Innovation

Revolution Foods serves 1 million healthy meals each week in nearly 1,000 American public schools. Since 2006, the company has served over 200 million healthy meals. Many of the foods that Revolution Foods offers children in schools have no high fructose corn syrup and no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners because they believe young minds deserve nothing less. They are effectively making nutrition cool, and children are eating it up.

Inspiration

Co-founders Kristin Richmond and Kristen Tobey, who are moms themselves, started Revolution Foods with a mission to transform the way America's students eat by providing access to healthy and affordable meals to children in elementary schools throughout the country. Children do want to eat better, believe the co-founders, but the food must meet their standards and of course they need to be able to afford it. The co-founders believe that proper nutrition and affordability are cornerstones of providing youth with the nourishment they need to lead successful lives and help them to become better students. Revolution Foods has produced over 200 million healthy and affordable meals for students since the two co-founders Kristin and Kristen, who attended business school together, began their journey to give children great tasting, healthy food, that they were sure to love. Affordability is a very serious factor in this innovation, because if children cannot pay for it, they cannot eat it, even if they like the nutritious food.

Overall impact

Revolution Foods' co-founders' philosophy is simple. To them, nurturing bright minds starts with fueling active bodies. They believe that all children deserve access to high quality foods made with carefully considered ingredients. The two believe in food that tastes great and promotes growth and development. They go by the phrase “Feeding Good.” It is their promise to children to make sure that they provide food that they can feel good about. Many of the foods that Revolution Foods offers children in schools have no high fructose corn syrup and no artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners because they believe our young minds deserve nothing less. They are effectively making nutrition cool, and children are eating it up. Revolution Foods serves 1 million healthy meals each week in nearly 1,000 American public schools. Since 2006, the company has served over 200 million healthy meals. At one school in Harlem, the proportion of students accepting free meals increased from less than half to over 85% with the introduction of Revolution Foods meals, which were not only healthier but more appealing to children. Along with providing children with excellent nutrition, Revolution Food has hired over 500 new employees since they undertook their endeavor, and this number is only expected to grow.

Business benefit

In their first full year in business, Kristin Richmond and Kirsten Tobey had six employees, and now they have over 500. From a revenue perspective, they were at about a half million dollars in revenues in their first year in business. This year (2016) they are hoping to finish the year close to the $30 million mark. They have grown quite a bit revenue-wise, since this all began back in 2005. They have also increased the number of meals served from about 1,000 meals a day in their first year to 2016, where they are serving about 1 million healthy meals per week, and that number is just expected to grow.

When interviewing Leslie Brian, Marketing CEO, she stated, “We always had a mission that we wanted at least 80 percent of our meals to go to low-income children and those that qualify for free lunches at school. It's a very low profit margin. We can't raise prices just to make sure that we have a comfortable margin.” She believes in developing this business model. The company realized that one of the things they could do is to have other business lines that supported the school meal program and made up for its low revenue. “There’s a ceiling on the price that we can charge to schools,” she explained. One of the things they looked at, Mrs. Brian mentioned, was the idea of selling a retail product, essentially a higher profit margin product line. They partnered with another company called the Nest Collective to create that product line, which is now available in grocery stores in a meal kit form.

Leslie Brian stated that the future is more open and brighter than ever for Revolution Foods. Since the company’s success in the elementary school system, they have expanded their line of healthy food to local grocery stores. They are now serving similar healthy ready-to-eat meals in food stores throughout the country. They want to provide everyone with the healthy choice of eating well. Today, Mrs. Brian said, they are proud to offer meal options for both families and students across the country. 200 million meals later, they feel that their journey has only just begun. According to Mrs. Brian, they are thrilled to announce that along with Nest Collective an innovative company called Batter World has also joined the Revolution Foods family. Batter World, she mentioned, is an innovative company that brings a whole new level of convenience and taste to breakfast with a line of ready made, pancake batters. Like Revolution Foods, Batter World was created by two moms who know the importance of wholesome meal options that are easy to prepare. With this partnership, Revolution Foods looks forward to expanding their retail portfolio and bringing additional meal options to grocery stores around the country. New jobs are being created and that is a wonderful thing, Mrs. Brian stated.

Social and environmental benefit

Along with expanding their retail food production to grocery stores, they have not forgotten their goal of helping children eat better. Ms. Brian said they are now working on expanding their food line to other schools throughout the country and have gained attention in many schools. Revolution Foods wants to be in every school district across the US. They also want to be able to provide “customizable” healthy breakfasts and lunches to students. Leslie Brian said that “kids want to mix and match things all the time,” but that Revolution Foods is currently unable to do this due to financial constraints in the budget. However, they are eventually going to be making and providing “customizable” lunches for students at an affordable cost. She stated, that is what has made so many fast food chains so successful, and they want to counter that power, by becoming customizable as well, while keeping the healthy nutrition in all the foods it serves in schools.

Revolution Foods has achieved demonstrable success in both business and social outcomes, Mrs. Brian told me, but faces key challenges as it moves forward: Even accounting for its already rapid growth, the company must find ways to operate at a pace and scale that will meet existing demand in existing and new regions. The approximately $3 reimbursement ceiling that schools face as part of the National School Lunch Program presents a continual challenge for sourcing low-cost, high-quality foods to children in public schools.

Revolution Foods creates customized menus from locally sourced, fresh food. Revolution Foods encourages youth participation in the menu design process, sourcing menu ideas from students and relying on them for product tasting and feedback. By operating from a central regional kitchen, rather than from individual school or district facilities, as in the past, Revolution Foods consolidates production and keeps costs low and waste at a minimum. Regarding Revolution Foods' carbon foot print, Leslie Brian said that all the containers used to ship and hold the individual meals were made from 100% recyclable packaging. Furthermore, items that they did not produce or that were outsourced were being graded by a “scorecard” that Revolution Foods keeps for its suppliers. The company wanted to be able to review their practices and voice their opinions on sustainability, to keep other companies in line with Revolution Foods vision on protecting the environment. Revolution Foods wants to keep our children healthy and the world that they live in healthy as well.

Interview

Leslie Brian, Marketing CEO