'Nudge' helps school lunch business deliver

If there's a small-business plus to the recession, Harriet Parker thinks it may be that the economy "has opened people up to thinking more creatively about how to work together."

Maybe so. The twice-weekly healthy lunches that parents can purchase for their Kaneland elementary school kids from JMC3 Foods, Sugar Grove, are, for example, prepared by JMC3 in The Catering Gourmets Inc., kitchen in Sugar Grove.

That may not seem like a big deal, especially since Mike Konen (the M in JMC3) has a connection through his wife with the sister of Janet Lagerloef, who owns The Catering Gourmets. But the two local businesses might not have connected without a nudge from Parker, manager of the Illinois Small Business Development Center at Sugar Grove-based Waubonsee Community College.

Parker is one of those SBDC managers who looks for possible connections and, when both parties agree, puts small businesses together.

"When Mike came in to see me," says Parker, "he had a great concept for providing healthy lunches to the local elementary schools. He had put some feelers out and gotten an immediate response.

"Then the question became 'How do we deliver?'"

The kitchen and, initially, the vehicles at The Catering Gourmets became the answer.

Elementary schools in southwest Kane County's Kaneland Community United School District 302 have no in-school food service, which means lunch boxes and brown bags for the kids.

"We're trying to fill a niche" by providing healthier lunch options, says Konen, a local organic farmer. "The problem with obesity starts at an early age, and not every parent can pack a healthy lunch. We can offer a wider variety - more fruits and vegetables, a healthy dessert."

Lunch ingredients are purchased at local stores the day before, says Carlye Lunardini, JMC3 president and the C in JMC3. (Jamie Hodal, a second Konen daughter, is the J.) "We make and deliver the food to participating schools the same day."

JMC3's lunches are available Tuesday and Thursday. More than 20 families had signed up through early October.

"We're happy so far," Lunardini says, "but we need to gauge overall interest before we expand."

Cost is an issue with some families. "Our prices are based on what a serving costs us. Healthy items are more expensive," Lunardini says. "Carrots are more expensive than chips."

Yet, Konen adds, the pluses for parents - healthy foods for their children, freedom from shopping for and making lunches every day - add up.

Decisions about the menu and preparation rest entirely with JMC3 Foods. Lagerloef, whose catering menu ranges from corporate picnics to wedding receptions to pig roasts, simply provides the space. "They're the decision-makers," Lagerloef says. "I just have to make certain they have refrigerator space."

• Questions, comments to Jim Kendall, JKendall@121MarketingResources.com.

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