that have qualified for the federal free or reduced price lunch program.

Their other main priority of course lies around food quality. They are dedicated to using the freshest of ingredients that are organic and locally sourced whenever possible. They also understand that to provide lunches at such a large-scale, at times major food suppliers have to be considered as well. In these cases, they only partner with suppliers that meet their criteria of commitment to healthy, sustainable, environmentally friendly business practices.

The Revolution Food meals adhere to the stringent quality standards followed by Whole Foods Market. This extensive list of requirements prevents any of their food from containing questionable substances such as artificial colors and flavorings, artificial sweeteners, bleached flour, irradiated foods, nitrates, hydrogenated oils and preservatives.

All their animal products are hormone and antibiotic free. And none of their foods contain high fructose corn syrup or trans fats. These are the kinds of meals all children are worthy of.

A Revolution Foods healthy school lunch doesn’t stop at meal deliveries for schools and educational programs. The team at Revolution Foods has also devised a way to spruce up the nutritional content in lunch boxes with a line of organic lunchbox snacks.

Like their meals, the easy-to-pack snacks are free of corn syrup, trans fats and artificial ingredients. One look at the creative options available and one clearly sees the brains behind these snacks know how to pack a nutritional punch in a fun, wholesome way.

Conscious Mealtime Business Practices

Undoubtedly, the Revolution Food meals are the kinds that are a hit with parents, teachers and most importantly, kids. They are also the kinds of meals that are resulting in swift growth for the company. This fiscal year they are set to bring in over $10 million in revenue.

But these high yields aren’t just going into the bank. Not only are they fueling tremendous expansion efforts but they are being used to feed the community in many other ways. The first example of this is that 3% of the net revenues from the Revolution Food snacks goes to their School Lunch Program, helping them feed even more kids in underserved schools.

They have also teamed up with the philanthropic group Full Circle Fund to develop a Resource Guide to help teachers teach nutrition education, help parents become role models around healthy living and help administrators implement or improve school meal programs. These resources include meal tips, nutrition educational activities, school staff development resources, school demos and recipes.

Not surprisingly, their conscious business practices extend in-house as well. All employees receive full health benefits. They recycle and compost almost all kitchen waste and all their packaging, food storage units, educational materials, paper and inks are made with the most efficient, eco-friendly components whenever possible.

A Food Revolution that Benefits All

The team behind Revolution Foods clearly was driven by a desire to create successful businesses. However, they have shown us yet again that business can be put to the best of use while maintaining a profit. In this case, this conscious business ensures that every kid receive as simple of a thing as a healthy school lunch.

Ultimately though, to Revolution Foods this seems far more than about the simple right to have a delicious, nutritious meal. Their food revolution is perhaps their way of ensuring the optimal development and future productivity of our youth. Selfish? We think not.

To learn more about Revolution Foods, visit here.

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