By Spot Us August 9, 2009
Serena: Could you provide a brief overview of the daily routine at Revolution Foods in terms of how the food is prepared, packaged and shipped to local schools?
Kristin Richmond (Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business)
(For sample audio - scroll down to the bottom of the interview).
Kristin: Our kitchen opens at 3am and we’re working throughout the day. It’s a combination of prepping fresh and then heating the meals in the morning, and any time between 6 am and 11 am, trucks are going out the door to serve meals fresh in schools. And we’ve got a couple different formats depending on whether schools are right at our back door of whether they’re a little further away. One format is to deliver food fresh and hot to schools that are very close by. For schools a little further away, we do a cook, chill platform where we cook every thing fresh then chill it, not freeze it, but chill it then send it out to school sites who then heat it up on site. That’s a really high-quality platform. We have a really great partnership with Whole Foods and that’s similar to the platform they use for their prepared foods department. We offer family style, which is a bulk platform where you’d get a large serving that you would serve to students at the site, and we also offer individually packaged meals. But the trick with our individual packed meals that we’re really proud of is using all sustainable packaging so it’s all 100 percent compostable. We just want to make sure that if schools are opting for individually packaged food that we’re using a green, sustainable solution. We serve a really broad range of schools; we serve districts; we serve charter schools; we serve head start programs, and it totally depends on the format. The younger students often do family style while the older students like more grab-and-go individual service, but it depends on the structure of the school. If the school has a lot of food service workers who are able to scoop and serve the food, then family style is a lot more realistic than if they’re very thinly staffed.
You could have a meal prepped at 4 pm, chilled and then warmed up in the morning. You could have meals that are prepared at 3 am and sent out at 5 am. It really depends on the exact menu, but certainly there are several stages of prepping. There’s the actual grating the cheese and chopping the potatoes. That’s often happening the day before just because we have a lot of prep to do. We’re chopping herbs; we’re getting vinaigrettes ready. We make a homemade pico de gallo for our healthy grande burrito and that can be chopped and prepared the day before. So it kind of depends on the menu and the size of the operation.
Serena: What happens if there’s an accident on the freeway en route to a school district?
Kristin: We give ourselves plenty of time and it’s amazing to say that in four years we’ve never had major complications on that front. Obviously, we haven’t had any natural disasters in the past four years, knock on wood, but we give ourselves a lot of time. We have very experienced drivers. We’ve been doing this for a while. We look at our route planning very carefully. We don’t overload our trucks and our drivers to the point where they can’t get to where they need to go. Of course if there’s an accident or something, we might inform our schools and say ‘hey, we may be a couple of minutes late.’ But we deliver early enough so that we’re not infringing on lunchtime. We might be a little late for our delivery, but it’s not going to stop kids from eating. Districts have been really smooth since the day we started. We invest a lot of time and training into that.
Serena: I’ve talked to several food service directors who are trying to incorporate stricter health standards into their meal programs, but they face some major challenges. I’m wondering if you’ve run into similar issues upholding your requirements to serve rbST and hormone free milk, hormone and antibiotic free meat, no high fructose corn syrup and scratch-cooked food that is local and organic whenever possible. What are the main challenges? What advantages does Revolution Foods have over most local school districts in meeting these criteria?
