Most Innovative Companies 2015: A Q&A With Revolution Foods
Join Fast Company editor Jillian Goodman for a live Q&A with Revolution Foods founders Kirsten Saenz Tobey and Kristin Groos Richmond at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 18.
Kirsten Saenz Tobey (left) and Kristin Groos Richmond
Photo by: John Francis Peters
Revolution Foods was recently named #39 on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list “for selling good, cheap food to children who need it most.”
Every day, Revolution Foods provides 300,000 of what it calls "real food" meals to schoolchildren in 25 cities, for only $3 apiece. And what’s more is that kids actually like it.
Join Fast Company associate editor Jillian Goodman for a live Q&A with Revolution Foods founders Kirsten Saenz Tobey and Kristin Groos Richmond at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, March 18.
And get your questions in now by using the "make a comment" box below!
-
Hello everyone! We're going to get started in just a few minutes with Revolution Foods co-founder Kristin Groos Richmond. Here's a link to our story about Revolution Foods from our annual Most Innovative Companies issue:
-
Kristin's co-founder Kirsten Saenz Tobey will be joining us a little later.
-
Okay! So Kristin, where did the idea for Revolution Foods come from?
-
Kirsten and I (co founders) had a vision to dramatically increase access to healthy, affordable, delicious meals for ALL kids in our nation. We had both come from education and saw firsthand the impact that eating healthy meals had on students/youth from a success standpoint. In and out of the classroom! As moms, we live and breathe this every day now with our own children. So three core beliefs brought us together to build what is now Revolution Foods: nutrition as a lever to set kids up for success, commitment to access for ALL families and the belief that we could use good business to solve this problem for our communities.
-
Can you expand a little bit on your professional background? How did your experience in education inform the way you guys went about building the company?
-
I started my career in finance and transitioned to education in my late 20s. In education, I was able to focus on building an effective school model for under served kids and families. As part of this experience, I taught classes and saw a huge difference in attention, focus, behavior and ultimately academic success...
-
...In the students who had access to healthy meals vs students who were in need of these meals. Kirsten was a classroom teacher throughout her career prior to starting Revolution Foods and her experience mirrored mine in terms of the importance of this issue.
-
(Here are some happy and focused Revolution Foods customers!)
-
So many studies have shown the impact good nutrition has on students' academic performance. Did your experience on the inside of public education help you navigate the bureaucracy when you went looking for your first partner schools?
-
Our experience in education has helped us build Revolution Foods because we are focused on a few key things: listening to what our students and families want in terms of quality and design of food (including cultural relevance for different communities), focusing on designing to affordability as a key tenant of our offering (understanding how fragile school budgets are and all of our meals cost at or below federal reimbursement levels) and being SUPER solutions oriented in our approach with our school partners. So many schools and leaders are committed to improving access for their students and we want to be the partner to help them get there! This drives our design and business each day.
-
What's been the biggest obstacle to overcome in terms of changing people's thoughts regarding healthy eating?
-
Revolution Foods school meals are prepared fresh daily out of one of seven culinary centers nationwide.
-
This problem of lack of access to high quality, healthy, affordable food in our communities is precisely why we chose to begin providing offerings outside of the school space as we evolved Revolution Foods. For example, our ready to eat Jet Packs had a successful pilot launch in Walmart Florida in January and were the first offering of our kind on the shelves. We will continue innovating our family offerings both in and out of the school space to tackle this problem. We also work diligently with our school partners to support in student and family engagement activities focused on building lifelong healthy eaters.
-
Revolution Foods turkey & cheddar "Jet Pack" available in grocery stores