ABOUT US
Meet Robin Elliott-Bear
Creator, Lunch Solutions
Robin Elliott-Bear knows exactly what it takes to run a school lunch program because she built one.
“I started volunteering to help with the lunch program at my kids’ school nearly 20 years ago,” she said. “Back then, we were doing everything by hand, tallying orders with pencil and paper.”
As a two-term PTA President and Hot Lunch Coordinator for four schools in Northbrook, Robin took note of the challenges of school lunch programs.
Collecting orders, scheduling deliveries from local restaurants, meeting the needs of each student, and recruiting volunteers all while fundraising is not easy, but Robin had ideas. Drawing on her 15 years of experience owning a retail clothing store on the North Shore, she came up with tools and strategies that would form the foundation for LUNCH SOLUTIONS.
A Custom Website
Robin started by working with a programmer to design a website customized for lunch programs to alleviate much of the work for the parent coordinators.
“I thought the website would help our district, but then other school leaders in the area found out about the ease of using it. I began consulting with schools on managing their programs, and Lunch Solutions became a business,” she said.
Years later, lunch coordinators say the Lunch Solutions’ website gives them access to all the information they need in an easy-to-read, organized format.
Serving Lunch
School lunch programs often rely on the power of volunteers, but with more and more parents back in the workforce, fewer volunteers are available to keep these programs running. Robin devised a solution for that too.
“Lunch Solutions lets schools decide who's in charge at lunch time. They can bring in volunteers, we can provide our top notch staff, or we can make it a combo,” she said.
Fundraising
Can you really make a profit when you outsource your lunch program? And can you do so without sacrificing quality? The answers are quite simply, yes and yes.
Lunch Solutions distributes the cost across all of the parties involved to ensure everyone benefits – parent organizations, schools, restaurants - and most importantly, the kids.
PTO/A Presidents say they’re raising more money than they ever thought possible with their families spending less on lunch.
