Sustainable food brand launches children’s ready meal range to market

A carbon conscious food producer has launched a specialist children’s ready meal range – as it seeks to provide nutritious convenience, combined with an educational focus on sustainability.

Aimed at introducing young people to the benefits of consuming sustainable food, the new range from the Wild Hare Group has been developed with the view that new generations of children are largely responsible for the future of our climate.

With all meals based on the same core principles as the brand’s adult offering, The Wild Hare Group’s new Ben and Poppy range will target children aged 4-10, providing them with all the vital nutrition they need to lead a healthy life.

Believing that children should have access to the same nutritious convenience as adults, the range will have similarity to the adult range, but with the intensity of some flavours and spices reduced to suit a younger palate, while also coming in slightly smaller portions. The meals will provide at least three of their five a day, whilst creating the feeling they’re having the same meal as their parents or guardians – making mealtimes a more communal experience.

The range was officially launched at the Speciality and Fine Food Fair, held at the London Olympia on the 6th and 7th September – with feedback from attendees of the show overwhelmingly positive.

Dominie Fearn, founder of the Wild Hare Group, commented: “Mealtimes are an important time for bonding as a family, and we wanted to create a super convenient offering that can cater for all palates – from older adults, right down to four-year-olds. Opting to develop a range that reflected our adult offering, we wanted to introduce children to an ‘adult’ menu, but in a way that ensured it was both tasty, nutritious and produced sustainably.”

The grains used in the Ben and Poppy range are unmodified and boast some quintessentially British varieties such as barley and spelt, along with British-grown quinoa. The meat used in the meals are outdoor reared on grass, with the poultry coming from high welfare farms, which ensures all products coming from British farmers share the same sustainable objectives as the Wild Hare.

The meals aim to be nutritionally rich and aid good digestion, whilst also lowering cholesterol, regulating blood pressure and providing essential proteins – all essential for children’s growth and development.

Similarly to the adult range, none of the children’s meals will contain any emulsifiers, preservatives or other chemicals, making their flavour as true as their origin. Furthermore, the supply chain of ingredients will remain transparent, enabling families across the UK to easily track it to reassure themselves of the quality and the sustainable practices involved.

Dominie added: “As a mother of two, I know how important it is to provide healthy nutritious meals for children. Being a parent also means I understand that having the time to cook every night is a luxury and sometimes you need a quick simple solution to get through dinner time. At Wild Hare, we want to show how this doesn’t have to come at the sacrifice of great flavour and nutrition, as there’s a healthy option available for the whole family.”

Convenience food has become commonplace in modern life and eliminates the time-related stress of home cooking. Children though are often forgotten in this industry and exposed to foods high in saturated fats and salt. However, Wild Hare is hoping its ready meal range will offer the perfect solution to quick, healthy and delicious dinners.

Dominie continued: “Sustainable education is something that’s central to our work. The ready meal packaging will clearly indicate the ethical stance of the product and, hopefully, through its consumption, children and their families will begin to normalise sustainable food products. The climate crisis is something that requires collective action and to achieve this, it’s vital that all generations have equal knowledge of what is happening and how food consumption patterns can make a difference.”

At present, the brand is also working towards producing the UK’s first net zero carbon ready meal, having partnered with Reewild, a specialist carbon startup, which produces a detailed analysis of the carbon consumption in the supply chain, allowing for any carbon footprint to be offset through a variety of sustainability projects.

Recent partnerships with brands such as Weezy and its distribution partner, Cress Co, have facilitated the distribution of Wild Hare meals via low carbon vehicles around an increasing number of UK cities, which will also stock the children’s range.

For more information on The Wild Hare Group, please visit:

https://www.thewildharegroup.co.uk/