‘Youfoodz for kids’ looks to crowdfunding to kick off national expansion
A Brisbane-based meal delivery company has taken Youfoodz business model and adapted it for time-poor parents and their children.
Lilly's Little Lunchbox will start a crowdfunding campaign next week (Pic: supplied)
Dietitian Cara Aprile has started the company, Lilly’s Little Lunchbox, 15 months ago and has since delivered up to 15,000 meals. Next week her company will launch a crowdfunding campaign next week to fund a national expansion.
Since its start, the company has been selling the meals, which start at about $9, in southeast Queensland and NSW, including Sydney. It’s expanding into Victoria, north Queensland , South Australia, the ACT and beyond this year.
The idea came from the decline of the school tuckshop and a lightbulb moment early one morning when Aprile realised no one was helping time-starved parents deal with the issue.
Adults, NDIS recipients and elderly at home were also customers.
An expressions of interest for capital has been running in the past couple of weeks. More than 1500 investors responded.
She said the details of the equity offer, through Birchal, would be formalised in an offer document, but if it raises about $1 million it would be enough capital to boost the national growth strategy for the next 12 to 18 months.
She said the idea came to her in 2014. At the time she was a single mum who also worked fulltime as a dietitian for a health improvement program developed by the CSIRO.
“To say I was busy is an understatement. Every morning I was up at 5am preparing a lunchbox that was healthy and had lots of variety so (daughter) Lilly would be exposed to a variety of foods at a young age,” she said.
“My lightbulb moment happened before my cup of tea had kicked in – there was absolutely no support out there for busy parents who wanted to give their children a healthy lunch but didn’t have the time or knowledge.
“So I quit my secure job and invested upwards to $100,000 into my vision that was launched at the end of 2021.
“It’s a similar model to Youfoodz except we prepare and deliver fresh, dietitian-approved meals for kids.
The cost is from about $9 per lunchbox and she said that was comparable to the average spend at a tuckshop or the cost of doing it yourself.
The company is now moving into Youfoodz’ old facility at Virginia.
“We have locked in a distribution deal with a leading cold storage, transport and logistics company nationally to continue to expand and deliver our product fresh to customers.”