Kristin: We always face challenges; I’ll be totally honest about that. It’s not easy. One of the biggest pieces that’s challenging for Revolution Foods is that we set out to serve all students. What I mean by that is a very broad economic spectrum and broad demographics. Santa Cruz is case in point. Their population is just around 40 to 50 percent free and reduced lunch. These districts and schools operate on incredibly tight budgets and we have to make our foods as affordable as possible while meeting our health standards, which we’re very proud of and committed to. I know for instance that we’ve used a ton of local produce in the last 30 days. We’ve used plums, pluots, white peaches all from the Growers Collaborative, but we’re also in the middle of summer. In the spring, fall and summer, it’s much easier to access local, organic fruit and produce than it is in January. You really have to have great partnerships like we do with the Grower’s Collaborative. We’ve had a partnership with them from day one and they know that when they have a product at a certain price we will buy it. So it’s about letting your suppliers know that when they have seasonal organic produce that can be at an affordable rate, you are there ready to buy as many units of white nectarines as possible. So I think the secret is really establishing those great partnerships and letting your suppliers know that they can take a risk to get more product in house because there’s a market for it. Revolution Foods is a bigger operation now — not big compared to a big school district but compared to a small school district — so we do have some economies of purchasing there that certainly help us out. As you grow, you’re able to access higher quality goods at lower prices typically. We have a track record of building these partnerships. We’ve always had this partnership with Whole Foods, which introduced us to local suppliers. A perfect example is Joan Diestel at Diestel Turkey Ranch, where we’ve been buying local turkeys. She knows the names of her turkeys. That’s how personally it’s grown. So suppliers that are willing to take a risk and say, ‘hey, I support this cause of getting healthy meals out to all our kids and really increasing the quality of school [food].’ And we try to reciprocate and say, ‘hey, we’re getting bigger and bigger and now this business is going to be better for you.’ So I would say we face a lot of the same challenges. We’ve also gotten good at what we do in terms of building those relationships and really telling the story of what we’re doing and why it’s so important.
Serena: Would you say that you also have more money to spend than most school districts?
Kristin: We face a lot of the same challenges. We face the same reimbursement rate caps. The fact that we’re trying to provide this incredibly high quality meal for a very low rate [is a challenge in itself]. Federal reimbursement rates just went up to 2.68 but CPI adjustment for California is like $2. So think about putting together an incredibly healthy meal, with the cost of labor, food and every thing, and that’s going to pose serious challenges for any one trying to do it. So we’re a slightly different entity but all in all, we run such a cost-conscious operation where we’re trying to put as much as we can into our food for our kids and I think we probably face a lot of the same challenges and struggles that traditional operations face.
Serena: Do you use government commodity food?
Kristin: We have never used government commodities in our production. We’re certainly not opposed to using those commodities that meet our health standards, but we just haven’t used them to date.
Serena: How does Revolution Foods plan to boost meal participation in a district with historically low consumption like Santa Cruz City Schools?
Kristin: I think the number one thing is just serving fantastic food. We do a lot of work with our schools around menu development and feedback and focus groups, asking students ‘what do you want to see on your plate? What’s working on these menus? What’s not working on these menus?’ And we have a really quick turnaround time in terms of adjusting our menus and innovating, whether it’s a [spice] profile or a whole new menu, and really making sure that we’re listening to our students. I think that’s been the key to our success to date. I think a big part of what we do is getting food in front of people early in the year. That means coming to orientations with tastings so that parents are tasting the food and kids are tasting the food. Creating a really full-scale engagement around the food is a very important thing. We have a comprehensive nutrition education program that works really well to get students and families engaged. That includes health and wellness fairs where we do menu-planning sessions. We do chef demos. We do iron chef competitions. We do classic nutrition education demos like looking at how much sugar is in this product or comparing a rev foods grande burrito with a Taco Bell burrito and really getting hands on with students. That’s a big part of what we do and it really increases the buy in and engagement of the folks participating in the meal plan. So we’re hopeful and we’re going to put every thing we can into making sure that we engage families in Santa Cruz as much as possible and hopefully that will translate into higher participation rates. We have an onsite presence at our schools. We have school site teams. So there will be a team dedicated to Santa Cruz and that team will be on site frequently eating lunch with students. It’s a very hands-on partnership for us.
Serena: How many schools does Revolution Foods serve in the Bay Area?
