YamDaisy, M, and Obesity

My correspondence with Maree has really helped me to consolidate where I am with this project. Feedback number 4 said:
You'll need to spend +++ on an accountant familiar w franchising;
Issues that spring to mind:
*Storage of ingreds (I paid $+++ on my business insurance policy) for same (and that was human-grade pet food);
*Storage of prep'd food;
* Transport of food (will need refrigerated vans or insurance will not cover you)
* Just realised that, while I can cook from home for human-grade pet food, I (we) need a commercial kitchen(s) for cooking for humans.
Just stuff for you to think about. And it's stuff I've been through.
Am no way trying to discourage you but you need to think about.
Add the (NSW) Central Coast to my area :)
M xo

This makes me so hungry to have things starting! I can't organise on my own but I need to get things moving at the level where resources and support start building.

To respond to Maree's comments, I explain that I am not able to start off the cafes myself. (I bought a tattslotto ticket last week, but unfortunately missed out on the $6 million. Such a pity! Again!).
The cafe will be set up a little like a family kitchen, and a bit like a restaurant. A cold room and other storage is important. Organising how to bring the food in will vary from place to place, and so will getting the food out. Perhaps there might be home delivery as well as eat in and take away!
Certainly health and food safety regulations will be followed conscientiously!

After two years of blogging about my idea I am more confident of how I can communicate it, more solid in the structure I have for it and really grateful of the support shown to me by so many of you out there!

In my last post I mentioned looking at completely revamping my website. Right now, the energy I would need to put into that is being rechanneled. I will update the current website and get my presentations ready. And I will do the big revamp as soon as possible.
My objective now is to get to the movers and shakers (she says confidently! Yes! I can do it!) and convince them that the time for YamDaisy cafes is now.


Look at this news item from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation!

Today's teens 'the heart attack victims of tomorrow'

By Lucy Carter

The first comprehensive national study of young Australians since 1985 found a quarter are overweight or obese. (ABC News: Giulio Saggin, filephoto)

• Audio: Survey finds one quarter of teens overweight (AM)

Health experts are warning the current generation of Australian teenagers could be the first with a decline in life expectancy and an increase in heart disease.

The first comprehensive national study of young Australians since 1985 found a quarter are overweight or obese.
Run by the Cancer Council and Heart Foundation, the study of more than 12,000 teenagers also found 85 per cent of respondents are not doing enough exercise.
The survey questioned teenagers at 237 different Australian schools about their diet and exercise habits.
"The secondary school students' poll showed that one in four were either overweight or obese, and this sets them up for chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease later on," Cancer Council CEO Professor Ian Olver said.
He says the future does not look bright for this generation.
"What we're going to see is an increasing incidence of heart disease and diabetes and cancer," he said.
Heart Foundation CEO Dr Lyn Roberts is even more dire in her predictions.
"Some of these high school students today are going to grow up to be the heart attack victims of tomorrow," she said.
"There are predictions now that this next generation of children may not live as long."

Responsibility

Professor Olver says the results show obesity is more prevalent in areas of low socioeconomic status.
"I think governments have to adopt a very broad approach to this," he said.
"At one end of the scale there is making sure that good food is both available and affordable; at the other end of the scale it's perhaps restricting advertising to children of junk food that will be harmful to them."
Dr Roberts says parents also need to take responsibility.
"This study showed that the majority of students have at least three television sets in their homes and almost half of them have a TV in their bedroom," she said.
"There's really recent research that shows that if you've got a TV in a bedroom it's associated with a risk of [being] overweight, particularly amongst males."
Teaching young people good habits at school is recommended by both organisations.
Patrick O'Reilly is the principal of Southern Cross Vocational College in Sydney, where they have incorporated the preparation of healthy meals for the students into their hospitality course.
"In our canteen we offer a cafe service before school and a canteen service in our two break times," he said.
"It really was about looking at the ingredients that have gone into the food preparation as well as sourcing good nutritional food and drink."
He says it is an option other schools should look at seriously.

YamDaisy, M, and Gluten Free

This is the third in a series of posts inspired by feedback from Maree as she read about my YamDaisy idea.

Maree wrote:
* I'd add more gluten-free /lactose free options. Such intolerances didn't exist 15-20 years ago but are all the go, these days.

(The picture above is an example of a gluten free and lactose free dish from Portugal: Pork with Pickles and Potatoes, from Tess Kiros' beautiful book 'Piri piri and Starfish')

It is very true that food intolerances and allergies are so much more common now, and the numbers are only likely to go up. The YamDaisy is 'mumfood' and needs to feed all the children.... customers!

This is the basic obligation that the YamDaisy Franchise would ask of every cafe. Everyone should be able to have suitable food for their diet, at least once a week. So anyone registered with their local cafe can explain their needs to the chef and expect that at least once a week there will be a meal they can eat.

