Becoming a mum to Jack last summer was a wonderful experience, but at the same time, the early months of motherhood came as a bit of a shock to the system. I managed to feel productive by staying busy and getting out of the house with play dates and coffees with other mummy friends but I missed the sense of achievement that my fast-paced career in finance had brought.
A trip to the park one day with my three year old niece changed that though. Seeing how the lovingly (and healthily!) prepared lunch we had been given turned into a battle because the first thing she saw was the two chocolates provided as a ‘treat’ for after the healthy food had been eaten, gave me the idea of ‘hiding the delights’ until the main, healthier food is eaten. So within a few hours, Eat2Treat was born!
For the next few months I began working on my idea with the end goal being to create a product that lets parents regain control at lunchtimes when they are not always present and to make balanced eating enjoyable again whilst still being fun.
The lunchboxes are sectioned for variety and portion control, with a ‘secret’ bottom layer containing the ‘treats’ which is only revealed once the majority of the healthy food packed in the first food tray has been finished. The concept of the lunchbox underpins that very simple concept and supports the golden rule that ‘if you eat your dinner you can have your pudding’.
Becoming a mum to Jack last summer was a wonderful experience, but at the same time, the early months of motherhood came as a bit of a shock to the system. I managed to feel productive by staying busy and getting out of the house with play dates and coffees with other mummy friends but I missed the sense of achievement that my fast-paced career in finance had brought.
A trip to the park one day with my three year old niece changed that though. Seeing how the lovingly (and healthily!) prepared lunch we had been given turned into a battle because the first thing she saw was the two chocolates provided as a ‘treat’ for after the healthy food had been eaten, gave me the idea of ‘hiding the delights’ until the main, healthier food is eaten. So within a few hours, Eat2Treat was born!
For the next few months I began working on my idea with the end goal being to create a product that lets parents regain control at lunchtimes when they are not always present and to make balanced eating enjoyable again whilst still being fun.
The lunchboxes are sectioned for variety and portion control, with a ‘secret’ bottom layer containing the ‘treats’ which is only revealed once the majority of the healthy food packed in the first food tray has been finished. The concept of the lunchbox underpins that very simple concept and supports the golden rule that ‘if you eat your dinner you can have your pudding’.
Having listened to what mums actually reward their children with, it also became apparent that in reality non-food items were now being widely used. The Eat2Treat box now uses the collection of stars as an incentive to work towards a non-food reward. The stars are magnetic and are inserted into the lid of the lunchbox, which acts as a reward chart, so the child can easily track and monitor their progress.
Non-food rewards magnets that come with our lunchbox currently consist of: activity time; park time; a new toy; a new magazine; a new pack of stickers; tablet time; television time; cuddle time and story time.
We are introducing a lunchbox that incentivising healthy eating in a fun, interactive way yet how this is achieved is completely at the control of the parents:
- A combination of a food treat or the star collection can be used, or you can use one or the other.
- You can also decide when you want to reward your child. The reward chart has 5 star cut-outs for Monday to Friday, but if your child misses 2 stars you can still incentivise to them but communicating to them that they can still be rewarded if they get the last 3 days worth of stars.
- You can give your children choice of rewards to pick from or you can choose the reward yourself.
- We even have a blank reward magnet for you to customise with a white board pen, should your reward be different to our standard rewards magnets.
Non-food rewards magnets that come with our lunchbox currently consist of: activity time; park time; a new toy; a new magazine; a new pack of stickers; tablet time; television time; cuddle time and story time.
We are introducing a lunchbox that incentivising healthy eating in a fun, interactive way yet how this is achieved is completely at the control of the parents:
- A combination of a food treat or the star collection can be used, or you can use one or the other.
- You can also decide when you want to reward your child. The reward chart has 5 star cut-outs for Monday to Friday, but if your child misses 2 stars you can still incentivise to them but communicating to them that they can still be rewarded if they get the last 3 days worth of stars.
- You can give your children choice of rewards to pick from or you can choose the reward yourself.
- We even have a blank reward magnet for you to customise with a white board pen, should your reward be different to our standard rewards magnets.
You can add your child’s name and dietary requirements to the magnet for everyone to see, which is great for those with food allergies!
We will also be releasing new theming for the top of the lunchbox so that our lunchbox is for life, rather than just until your child gets bored of the current ‘in’ theme. The magnetic-themed illustrations will be sold separately to the rest of the lunch box.
It is so exciting realising what we can do when we put our minds to it!
During my journey I have worked with some amazing people that have helped me along the way. Particular praise goes to my product designer who has been amazingly patient with me during the process and as my idea has evolved. I would highly recommend using ‘For the Herd’ whose details can be found at http://www.fortheherd.com.
I would love to change children’s eating habits for the better using a game-type approach to install FUN into healthy lunchtime eating!
I am looking forward to working with mums to develop the idea further so please do feel free to contact me with any suggestions you may have. You can register your interest to receive notifications of updates for our product release by clicking here.
So that’s how Eat2Treat came about. I really hope it helps make encouraging healthy eating easier and injects the fun factor back into lunchtimes!
Rachel x