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Read the press release here.

Kidfresh Store Shuttered by 2nd Ave. Subway Finds New Market

By Amy Zimmer | October 19, 2011 4:30pm
Matt Cohen founded Kidfresh on the Upper East Side after seeing few healthy options for quick children's meals.
Matt Cohen founded Kidfresh on the Upper East Side after seeing few healthy options for quick children's meals.
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Kidfresh

MANHATTAN — For one Upper East Side business, being forced to close by the Second Avenue subway was a blessing in disguise.

Matt Cohen opened Kidfresh on Second Avenue near East 84th Street in 2007, selling child-friendly, healthy frozen meals including mac & cheese, quesadillas and ravioli with vegetables, from inside a storefront space once occupied by Elk Candy.

But wholesome kids’ meals and sandwiches shaped like bears or dinosaurs didn’t mix well with the Second Avenue subway construction.

“[We opened] before Second Avenue became a war zone,” Cohen said. “It became too difficult for us to operate the business there because of the construction. We were at a point either to renew the lease and upgrade that location or focus on scaling the business."

“We had to make a choice,” he continued. “In a way, the construction made it easier for us because we had a situation that was not good for retail and wasn’t going to be good for the next couple of years.”

So, when Kidfresh found itself at a crossroads — either to invest in the store or get into supermarkets across the nation — it decided to close the shop after more than two years in operation.

Cohen, an Upper East Side transplant from France, and his business partner, Gille Deloux, a former Danone executive, knew there was a market for Kidfresh meals beyond the Upper East Side. They had tested their recipes on the discriminating palates of pint-sized Upper East Siders, and their BPA-free packaged meals had been picked up in 70 Whole Foods stores across 13 states, all while the Second Avenue store was open.

Now, with the expansion, Kidfresh will soon be sold in the Midwest and Texas, which will take the total number of stores across the country to 1,500.

If the MTA construction hadn't pushed the business out, the expansion may not have happened as fast as it did, or even at all, Cohen admitted.

“Life if full of surprises,” Cohen said. “To be honest I don’t know what would have happened if we kept the store.”

Cohen, father of a 10- and a 7-year-old, started the company after “the daily lunchbox struggle” of limited healthy and quick options when making his kids’ lunches. Adults had no problem getting healthy foods on the go, Cohen said, but he couldn’t find similar meals for kids without added sugars, high sodium, trans fats and other unhealthy ingredients.

Cohen employed pediatric nutritionists to create a wholesome line of meals with no preservatives or artificial flavors in servings that are roughly 300 calories. With half a cup of veggies blended into Kidfresh meals — like carrots in the mac & cheese — they contain up to 33 percent of a child’s daily required vegetable intake, according to the company.

Even though, as Cohen said, “the Upper East Side is different from the rest of the world,” he said it was helpful to see how the neighborhood’s kids responded to the food.

“Kids are not adventurous, even on the Upper East Side, which means they’re not adventurous in general,” Cohen said. “You could assume that where you have a more affluent and sophisticated customer base, they’d be more willing to try things, but they wanted to stay within their comfort zone.”

Mini-sushi that replaced raw fish with fruit and vegetables was a flop, for instance, Cohen noted.

“Things with green vegetables are an issue for kids even if they taste phenomenal,” Cohen said, “except broccoli and peas.”

Fewer than 15 percent of elementary school-aged children ate the recommended five or more servings of fruit and vegetables a day, and on any given day nearly 20 percent ate less than one serving of veggies, according to a 2004 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

“We’re tying to help,” Cohen said. “There is a lot of talk about processed foods and false claims in marketing. You have the White House initiative with Michelle Obama promoting healthy food. All of this is evolving, and we are at the forefront.”