Kristin: We served something like 75 schools last year, but we’re on the cusp of a new school year and don’t have numbers yet. There will be some increase. We’re supplying a portion of entrees to Palo Alto, we serve Mill Valley, Rock Valley, Roseland in Sonoma. We’re also going to be working with Los Gatos…
Serena: I read on your website that you don’t serve “overly processed” food. What does that mean? Is every thing scratch-cooked or are there some entrees that are processed?
Kristin: The only thing we’ve introduced in the last year [that’s processed] is a hormone, nitrate free hot dog. So it’s a clean hot dog on a whole-wheat bun with organic ketchup. I can’t tell you how many requests we’ve gotten over the years [for hot dogs], but for the longest time we couldn’t find a product that met our health standards. So we introduced this hot dog and what we said as a company was that we’re going to introduce this clean, all natural hotdog and we’re actually going to do some real education around it because we weren’t comfortable introducing that without the education. So we made sure that we went out to every school. We had sessions around how this hot dog was different. I mean we take this very seriously. If we’re going to introduce something in which versions of it have been unhealthy in our community, then we want to make sure folks know why this is a different hot dog. Another good example of Rev Foods is that we’ve been asked for chicken nuggets from day one, chicken nuggets, chicken nuggets, all these requests for chicken nuggets. So we finally sat down as a team and said look we don’t want to serve McDonald’s chicken nuggets or pre-processed chicken nuggets. How do we address this? So we basically figured out how to use all-natural, hormone and antibiotic-free chicken, cut the chicken, hand season and bread the chicken. We actually use the whole wheat bread we use for our sandwiches. We use the heels from those sandwiches and basically crumble that into panco and hand season those all natural chicken pieces with salt, pepper and whole wheat panco and then we bake them and serve them with organic ketchup. So that’s a good example of how we take a kid’s favorite and say yes we want to offer this but only if it’s done to our standards.
Serena: How many kitchen staff work at Revolution Foods?
Kristin: In the Bay Area, we have about 80 employees, 65 to 70 are our entire production staff, including the production chef, stew chef, drivers, janitors and every thing. It’s definitely a team of people.
Serena: What’s the average salary of your cooks? I’m trying to compare and contrast your operation with an average school district?
Kristin: People are at different stages based on how long they’ve been with us, but what I can tell you is that we’ve had a commitment since day one to offering every one on our team, whether you’re a dishwasher or a line cook, above livable wage and above livable wage in Alameda County I think is $10.80 an hour. On top of that, we offer full health benefits, medical and dental. We also offer ownership to every one on our team so regardless of what position you’re in, you have access to owning a piece of Revolution Foods. That’s a really important part of who we are. Clearly our chefs and [head] cooks make more than $10.80 an hour, but I don’t know if I’m comfortable saying their exact salary. What I am comfortable saying is that every one on our team is offered above livable wage, full health benefits as well as ownership in the company.
Serena: Ownership in the company?
Kristin: Options. We’re a privately held social venture so it’s an employee stock option program.
Serena: I read on the website that you start your recruiting process with the school communities you serve. How do you respond to people who are wary about outsourcing because they fear it will take away jobs (and tax dollars) from their communities?
Kristin: It’s an individual decision for a district or a charter school or for an individual school. We’re out there saying here’s what we offer and we’re available to serve that. We’re also creating a ton of jobs, 125 jobs just in the Bay Area. That includes our headquarters team, but these are jobs that weren’t there before. I think it’s an individual decision in terms of what a school’s going to do. If they can create their own food service operation to look the way they want it to look, obviously I’m fully supportive of that. But in the case that they’re looking for an alternative, I think Revolution Foods is a great alternative. And I think if you’re going to support an outsourced solution, supporting a company that has the values and standards and commitment that we have to our people, our food and to our local suppliers, is definitely the way you want to go…We have incredibly strong standards around they way we operate and you know you’re working with a really good like-minded partner. That’s what I found in Santa Cruz…I think the reason we’ve had such good rapport with folks is that we have standards that reflect the values of the Santa Cruz community in many ways.
