Investing in Nutrition
A local couple raises dietary awareness by providing nourishing meals to children , families , and seniors in Brazos County
PHOTOS COURTESY OF LITTLE ’ S LUNCHES
About the same time husband and wife team Glenn and Jennifer Huggins launched Little ’ s Lunches , their nutritional meal preparation and delivery service for children , they took in two foster boys . “ When we first got the foster kids , one of them only ate McDonald ' s cheeseburgers . That ' s all that he would eat ,” Chef Glenn says . “ Now he eats raw oysters , grilled oysters , and he ' ll eat anything that you give him . And that ' s just because we just we tried to give him everything .” They now have a third child whose expanded food choices include olives and blue cheese . Chef Glenn says that a lot of parents get stuck in the rut of allowing their children to dictate whatever they want to eat . “ That ’ s not necessarily the best thing ,” he says . “ We try to expand their palates —”
“ Slow-ly ,” Jennifer adds . They both agree .
Little ’ s Lunches & Kitchen launched in Sept . 2019 . The Huggins ’ concept to provide nutritious , affordable , and convenient meals to children at school and home was a perfect fit that combined Jennifer ’ s extensive background in
40 July 2021
By ELLEN RITSCHER SACKETT
child and family development and Chef Glenn ’ s experience as a classically trained French chef from Le Cordon Bleu . “ To get the children to eat was a huge topic of conversation amongst the parents ,” Jennifer says , reflecting upon her experience working closely with youngsters as a preschool director . Glenn suggested that they fill the need to provide education and serve the children quality meals .
Serving children locally was the impetus for the business model , which grew into a storefront operation , with a full commercial kitchen and a full team that includes cooks that work under Chef Glenn , a marketing team , school staff , and delivery drivers that have had background checks . “ All of our staff is certified and trained ,” Jennifer says .
Little ’ s Lunches now contracts with 13 private schools in Bryan College Station , serving grades K through 12 and preschools , that hire the company as a third-party entity to handle all of their food service needs . “ We provide hundreds of meals a day for an average of 2,000 meals a week ,” Chef Glenn says .
“ We prep the meals from scratch in the morning , and our staff goes on to serve a full lunch service ,” Jennifer says . “ Then we do have a lot of parents in our program whose schools don ' t offer our lunches because they already offer food , or they have other options , but want our food . So they can sign up individually , and then we still deliver to them independently at their schools .”
In addition to school meals , Little ’ s Lunches also provides family-style dinners . “ We ' ve had a lot of people coming in , asking Chef Glenn to prepare meals for their loved ones , as opposed to take out and other options ,” Jennifer says . “ Since we were already meeting all the standards in the kitchen for the Texas Agricultural Commission , we launched that in January , with a high demand for people specifically wanting nutritious meals for seniors .” She adds , “ We are held to a higher standard for health and sanitization because we serve a highly susceptible population — so seniors and kids .”
“ It ’ s the same concept ,” Chef Glenn says . “ Kids are really picky , so are