Sophie Johnson posted on October 26, 2011 17:19
Eleanor Roosevelt may have been the first big hit Blogger. Her column, “My Day,” ran for decades and was meant to make the political personal. These days everyone seems to have a blog, at a time when we busy parents probably have even less time to read than our parents. So what is the purpose of the Choicelunch blog? Why should you bother reading and (hopefully) commenting? The hope is that this is a place to come to ask questions, get answers, give feedback and get insight into who makes your kids’ lunches, and why what we do matters.
Every day we get tons of calls and emails from our parents. They are important questions. In the coming few posts, I’d like to take some of these great questions which you may also have, and make the answers more public and have more of an exchange.
I am NOT Eleanor, but My Day included this email:
“Last year my daughter loved the goldfish crackers, but this year she says you don’t have them and she doesn’t like some of your other snacks."
And here is my response:
Thank you so much for your feedback about our changed snacks, particularly the Pepperidge Farms Goldfish. Let’s face it, kids love those cheesy crackers, and they are an easy snack to keep in the trunk of the car to prevent meltdowns mid-afternoon.
We worked hard this summer to overhaul and enhance our snack program this year. We added things like the protein-heavy Honey Roasted Soy ‘Nutz’ and the String Cheese. At the same time, we made some changes by adding a Gluten Free Animal Cracker and you will soon be seeing Roasted Seaweed! Obviously some kids, most kids maybe, aren’t going to choose Seaweed, but you’d be surprised by how many kids wanted it when we asked! We also didn’t want to make too many changes, and we kept things like the very popular reduced-sugar fresh baked cookie, the Popchips and Popcorn.
We want to strike a balance between super kid-friendly snacks the students are excited about, and the best nutrient-dense lunches possible.
In the end, we decided that with only so much space, the goldfish was less popular than many of our other ‘heavy hitters’ and as far as nutrient-density, it isn’t exactly a super food.
Thank you again for your feedback. Know that you are not alone and we will keep tabs on the snacks and the popularity. Our customers are good about telling us when we have pushed things too far.
So, what do you think about the goldfish?
What are your questions?