Revolutionizing An Industry By Building An Empire Based On Values

When I went to school, the last thing I want­ed to do was eat lunch pre­pared there. Yuck!

It’s dif­fer­ent now. Rev­o­lu­tion Foods has changed the sys­tem. It pro­vides deli­cious and nutri­tious meals to schools at an afford­able price. Food for schools is a $16 bil­lion indus­try. Because it tar­gets free or reduced-price meal pro­grams sub­si­dized by fed­er­al fund­ing, Rev­o­lu­tion Foods’ price point must be low. Its is $3 per meal. The com­pa­ny donates 1% of retail prod­uct sales to a “Feed­ing Good Fund” that pro­vides grants to schools who need equip­ment to serve fresh­ly pre­pared meals to their students.

A chance meet­ing leads to the cre­ation of a $100 mil­lion business

It was kismet that Kristin Groos Rich­mond met Kirsten Saenz Tobey in 2006 when they both went back to school to get their MBAs at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley, Haas School of Busi­ness. Both were edu­ca­tors who believed that for kids to do well in school, they need­ed the right fuel – fresh nutri­tious food. Rich­mond saw the impact good food made when she found­ed a school in Nairo­bi. Kids were more engaged and focused, and their abil­i­ty to learn improved.

Nutri­tious food won’t do kids any good if they won’t eat it.  Rev­o­lu­tion Food is kid-inspired and chef-craft­ed. “We lis­ten, learn and iter­ate,” said Rich­mond. Sur­veys and focus groups are con­duct­ed reg­u­lar­ly by Rev­o­lu­tion Foods. Chefs also sit down with stu­dents at school. Menus are cus­tomized to reflect region­al taste dif­fer­ences – serv­ing jam­bal­aya in New Orleans and tamales in San Francisco.

To read the full arti­cle, vis­it Forbes.