January Food Detective: This Little Red Rabbit is Hopping

by Ed Yowell, Slow Food NYC

Rhys Powell gave up his Wall Street finance career to follow his entrepreneurial muse and to serve the community by doing something good, something right, and something that just plain needed doing.  He developed a business plan and, in 2005, took the plunge, starting Red Rabbit, a unique school catering service delivering healthy food to independent and charter schools in New York City.  The Red Rabbit mission is to provide school children with nutritious, well-balanced meals and, while so doing, foster in them healthy relationships with food that will serve them well throughout their lives.

Rhys started small, with a business plan that focused on parents’ as customers.  Rhys planned to prepare and deliver individual, healthy school lunches that were made to parents’ specifications and, as might be required, with regard to individual kids’ allergies and dietetic restrictions.  Rhys found that a tough proposition and re-focused his business plan on schools, particularly small, independent and charter schools.  Red Rabbit now prepares about 1,300 meals per day, including about 600 lunches, for kids at 14 schools, of which 12 are private and two are NYC charter.

A Chinese proverb says, “A sly rabbit has three holes to his den.”  Red Rabbit offers three meal services: Ready-to-Serve, individual meals delivered hot at meal-time, particularly suited to schools with very small or no kitchen facilities; Off-peak Delivery, bulk meals delivered the night before or the morning of service suited to schools with warming kitchens and serving capability; and Lunchroom/Cafeteria Service, turn-key options for schools with kitchens and lunchrooms.  This sly Red Rabbit also offers supplementary snack services.

Menus are simple, balancing proteins, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats and staying clear of highly processed foods, fried foods, and high fructose corn syrup.  Preparation is from scratch.  In recipe creation, Rhys relies on consultants including a pediatrician, a nutritionist, and a panel of kid tasters.  Nothing makes it out of the Red Rabbit kitchen that first hasn’t been kid-tested for appearance, taste, and fun.

Red Rabbit started relying on purveyors working out of Hunt’s Point. This summer Rhys discovered the new Wholesale Greenmarket. Rhys said, “I believed that we should be doing the right thing by sourcing local whenever possible for the sake of our carbon footprint. I found I liked meeting the farmers, seeing what they had to offer, and picking the best I could find.  But, when I tasted really fresh broccoli, I was converted, and I knew we were, in fact, doing the right thing.”

Rhys believes that good food doesn’t stop at the plate.  Red Rabbit has begun to offer teachers, parents, and kids access to Learning Labs, including cooking and gardening labs, focusing on healthy meal strategies and sourcing local food.  Most importantly, the labs help kids gain an understanding of and appreciation for the food they eat.

To learn more about Red Rabbit, visit www.myredrabbit.com.