Dietitian starts home delivery lunch box service for kids

A mother who has a background in dietetics was waking up at 5.30am every morning to prepare her daughter’s school lunches when she had a light bulb moment.

A dietitian was waking up early every day in order to prepare nutritional meals her daughter would love when she had a light bulb moment.

Cara Aprile, who has a background in dietetics, set her alarm for 5.30am every morning to prepare her daughter’s school lunches.

“I’m obviously very pedantic about what goes into her lunch boxes given that I am a dietitian,” Ms Aprile told news.com.au.

“So I figured I know what I’m doing but it could be very overwhelming for other parents out there. And that’s sort of when I came up with the idea.”

Cara Aprile is a dietitian who founded Lilly’s Little Lunchbox. Picture: Supplied

That idea was Lilly’s Little Lunchbox – essentially a meal delivery program similar to Hello Fresh but for kids’ school lunches.

Ms Aprile had the idea in 2013 but the brand didn’t actually launch until 2021, as she needed time to research the business model and plan out the menu. She wanted to make sure there were items kids enjoyed that were loaded with things that were good for them.

When Lilly’s Little Lunchbox first launched in 2021, the business only delivered to south east Queensland and had to make deliveries three times a week as the packaging wasn’t able to keep food as fresh for long.

At first, Ms Aprile was only making 10 meals per week and now there are more than 600 meals weekly.

Lunch boxes used to be delivered three times a week. Picture: Picture: Supplied

“Now we’ve completely changed. We’ve learned what foods should go in the lunch boxes and what ones can’t,” Ms Aprile said.

“We have grown our menu drastically. I think now we’ve got over 80 different varieties of meals and added smoothies into our line.”

The business is now only doing one delivery a week as they have improved the shelf life of the products.

In just 12 months the business has sold more than 15,000 meals, and in April began to deliver to all of Queensland and also NSW.

At the end of May, the business will also expand into the ACT and Victoria, with South Australia not too far behind, after drawing a revenue of $185,000 in a year.

The business was inspired by Cara's daughter. Picture: Supplied

Menu items include zucchini slices, falafels, mini pizzas and bolognese ravioli – each coming with snacks. There are also grazing boxes and smoothies. Meals start at $9, with the price going up the larger the meal.

Kids from the age of two all the way through to adults order the meals, which are filled with hidden veggies.

She said they were popular “given our meals are the same price as what you would spend at a tuck shop”.

“Because they are dietitian approved, the five meals incorporate the five core food groups – whereas opposed to the tuck shop where you’re giving your children the $10 they can get any item that they want,” Ms Aprile said.

“It most likely isn’t going to be the healthiest option because, even though tuck shops have the healthy options, kids aren’t going to choose that.”

There are also grazing boxes available. Picture: Supplied

Ms Aprile said mothers were doing the bulk of lunch box preparation, so the service was a game changer for them.

Chris Heydon, Ms Aprile’s partner and co-founder of the business, told news.com.au that while the business’ main priority was home delivery, there were conversations with major supermarket chains about getting the prepared lunch boxes on the shelves.

The business also launched a crowd-funding campaign in order to help its expansion bid in exchange for company shares, reaching a whopping $302,000 raised in only 24 hours thanks to 130 investors.

Mr Heydon added that the company had previously been stalling growth due to reaching capacity in their current facility.