Kid Chow offers brown bag-lunch and hot lunches five days a week to families of participating PreK - 8 Bay Area schools. The Kid Chow program includes a broad range of healthy, child-friendly menu items every day. Kid chow provides easy web-based lunch ordering, updated bi-weekly menus that allow you to personalize your child’s lunch order based on their taste or dietary needs. Kid Chow prepares and delivers ordered lunches directly to participating schools each morning.
Kid Chow is not a school-sponsored program. Although Kid Chow obtains each schools permission to deliver lunches on the school premises, Kid Chow operates its services completely independent from the school. Kid Chow strives to honor each school’s goal of minimizing any distractions from schools activities and resources. We appreciate you contacting us directly with any Kid Chow related questions or issues.
Kid Chow’s program is more fully described below.
Signing up
Menus
Nutrition
Ordering
Cost
Food Preparation
Packaging and Delivery
Schedule
Signing up
How do we sign up?
Parents at participating schools register directly from the Kid Chow Home page by selecting Order Chow. The process has several quick and easy steps that include: establishing a unique login, providing family information and creating a PayPal account (see Billing below).
Back to Top
Can I Sign up more than 1 child?
Kid Chow can accommodate all children in a family as long as those children attend participating schools. Children do not need to attend the same school.
Back to Top
What if my school does not participate yet?
Kid Chow is very interested in providing lunches to children at any Bay Area based school. Please contact us at Chow@KidChow.com if parents at your school might be interested in participating.
Back to Top
Menus
What is on your lunch menu?
Unlike most school-based lunch programs that offer one or two fixed lunch menu items each day, Kid Chow offers a broad range of daily bag lunch options. Each bimonthly menu includes on average fifteen entrees and thirty sides to choose from (click ‘Peek in our bag’ to see our current menu). Our menus are updated bi-monthly balancing old standbys such as deli sandwiches and burritos with unique kid-friendly lunch items such as fajita wraps, ceasar salads and vegetarian sushi rolls.
Back to Top
How do you determine what’s on your menu?
Kid Chow will update its menu bi-monthly. Kid Chow determines its bi-monthly menu using a host of resources which include: Kid Chow innovation, nutritional counseling, feedback from participating Kid Chow parents, parent input through market surveys and taste testing parties. Kid Chow is very open to new food ideas and welcomes your comments.
Back to Top
How much food will my child get?
Kid Chow has worked closely with Emily Bender, our resident nutritionist, to plan menu and portion sizes that are appropriate for each age group. Consult the Chow Advisor, our nutritional corner, for more information. As a convenience to parents, our web site provides the nutrient breakdown for every menu item offered in your child’s lunch. Each lunch includes one entrée and three sides with optional drink. View our current bimonthly menu by clicking the Peek in our Bag lunch bag.
Back to Top
How do you accommodate kids’ specific food preferences?
Kid Chow offers parents the unique opportunity to personalize their lunch order based on their child’s specific tastes or dietary needs. Kid Chow’s menu offers a wide variety of lunch options to choose from every day. Our web based ordering system is designed with maximum flexibility to refine each lunch order to satisfy your child’s preferences. These preferences may include a yogurt flavor, bread type or condiments choice on a sandwich.
Back to Top
Do you serve vegetarian lunches?
Each Kid Chow menu features many vegetarian options.
Back to Top
Will drinks be included in the lunches?
Healthy drinks are offered at an additional fee as part of each Kid Chow menu. Drinks include organic and non-organic milk, chocolate milk, soy milk, orange juice, sparkline fruit juice and water.
Back to Top
Do you serve ‘hot’ lunches?
Yes. Kid Chow serves organic Hot Lunches along with its brown bag lunches. Please contact Kid Chow for more information.
Back to Top
Nutrition
What does ‘healthy’ really mean?
Kid Chow seeks to provide the healthiest lunches meals possible at an affordable price. This starts with our ingredients that include: fresh fruits and vegetables from local farms, all natural peanut butter, organic jams, hormone-free and organic milk, cage-free eggs and chickens and all natural deli products. We strive to use many organic ingredients and we offer foods that are nitrate and trans-fatty acid free.
Back to Top
How do you handle food allergies?
Kid Chow prepares meals in a facility that uses nuts, soy, wheat and other known allergens. If your child has food allergies, it is your responsibility to contact us directly to discuss any potential risks in our menu offering. We honor all school policies regarding food allergies.
Back to Top
Who provided the nutritional analysis for each menu item?
Kid Chow nutritional information comes from a variety of sources, including the FDA, the USDA, the National Research Council, Nutridata software and the food manufacturers themselves. In some cases, we have estimated nutritional values and recommended daily allowances (RDA) for each age group when published information was unavailable,. Kid Chow RDA’s are averages and do not specifically consider factors such as sex, weight and the innate individuality of every child. As a result, they should be used as general guidelines only.