In the last board meeting, I really tried to make a point that we’re not a full-service solution; we’re not a food service management company with all of our contracts at this point. There’s still a very large role for the food service team in Santa Cruz City Schools. We’re not just coming in and taking over the food service. We’re still working with folks to go over the food safety practices, to serve the food, to interact with the kids. So much of the work that we’re doing is with the existing food service team. We can’t do our nutrition education alone. We can’t do any of that without the team that works there. I just want to be really clear that we’re not coming in and taking away jobs right now. We’re coming in to partner with the school and say ‘we’re going to be providing you with healthy entrees and meals, but you’re going to have a huge role in serving the food and working with us to make this successful.’ I think that’s really important for people to understand. We’re not coming in and outsourcing the entire thing. It’s just a portion of it. We can’t be successful unless we’re a really strong partner to the existing food service staff there and we will do our absolute best to work with every one there. I have every faith in the world that it’s going to be a great partnership.
Serena: Some community members I’ve talked to also worry about private control of food service. Are there any conflicts of interest that arise in trying to satisfy both school districts and families but also venture capitalists?
Kristin: You’ve gotta look really closely at who’s invested in Revolution Foods. There’s no right or wrong answer here; it’s about the organization. Our social values are written into our charter as a company. Our investors signed on because they believe in those social values. This would be a terrible investment for them if they were just out to make a profit and that’s it. This is not the company that they would be working with. And further, our investors are social venture investors so double bottom line investors which is our first investor that seeded us. Their entire investment criteria is to support companies that promote economic development in low-income areas. So they don’t invest in the company unless it is creating jobs for low-income people at above livable wage with full benefits and ownership for every one. So it’s really important to look at who is invested in these companies. I mean the City of Oakland just invested in Revolution Foods. They just made us a great loan at a very low-interest rate because we’ve created so many jobs for low-income folks in Oakland at much higher standards than where they came from previously or in some cases, people were previously unemployed…Every organization is different and we have founded ourselves based on a very socially-conscious platform. We had a commitment when we first started to serve at least 50 percent low-income students. We now serve well above 50 percent low-income students. You can probably do the math and see that’s not driven off of a profit; that’s driven off a commitment to the community and a social mission that Kirsten and I, the other co-founder, are extremely committed to. I want people to really educate themselves on that. It’s an important trend in our business and nonprofit community that wasn’t there 20 years ago. There weren’t a lot of companies like Rev Foods.
Serena: Do you have much competition? I haven’t heard of many companies doing what you’re doing.
Kristin: There are folks serving the quality of meals that we’re serving at the private level at much higher price points. I think Revolution Foods is unique in the sense that our entire platform is built around serving all students
Serena: What are your ultimate goals for the company?
Kristin: To transform school meals nationwide, to change the way we feed our kids and to raise the expectations for how we feed our students. And really just to recognize that school health and wellness correlate directly to academic opportunities and success for students. That’s a very important part of who we are.
Serena: Why is scratch cooking such an important component of the company?
Kristin: I think bringing real food back into schools is so important as we try to build lifelong healthy eating habits amongst our students. I think the fact that they can see the food they’re eating and identify it is so important. So you’re not serving a taco pocket that’s packaged, processed food but you’re actually serving a homemade quesadilla that’s been hand rolled that they can identify all the ingredients. They can say, ‘hey, I can cook this at home or I could make this for myself. And the fact that you know where your food comes from so it doesn’t come from the package. It doesn’t come from a freezer at a fast food [restaurant] or a convenience store. You can identify, ‘wow, this is brown rice and this is where it came from.’ I just think continuing to connect students with real food is so important… right now we’re talking about today and this school year but the ultimate goal is that students will walk away and know how to prepare healthy meals for themselves or be interested in preparing healthy meals and fresh meals for themselves. So I think it’s just a really critical learning piece for families and students.
Posted by Spot. Us on 09/11/09
