Move over Lunchbox Gang, the Bag Ladies have arrived.
Two London sisters and stay-at-home moms are having entrepreneurial success beyond imagination with their new lunch bags.
Kathi Blackwell and Lynn Petcoff have developed the balanced day lunch kits based on the move by school boards across the province to go from one long lunch break to two shorter ones.
About 800 schools in Ontario currently use the balanced day schedule, 50 within the Thames Valley board.
When Blackwell found out the school her children attend planned to start the program, she got busy trying to find a lunch box with two sections.
With necessity the mother of invention (pun intended), Blackwell went to work designing one.
“We sent it to a manufacturer. We went back and forth until we got just the right one,” she said.
The bags have an opening for the first break and another for the second so that kids don’t get confused about what to eat when.
Their first shipment of 500 arrived at the end of May.
The sisters weren’t prepared for the more than brisk sales they experienced. They thought they’d give a few to to friends and maybe do some fundraisers for schools.
“We were selling them at end of the year barbecues. We would go to a school and sell 70 in an hour,” Blackwell said.
Soon she went from operating a daycare in her home to being an instant businesswoman. “I’m talking to patent lawyers on the phone with Play-Doh stuck to my cheek. It’s a unique experience,” she said with a laugh.
Photo from Stock.xchng.
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