Healthy Highway - Snacking Online
By Laura DL Bracken
Katherine Weiss, a Lakeside Middle School teacher, discovered her passion for good nutrition, and five years ago,
while teaching a health class to her students, she had a "brain fart" and decided she was going to open an online
store that sells all-natural, organic snacks. Since then, she has been contacted by the Golden Globes and found
a modicum of financial success.
"I'm very passionate about good eating habits," Weiss, 39, says. And, indeed, she must be. It's been almost ten years since she began researching the availability of nutritious snack foods that "didn't taste like cardboard." Although her early quest provided samples, which she would share with her classes, she never found the sampled products in local stores, and she didn't see any natural-food snack stores opening up in Spokane.
So, in 2004, Weiss developed the Healthy Snack Store (www.healthysnackstore.com), an online snack store. The website sells all-natural or organic snack foods such as cookies, dried fruits, trail mixes, jerky, cereal, seeds, nuts, and even chips and popcorn that bodies can burn. Weiss adds that a consumer will not find MSG, saturated fats, or hydrogenated oils in the products she carries. In fact, nutritional information, ingredients, and Weight Watchers Points for each product are even posted on the site.
"We won't sell products that don't have a natural or organic standard. Everything we look at is food-based so that our bodies recognize it and digest it." Weiss says. Food-based products do not any contain artificial ingredients (such as refined sugars or flours, milled grains, or artificial sweeteners, food colors or flavorings) and are minimally processed. That's not to say that everything on the site is good for you, Weiss points out. "But at least it is food that your body can burn off."
Originally, Weiss wanted to work primarily with schools, but the bureaucracy involved in modifying food sources has not been easy to wade through. However, she says that Lakeside Middle School has allowed her to stock its vending machines with healthy snacks. "The kids love it," she effuses.
Ultimately, though, it's the website that has allowed her to find other venues for her products. "Now, corporations buy from us," she says, explaining that many employers provide free snacks to their employees. One company even rid itself of vending machines and put coolers in the lunchroom. Weiss says, "Now the employees can go into the lunchroom and dig through the coolers and find raw, healthy food."
Weiss is also involved in sharing healthy snacks with overseas soldiers. Through Operation Gratitude, a California-based non-profit, Weiss donates cases of sunflower seeds to American troops. One appreciative soldier in the United States Navy recently wrote to Weiss, expressing his gratitude for her participation. He writes, "I could say 'thank you', but that doesn't seem like it would come close . . . to all that you've done for all of us."
Weiss says she receives a lot of requests for samples and sponsorships, which she has learned to decline, but for her, "it is important to support American troops and what they are doing."
But what Weiss is doing is getting noticed. Weiss says that the Golden Globes contacted her and asked her to do a booth and provide snacks at their annual awards event. "I thought it would be fabulous and what great advertising. But I couldn't go to that and manage the after effects. I would die. That's too much!" she says, laughing. "I'm still running the business out my home."
And what a business it is. So far this year, Weiss's monthly sales are nearing the $8000 mark. Since the inception of the website, she notes that her yearly sales have grown by over 400 percent. Even with that growth, Weiss quickly points out that she doesn't draw a salary from the business. Instead, she puts her profits back into the business and saves what she can in order to "have a little bit of a nest egg so that I can get a store front and warehouse."
Weiss dreams of opening a brick-and-mortar store where people could come in and purchase healthy snacks, but she's not quite ready to run that type of business. She jokingly says that she already works two full-time jobs. The reality, however, is simpler. She loves teaching and has eight more years before retirement.
Until then, the rest of the world will have to make do with her healthy snack store being online.
"I'm very passionate about good eating habits," Weiss, 39, says. And, indeed, she must be. It's been almost ten years since she began researching the availability of nutritious snack foods that "didn't taste like cardboard." Although her early quest provided samples, which she would share with her classes, she never found the sampled products in local stores, and she didn't see any natural-food snack stores opening up in Spokane.
So, in 2004, Weiss developed the Healthy Snack Store (www.healthysnackstore.com), an online snack store. The website sells all-natural or organic snack foods such as cookies, dried fruits, trail mixes, jerky, cereal, seeds, nuts, and even chips and popcorn that bodies can burn. Weiss adds that a consumer will not find MSG, saturated fats, or hydrogenated oils in the products she carries. In fact, nutritional information, ingredients, and Weight Watchers Points for each product are even posted on the site.
"We won't sell products that don't have a natural or organic standard. Everything we look at is food-based so that our bodies recognize it and digest it." Weiss says. Food-based products do not any contain artificial ingredients (such as refined sugars or flours, milled grains, or artificial sweeteners, food colors or flavorings) and are minimally processed. That's not to say that everything on the site is good for you, Weiss points out. "But at least it is food that your body can burn off."
Originally, Weiss wanted to work primarily with schools, but the bureaucracy involved in modifying food sources has not been easy to wade through. However, she says that Lakeside Middle School has allowed her to stock its vending machines with healthy snacks. "The kids love it," she effuses.
Ultimately, though, it's the website that has allowed her to find other venues for her products. "Now, corporations buy from us," she says, explaining that many employers provide free snacks to their employees. One company even rid itself of vending machines and put coolers in the lunchroom. Weiss says, "Now the employees can go into the lunchroom and dig through the coolers and find raw, healthy food."
Weiss is also involved in sharing healthy snacks with overseas soldiers. Through Operation Gratitude, a California-based non-profit, Weiss donates cases of sunflower seeds to American troops. One appreciative soldier in the United States Navy recently wrote to Weiss, expressing his gratitude for her participation. He writes, "I could say 'thank you', but that doesn't seem like it would come close . . . to all that you've done for all of us."
Weiss says she receives a lot of requests for samples and sponsorships, which she has learned to decline, but for her, "it is important to support American troops and what they are doing."
But what Weiss is doing is getting noticed. Weiss says that the Golden Globes contacted her and asked her to do a booth and provide snacks at their annual awards event. "I thought it would be fabulous and what great advertising. But I couldn't go to that and manage the after effects. I would die. That's too much!" she says, laughing. "I'm still running the business out my home."
And what a business it is. So far this year, Weiss's monthly sales are nearing the $8000 mark. Since the inception of the website, she notes that her yearly sales have grown by over 400 percent. Even with that growth, Weiss quickly points out that she doesn't draw a salary from the business. Instead, she puts her profits back into the business and saves what she can in order to "have a little bit of a nest egg so that I can get a store front and warehouse."
Weiss dreams of opening a brick-and-mortar store where people could come in and purchase healthy snacks, but she's not quite ready to run that type of business. She jokingly says that she already works two full-time jobs. The reality, however, is simpler. She loves teaching and has eight more years before retirement.
Until then, the rest of the world will have to make do with her healthy snack store being online.
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