Each YamDaisy Cafe will have its own Chef/Manager who will sort out the menu that suits the community (for more about this see here). If there is a large number of customers with particular allergies, it will affect the local menu.

Gluten free and lactose free meals will suit those people who want or need to eat them, and others may not even notice that the meal they choose is wheat free. I think it would be simple to have a wheat and/or dairy free meal on the menu every day!

Because more people are being diagnosed with such food allergies and intolerances, there will be people who would find it so useful to have their local cafe showing examples of wheat free meals, alternatives and substitutions and recipes as well! The YamDaisy chef can be a really useful resource!

Some people with coeliac disease would not be able to eat at a YamDaisy Cafe unless no wheat or other gluten grains were used in the cafe at all. They could not risk a gluten free meal from a kitchen that also uses wheat etc.
In large populations (inner Melbourne or Sydney for example) I think there would be a place for a completely gluten free YamDaisy Cafe. Locals would still find everyday, delicious, seasonal food there, and people with gluten allergies could come from the wider community to get those delicious affordable meals they need.


YamDaisy, M and Hospital Food

YamDaisy, M and Drop the Sick Bit

YamDaisy, M, and Drop the Sick Bit!

Part 2 of the Maree Posts: see Part 1 here
 
The first response from Maree (via phone text) after a quick glance at my website was:
"* the thing-ummy stacker boxes (name will come to me as soon as I sign off) - love that they are sustainable and not disposable;

* I'd play down the "sick/ill" thing. It should appeal to all and you should push this or risk putting people off (food for invalids- eww- "that's not me");
You could push the "light and easy" thing- meals for the week for the time poor..."

I loved, loved, LOVED this feedback!
(Especially because our conversation had begun at the 'hospital food' level!)
But Maree had her businesswoman hat on now and a businesswoman's feedback is very welcome.

It is true that people would be put off with the idea of coming in and eating invalid's food!
If YamDaisy Cafes have the impression of being food for poor people and food for struggling people and food for people with no money.... well, that would be a worry.
I know that the chronically ill, or the people with brain injuries, and every one else would be thinking 'Eeeuw, that's not me!'

Just after I put the concept together (a few years ago now!) I started seeing the Lite and Easy ads, and at the same time perfectly healthy friends with families and busy lives were saying,
"I would love to be able to go to a YamDaisy Cafe on those days that I just can't get a meal organised!"
And that was when I realised YamDaisy Cafe's have the potential to be an important part of food culture for everyone.

BUT, I am in there fighting for the sick people, the disabled, the mentally ill, the homeless, the struggling people. Can I sell this as a wonderful vibrant food idea that emotes 'mum food' (the best selling point ever!)?

The truth is that YamDaisy food is for everyone, and making it for everyone is a social justice issue.

There are lots of ways to make the cafes exciting and cool.
The first is that the cafes look good. The use of artists and designers should keep the look fresh and edgy and expressing the local character by using local artists.
The second is that they work: the food is delicious and easy to buy, the IT applications all work and are as innovative as needed!
Each chef is skilled and engaging.
The advertising, specials and rewards are appropriate, community based and have integrity.

That way the YamDaisy Cafes would be inviting and useful for EVERY one.

So in my next website upgrade I do need to consider this and get it right!

All suggestions welcome!

YamDaisy, M and Hospital Food!

This is the first of some YamDaisy posts inspired by my friend Maree who has given me a whole progression of interesting feedback about my YamDaisy idea.

I will begin where we began: with Maree stuck in hospital and disgusted with the hospital food.

(The picture above comes from an article in Sydney Morning Herald about Traction Man's blog. He is a journalist who was stuck in hospital and wrote about the horrors of the food. He has recuperated enough to be at home now, but you can find his blog here: Notes from a Hospital Bed.)

It was Traction Man's blog that made me realise the YamDaisy Cafe model could fit perfectly well into hospitals (like the Macca's in Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital but much better!).

It could be an extra, that served visitors and those staff and patients who could get down to it... But there is plenty of possibilities for a greater role than that. There could be one on every floor, or in every wing. Or maybe there could be several in the hospital, one catering to people with allergies, another catering to religious food restrictions. In some places it would be possible for a YamDaisy Cafe to supply all the meals for hospital patients. There is enough flexibility in the YamDaisy Cafe model to make it suit a whole variety of contexts!

That is why, after I had commiserated with Maree, I invited her to look at my YamDaisy Cafe Website and tell me what she thought. I asked the right person! Maree has run several food businesses, building them up and looking to Franchise them! So much so that I have several more posts to write exploring the things she raised, and then the YamDaisy Menu she has given me, that I will share with all of you.

Lovely!