January 14, 2014

Healthy School Food For Thought

It’s an all-too-common sight: the gang of school kids traipsing back to school from the local convenience store or chipper, armed with a chicken box and a bottle of coke. Or for anyone working in a primary school, the  lunch box filled with sweets, chocolate bars or crisps, or even worse, the empty lunchbox and the hungry child who cannot concentrate on the afternoon lesson.


A Delicious and Healthy Alternative

Our featured business on Kickstart Your Business this week, The School Food Company promotes healthy eating by providing a full catering service to schools, including the fit-out of canteens, and the preparation and delivery of healthy meals. As Ken Boland, the business’ co-owner reports, the student uptake has been fantastic and the teachers have themselves noted improvements in behaviour and academic performance. 


Food Glorious Food

Looking at the SFC Website, Gerard was very impressed with how Ken presents the food and overall offer but would recommend that the written messages in particular be more about delicious food (that happens to be healthy) rather than healthy food (that happens to be delicious). Whether we are children, parents or school managers, we buy first because we want something, not because it’s good for us. For example, the messages used to promote Innocent smoothies are all about the passion and love of great, fun food.


Over To You

How do you suggest that Ken might help make the The School Food Company’ website more about the fun and pleasure of great food?  Listen back to the show on the Newstalk Kickstart Your Business blog and let us know what you think. We'd love to hear from you.

5 comments:

Ken said...

Thanks Gerard. I fully agree with your comment on delicious food that is healthy.

I wonder about striking a balance between what the customer (student) considers to be fun and a principal, who has to buy into the concept for it to get started.

Ken

Anonymous said...

Hi Ken, really enjoyed the show last night and I love your website.

In relation to striking a balance, you are absolutely right that the principal or school manager needs to see certain information before they will buy into the concept but to use the example of the Innocent Smoothie again, the packaging and messaging must primarily appeal to the senses and attract the consumer before the 'serious stuff' is introduced.

Ken said...

Thanks Ann.

I have always liked the innocent concept and promotion and I also think it is a lovely model to use to target the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices amongst young people. Fun but not preaching at them.

I am curious as to peoples opinions on the placement of the health education side of the company. We have a growing range of educational materials and initiatives in place and in development. In addition we will be launching a campaign to encourage people to make small changes in their lifestyle which will have significant impact on overall health.

Is this too much to place under one website or would they be better placed as a stand alone website.

Ken said...

Thanks Ann.

I have always liked the innocent concept and promotion and I also think it is a lovely model to use to target the promotion of healthy lifestyle choices amongst young people. Fun but not preaching at them.

I am curious as to peoples opinions on the placement of the health education side of the company. We have a growing range of educational materials and initiatives in place and in development. In addition we will be launching a campaign to encourage people to make small changes in their lifestyle which will have significant impact on overall health.

Is this too much to place under one website or would they be better placed as a stand alone website.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ken,
sorry about the delay in responding to your question. It really depends on how closely aligned your offers are and if it is the same audience you hope to reach for your range of products. If it is, then it would make sense to place all the offers on one website.

However, the way in which a principal or school manager enagages with what he or she sees as primarily a food company (albeit one that is passionate and committed to health education) may be very different to how they engage with an educational materials provider. You don't want to end up with a mish mash of website that confuses your target audience. It will be well worth your while to chat with some principals and get their opinions on this one.