With the new school year right around the corner, parents may be wondering what to pack in school lunches.
However, Batch Food, a small Richmond firm based in Bridgeport (near Ikea), might have the answer and is launching a new line of products specifically to help parents feed their children.
The company – which makes and delivers its produce out of 12851 Bathgate Way – will launch its school lunch bag program next week.
“Parents can go on the website, choose what they want to put in their kids’ school bag, then we will make it and deliver it to you,” said Joanne Lechner, founder and chef at Batch Food.
“We’ve heard parents saying they don’t have time to prepare a healthy school lunch for their kids and we are here to help out.”
All the lunch bags will be customized according to customers’ needs, added Lechner, with choices including salad, fruit, cheese, ham, chicken, wraps, pies, yogurt and cereal.
Parents can also choose sauces to accompany the lunch, according to Lechner.
The lunch bags will be delivered to homes every Sunday evening and early Thursday morning.
Lechner started Batch Food six years ago after working as a chef in restaurants and bakeries.
At that time, although she loved cooking, as a mother of two, Lechner found herself too busy to cook every day.
So she made family meals in advance, packed them and put them in the freezer.
“I thought if I found it difficult to cook every day, other parents must feel the same. So I came up with the idea to start Batch Food.”
Lechner received a business permit from the city, a health permit from health authorities and started Batch Food in Richmond. All the staff working there, she said, are required to have a B.C. Food Safe Certificate.
She said her company was named as such because, when it first started, “it was all in batches.”
The first item she sold was a “batch” of spaghetti sauce. Then the different types of food she offered increased to four and now there are more than 60 varieties.
“My food is nothing fancy, but (it’s) comfort food that families will eat every day. Regular food is what people like.”
One of her customers, Richmond resident and mom-of-two Jen Sibley, said she and her husband work full-time and don’t have enough hours in the day to prepare proper meals.
They have been using Lechner’s service for six years and said it has improved their family’s quality of life significantly.
“My son was a baby at that time and I was going back to work,” Sibley told the Richmond News.
“I had no time to cook, so I was looking for supplements of family meals delivered to home.
“Then I found Batch food, and I couldn’t have made it through that time without it. It feels like home-cooked food, less processed than food in the restaurants. It has saved us so much time and money and helps us eat healthily.
“We would have just eaten out all the time. And because we didn’t have time to cook, we wasted so much food in the fridge till it expired.”
The price is, admittedly, a bit more expensive than cooking at home, but cheaper than eating out. A veggie and dip box, for example, costs $5, and a large, ground turkey chilli bowl, that serves up to four people, is $15.
When Lechner is not making food, she’s usually out grocery shopping.
“I go shopping every week and select the ingredients. I love the shopping, every time is different. Sometimes I can find something really great at a local food market and I will get very excited,” she said.
Now she and her team make and deliver 80 to 100 orders every week.
Lechner said Thanksgiving Day family meals will be the next to add to the menu.
