It's the healthy and super convenient school-lunch solution that has everyone paying attention – including Spice Girl Melanie Brown. While in Sydney last year, filming X-Factor, Mel B loved single mother-of-two, Alizah Maryanka's Foodie Packs so much, she shared them with her 800,000 instagram followers.
Ms Maryanka told Essential Kids that the idea for Foodie Packs came about when she became a single mother two years ago. Juggling a newborn son and a pre-schooler, Ms Maryanka shared that making her daughter's lunch was a daily struggle, tipping her "over the edge".
"Being a single working mum of two kids under four made me extremely time poor," she added, admitting that quality time with her children, Symphony and Maestro, was also non-existent.
Realising that she needed a pre-packed lunch solution, the mum soon discovered there was nothing on the market that met all of her requirements: "healthy, fresh and kid-portioned".
And so, Ms Maryanka spent 18 months developing a product of her very own. The result – Foodie Packs – was a labour of love, developed in consultation with nutritionists, dieticians, school educators, parents and, of course, kids.
The contents of the three packs, the Sandwich Pack, Pasta Pack and Sushi Pack, which retail at $10 each, were initially based on the everyday foods Symphony, 4, and Maestro, 1, love to eat. "My children love fresh fruit and vegetables, and have grown up having carrot sticks and cucumbers as their normal snacks," she said.
Sushi is one of her daughter's favourite foods while her son "could eat pasta all day long." Ms Maryanka left her own mark too – the egg and mayonnaise sandwich she loved eating as a child.
Currently, Foodie Packs are only available in Sydney with delivery servicing most of the Sydney Metro area. The mum is currently in talks to make the packs more widely available, however, after being inundated with requests from parents around the country.
Home delivery takes places once a week on Sunday afternoon – ready for the school week.
From 1 February, packs will also be sold in selected Woolworths stores in Sydney for $10.95 each.
"Our Foodie Packs range is designed so that the variety can last for the whole school week in one delivery," said Ms Maryanka. "Sushi packs have a two-day shelf-life post delivery, and the sandwich and pasta packs have a five-day shelf-life post delivery."
When I took Ms Maryanka's Foodie Packs to the Brains Trust (aka other parents) while many responded with a resounding YES! WHERE DO I SIGN?, others expressed concern about two aspects of the product: the $10 price tag and the amount of plastic packaging used to make them.
Regarding the price, Ms Maryanka explained, "These are the real cost of producing a pre-packaged meal with all of the fresh food components in the pack. Foodie Packs are a labour intensive product that is all packed by hand to ensure the highest quality and consistency of the children's meals."
Ms Maryanka added: "We are not prepared to take any shortcuts when it comes to feeding other people's children,"
The mum also noted that when people compare that they could make the pack at home for a cheaper price, they're not factoring in the cost of their time.
"If they factored in a portion of time it would take them to shop for these individual items, including driving time to the grocery store, waiting time at the checkout, chopping and cutting all of the food, preparing and packaging the lunch, washing up all of the utensils and smelly lunch boxes, they would, at the very least, be likely to be spending around 15 minutes a day," she said. "Even at a base rate of $20 per hour in labour costs, that would equate to $5 per pack…That is without the food costs."
When it comes to the packaging, Ms Maryanka explained that the aim is to make the product appealing to children. "Children love clear packaging and want to see what they are eating," she said. And the stencil, she added, provides a fun, educational activity for kids to complete when they've finished.
The mother-of-two explained that the highest grade BPA-free recyclable packaging has been used for Foodie Packs to ensure the food remains nutrient rich.
Each component of the pack, she added, can be reused as paint holders for craft activities, plant pot bases and space savers for kids' nick-nacks.
"We know our packaging may not please everyone," Ms Maryanka said, "but it is necessary to ensure the longest shelf life and highest nutrient value possible by keeping the separate components of the pack all individually sealed."
For the Sydney mum, when it comes to the packaging, the bottom line is simple. "We cannot compromise on the quality of food we provide to our children especially when parents are relying on us to make it for them," she said.
"Our Foodie Packs may not be for everyone," Ms Maryanka admitted, "but they provide convenience to those people like myself who would rather spend what little time I have with my children before or after school, making fun memories, rather than spending that time attending to all the tasks required to pack a school lunch."
And, for Ms Maryanka, this time with her children is priceless.
Thus far, Ms Maryanka has been overwhelmed with the response to her Foodie Packs, "They have been extremely well received," she said, "With emails coming through constantly as to how this something parents have been wishing for for years."
For more information about Foodie Packs visit:
https://www.facebook.com/FOODIEPACKS/
https://www.foodiepacks.com.au/