Independent companies sprout up to serve healthy school fare

Feb. 12—Federal legislation that requires school lunches to include a certain amount of fruit and vegetables is fueling growth among small businesses aiming to serve up healthier student meals.

One of these, San Francisco's Kid Chow, launched in 2003 by husband-and-wife team Rob and Jamie Feuerman, started by serving lunches to one private school in San Francisco. Kid Chow specializes in organic produce, sourcing thousands of pounds of fruit and vegetables each day from San Francisco-based distributor Veritable Vegetable. A typical day of produce purchases might include apples, bananas, broccoli, carrots, celery sticks, orange slices, pears and edamame.