An interactive booklet designed to get kids excited about eating fruits and vegetables!
We’re Josh Mendoza, Lara Abaya, and Tony Tran, but you can just call us JoLaTo! We’re a team of Stanford Product Designers out to get kids excited about eating fruits and vegetables!
Eating fruits and vegetables at a young age is crucial because it is the fundamental period when people form their preferences for food. If a child isn’t exposed to fresh, healthy foods early in life, they’ll be less likely to eat them as an adult.
However, we all know how difficult it is to get kids to eat their fruits and veggies. Parents have told us that they’ve had to do pretty crazy things to get their kids to eat healthy foods: bribe them, take away video game privileges, hide vegetables in other foods, and so much more! As a result, kids form negative associations with eating fruits and vegetables.
We wanted to find a way for kids to develop positive associations and memories with fruits and vegetables. That’s where we came up with the idea of an interactive booklet that incorporates fresh produce in the activities. Kids get to do what they normally like to do: get messy, laugh, and be creative. But they get to use food!
The booklet is based on what we like to call an experiential narrative, in which kids get to follow colorful characters such as Betty Beet and Barry Broccoli on adventures. They’ll do lots of fun activities from using broccoli as a paintbrush to drawing with beets, and will make 3 to 4 simple, healthy snacks, like berry smoothies and guacamole.
Through our multiple rounds of user testing, we’ve found that parents and guardians love “Play With Your Food!” Here’s what they have to say!
We love that parents love our product. But perhaps even better is that kids have fallen in love with “Play With Your Food!” too!
By backing our campaign, you’ll help cover our initial prototyping and user testing costs, and the publishing and distribution costs associated with getting our booklets into the hands of kids and families! By hitting $3000, we will be able to get this into your hands, our Kickstarter backers! We are currently working on setting up additional distribution channels through pediatricians’ offices, grocery stores, bookstores, and schools. We are still determining how much it will take to get us to these stretch goals, but we will keep you posted!
We have a shared passion for food, health, and kids’ education. Frustrated by the health inequalities in our nation, and the overwhelming ubiquity of processed food, we decided to get together to try and figure out a way to create a ripple of change in our current food culture. We believe every single child deserves to be healthy and eat healthily. Join us in our quest to bring food education to kids everywhere!
JOSHUA MENDOZA | CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Josh grew up in the suburban town of Palmdale, California. He’s currently a senior in Stanford’s Product Design program and is passionate about graphic and interior design. He loves swimming and he loves to eat beets! He is proud of his collection of glassware and loves plating foods in artistic ways.
LARA ABAYA | CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF DESIGN
Lara is a senior at Stanford University majoring in Science, Technology, and Society. She spent her childhood in Jakarta, Indonesia before moving to the Bay Area with her family. She loves post-impressionist art, sunny spring days, and of course, FOOD! She hopes to one day meet some of her food heroes: Michael Pollan and Alice Waters.
TONY TRAN | CO-FOUNDER & DIRECTOR OF LOGISTICS
Born and raised in Arlington, Texas, Tony is majoring in Product Design at Stanford. While he loves a good burger or steak, he’s also a big fan of uncommon fruits like longans or sweetsop. In his free time, he can be found playing sports or video games or practicing his photography skills.
We are berry excited to bring this project to fruition, but we need your help! Together, we can give kids everywhere a chance to fall in love with fruits and vegetables!
Connect with us on Facebook!
Check out our website to learn more: www.playwithyourfoodinc.com
Or send us an email at playwithyourfoodinc@gmail.com
Your support and suggestions are berry important to us!
Check out our full music video on YouTube!
Right now, the biggest challenge that we are facing is related to printing and publishing. We’re currently working with several different printers publishers to determine which will be the most cost-effective for us. We are open to suggestions if you know of any publishers who would be excited to work with us! We would prefer our publishers to be based in the United States.
Order fulfillment is another potential challenge with regards to time and resources. Right now, the three of us will most likely fulfill and ship orders by hand. Again, we are open to suggestions from the Kickstarter community!
If you have any connections with pediatricians, grocery stores, bookstores, or schools, we would appreciate being connected with them as well! We are actively searching for ways to expand our distribution channels.