Back to Top
Ordering
How do we order?
Kid Chow offer an easy to use web-based lunch ordering system. Parents specify the week they are ordering for and select their lunch choices by the day. The lunches ordered are placed in a shopping cart for final purchase approval. All lunches are ordered via the Kid Chow website. Initially, each family will be allowed only one login email address and password. Kid Chow plans to provide the ability to allow multiple logins for each family in cases where multiple caretakers are ordering.
Back to Top
When do we order?
Kid Chow offers a web-based lunch ordering system. Customers specify the day they are ordering for and select their lunch choices for each child. Kid Chow publishes its bimonthly menus one month in advance. All lunches for a given week must be ordered by Monday night at midnight PST seven days in advance of the lunch week. For example, Orders for the week of September 5, 2005 must be placed by Monday, August 29, 2005, at midnight, PST.
Back to Top
What if the ordering deadline has passed and I want to change an existing order or add a new order?
You can change menu items on existing orders online prior to the ordering deadline. If an ordering deadline has passed, we will try and accommodate changes to existing lunches subject to availability. This must be done by contacting Kid Chow via email at chow@kidchow.com. You must receive confirmation via email from Kid Chow that your request for a changed menu item has been processed. There is no charge for this service. In order to provide the best possible service to its customers, Kid Chow needs to abide by its one week ordering deadline. If an ordering deadline has passed, Kid Chow may, on a case-by-case basis, accommodate new lunch orders. You must contact Kid Chow directly via email at chow@kidchow.com to place a late order and receive email confirmation that your order has been accepted by Kid Chow. The price for this Late Service will include a $1.50 additional charge to the standard lunch price, but may be waived at Kid Chow’s discretion. This amount will be automatically deducted from your Kid Chow account.
Back to Top
Am I required to order lunch 5 days a week to participate?
No, parents have the flexibility to order as many lunches as they want.
Back to Top
What if I have special requests for a lunch order?
Kid Chow recognizes that there are many combinations of personalized choices to offer during the ordering process. As a result, we have provided a comments section where each parent can make a special request (e.g. light on the mayo) to supplement the standard menu options. Kid Chow will try to accommodate special requests whenever possible.
Back to Top
What are ‘lunch box’ notes?
Parents may add a personalized note card to their child’s lunch bag as a way to communicate afternoon reminders or just send a special message. Parents may enter the contents of the lunchbox notes at any time right up until noon the day before the lunch day the note is to be included.
Back to Top
Cost
How much does it cost?
Kid Chow prices are based on recommended portion sizes determined for specific age groups. Lunches for children grades PreK - 2 are $5.25, 3 - 5 and Staff are $6.00 and 6 - 8 are $6.50. Drinks are available at an additional cost.
Back to Top
How do we pay for it?
Kid Chow is accepts only Visa and Mastercard unless other arrangements have been made in advance. Credit card transactions are secured through GeoTrust, the world’s second largest digital certificate provider, and processed through Authorize.Net, one of the largest credit card processing gateways.
Back to Top
Am I charged if my child is sick or I need to cancel a lunch after the order deadline?
We understand families will order lunches that may need to be cancelled. Unfortunately, after the order deadline, our supplies are ordered and your child’s meal selection has been accounted for. Therefore, Kid Chow’s policy is no cancellations or refunds after the order deadline. However, please contact us directly to learn where you school stores unclaimed lunches.
Back to Top
Food Preparation
Who are your suppliers?
Kid Chow proudly supports local dairies, farmers and distributors based in Northern California.
Back to Top
Where do you prepare Kid Chow lunches?
Kid Chow prepares its lunches at its own SFDPH certified commercial kitchen located in San Francisco.
Back to Top
What food safety precautions are taken?
All lunches are packed fresh each morning reducing the risk of perishability. In addition, each lunch will include an ice-pack to ensure proper food storage.
Back to Top
Packaging and Delivery
Is your packaging environmentally safe?
Kid Chow has taken great strides to package lunches in environmentally safe materials. Almost all of the packaging is biodegradable and can be placed in school compost bins. Kid Chow will provide package handling instructions once you register for the Kid Chow service.
Back to Top
How does my child get their lunch?
Kid Chow delivers lunches directly to your school between 10:00am and noon each morning. We work with each participating school to ensure that the lunches are delivered to a safe and efficient location from which your child can access their lunch. Each lunch bag will display your child’s name for easy identification.
Back to Top
Schedule
Are there days Kid Chow service will not be available?
Kid Chow Holiday’s on which no Kid Chow service will be offered will be sent to you via email once your Kid Chow sign up process is complete. Since we service multiple schools, there may be different holiday schedules for each school. Please check your school’s holiday schedule before ordering lunch. In the event you place an order on a day your school has a holiday, the Kid Chow cancellation policy will apply.
Back to Top
Chow
Chefs