About Brown Bag

Founding Brown Bag Naturals was pure serendipity.

We worked together for several years at an Internet startup (Adam was COO, Mary was Controller) and, in the rare moments we had to think about other things, used to put our feet up to brainstorm “the next big thing.”

Mary, an amateur nutritionist, mother of two (at the time – now mother of three) and dedicated granola-eater (Adam’s description) wanted to start a fast food business featuring natural and organic menus. Adam liked the size of the potential market, but wasn’t impressed with the business economics. Eventually, Adam left to become an investment banker; Mary took a new position with a women’s fitness company.

Two years later, while representing a client that made natural personal care products, Adam attended his first Natural Products Expo, where he spent two days sampling myriad food products designed specifically for children. Conversations with a number of the manufacturers revealed that their biggest challenge was distribution; other than Whole Foods, which couldn’t always accommodate the smaller suppliers, there were very few options for getting to the market.

And then, the “light bulb moment.”

At a time when childhood obesity is rampant and schools are challenged to meet nutritional standards with shrinking budgets, here was an entire convention hall filled with terrific solutions that couldn’t find their way to kids. Adam reconnected with Mary: “Let’s partner with natural food manufacturers to make nutritious lunches for schools.” And so we did.

Starting from a single Montessori preschool and 35 lunches per day, we now deliver lunches to schools throughout Southern California and will soon be entering new markets throughout the United States. While we are proud to serve leading private and public schools in some of the area’s most affluent neighborhoods, we are equally proud of our commitment to bringing nutritious meals to students in disadvantaged communities – students who often need them the most – and are thankful for our Pantry Partners, who help subsidize Brown Bag Naturals for students eligible for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch program. We’re not going to solve the problem of childhood obesity by ourselves, but -- our new “next big thing” – we’re doing our part.