Grab your nearest lunchbox; your kids might have a new favorite school-time meal.
Mom Made Foods, an Alexandria-based, woman-owned company that specializes in kid-friendly frozen dinners, is launching its newest product in early August in hopes of bringing healthy and convenient options to kids across the country.
“We’ve been thinking for years about the void in healthy lunchbox items that can save a parent a few minutes in the morning,” Heather Stouffer, founder and CEO of Mom Made Foods says. “There are options that are available, but they’re not at all healthy.”
That’s why Stouffer decided to create the “lunchwich,” a frozen sandwich that thaws out in time for children’s lunch breaks, and comes in four flavors: peanut butter and grape jelly, cheddar, cheddar mozzarella and cheddar turkey.
But according to Stouffer, the product is a bit different from the brands consumers know and love. The company worked for well over a year in research and development to make sure the lunchwich doesn’t have the same “junk,” as other products on the shelf.
“There’s a reason why so many products in the grocery store are so loaded with this junk,” says Stouffer. “Because it’s easier to create and sell.”
The “junk,” that she is referring to includes all of the ingredients that Mom Made Foods products avoid, including antibiotics, preservatives, artificial colors or flavors, bleached flour, partially hydrogenated fats or oils, high fructose corn syrup and MSG.
“We started by looking at the list of requirements for natural food sections and locations such as Whole Foods, but our company standards go above and beyond the initial standards,” Stouffer says. “That’s why for the lunchwich, for example, we use whole wheat bread, organic grape jelly and our peanut butter only has one ingredient: peanuts.”
To test the waters of interest behind the lunchwich, the company launched a Kickstarter campaign in May. Not only did it reach its $10,000 goal, it raised $15,572 before the campaign concluded on June 20.
“We couldn’t be more excited about the feedback we received during the campaign,” Stouffer says. “We really needed a way to show the retail buyers that there was a great demand for this new line, and this could help kick their decision in the right direction.”
The company is still working on getting the product in stores, but it is currently available for pre-order online. Those who backed the campaign will start to receive their lunchwiches by mid-August.
The company has 15 products including the new lunchwiches, and Stouffer hopes to continue serving healthy, convenient meals to kids everywhere. For those wondering if kids will really enjoy them, just ask Stouffer’s two kids who she now claims are professional taste testers.
“We can’t forget our core element either,” Stouffer says. “These products are for kids, in fact. We want the product to be healthy, but we also want them to taste good.”
For more information on Mom Made Foods or to order your own lunchwiches, visit mommadefoods.com.
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