Charter school in Chicago combats childhood obesity

8-30-2006 @11:44AM Paul Cook said... Low Fat (60-90% Less)Fried Food
Published: August 28, 2006 12:00 am

N.Y. schools' big order:200,000 Gloucester-made fish sandwiches a month

By Richard Gaines
Gloucester Daily Times


View as a multiple pages

New York City's public school students spoke with their taste buds, the Board of Education listened with an eye on obesity.
And last week the Big Apple's schools placed an order with Good Harbor Fillet Co. for enough portions for 200,000 sandwiches a month, the company said.

The order, coming a year after an agreement to bring Good Harbor out of bankruptcy, was the surest sign among many that Creo Capital Partners, a Los Angeles investment firm, made the right bet.

Sales have climbed 80 percent to a projected $36 million this year and Good Harbor has added 25 workers and five officers, doubling the bankruptcy-low payroll to a high tide of 125 employees.

Creo Capital's decision to buy a controlling interest in Good Harbor and satisfy creditors was predicated on the confidence that the company was positioned to grow rapidly in institutional, supermarket and premium brand sectors.

Founded on the fish pier 21 years ago by Bill Stride, a second-generation fish purveyor, the company was fortunate to have the right stuff at the right time as it sought to rebound.

The bankruptcy coincided with a national groundswell of concern about the nation's youth's addiction to fried foods. Just as medical science was spewing out new evidence of the danger of fat, especially the artificially made, so-called trans fats, Good Harbor was bringing to market fried and baked fish that had all the taste of the bad stuff without the bad stuff, or at least a lot less of it.

The explanation traces to a small office, nestled in a corner of Good Harbor's plant in Blackburn Industrial Park. On the door is a sign that reads: "Improving the way the world eats."

It is the mission of Proteus Industries and it was here that Stephen Kelleher, a food scientist, and his team did what few thought possible: Extract pure fish protein from scraps, which could be dehydrated into powdered form for storage, then dissolved in water and used to coat fried and baked fish cuts, forming a thin membrane that keeps the fat from replacing natural juices in the fish.

And voila, out comes a healthier, equally tasty fish sandwich.

Stride believed in Kelleher, offered him research space in the plant he mortgaged his family and company to build in 2002 and when the Proteus protein process was perfected, Stride was rewarded with an exclusive licensing agreement.

"We find that terribly exciting," said Greg Bortz, Creo Capital's managing partner, exciting enough to warrant an $8 million settlement investment.

A number of school systems, especially in the South, the vanguard of the anti-obesity effort, and the U.S. military were equally excited and placed orders for Good Harbor fish products with what Stride now calls "magic protein."

Since last November, Good Harbor has shipped more than 1.5 million pounds of radically reduced-fat fish meals to personnel in Iraq.

The kids in New York - and everywhere - are set in their ways and cannot easily be induced to abandon food they like, so the trick, Stride said, "is to serve them what they want to eat anyway in a healthier form."

That they were oblivious they were enjoying healthier fish and cheese sandwiches last spring when Good Harbor products were introduced in tests was the point of the exercise.

The Board of Education, said Mitch Levine, Good Harbor's food broker in the metropolitan New York area, "is very discriminating and has very high standards. Their specifications demand quality products" for their anti-obesity menu for the 800,000 students the city feeds each day, he said.

The board's order for between 40,000 and 50,000 pounds of fish and cheese sandwiches will allow at the outset for five menu feedings a month beginning in October and then a more permanent place on menus later in the year.

Good Harbor's rapid penetration of the institutional food sector matches advances in the retail and premium sectors and allowed Stride, who maintained equity and remained as president after Cleo acquired control, to rehire key research and sales managers laid off in the cost cutting of bankruptcy.

On the heels of the success of Stop & Shop's decision last fall to stock fresh products with the miracle protein in its premium food section, Stride said a "Good Harbor" brand is being readied for introduction.

"It will sell as full price," said Stride. "There's a lot of vacuum at the high end of the market today."

Creo Partners' earlier acquisition of a West Coast food products company has given Good Harbor established distribution on the West Coast, to go with the "magic protein's" piercing penetration of the heartland and the South.

Next, said Stride, is a pending deal with a national weight management company, which he declined to identify.

"To have gotten the attention we've gotten," he said, "One CEO told me, 'You've got the unbelievable technology and we have a very believable brand.'"


"One Year Later" is an occasional series catching up on stories that made the news on Cape Ann one year ago. Send ideas to Editor Dominic Nicastro at dnicastro@ecnnews.com or (978) 283-7000, ext. 3438.






Reply