Eat2explore is a one-of-a-kind, award-winning cultural education through food exploration box created by Rowena Scherer
What is eat2explore?
Eat2explore is a one-of-a-kind, award-winning cultural education through food exploration box created by Rowena Scherer. Each box is filled with 3 authentic recipes, an exploration guide to learn about the country, a fun educational activity sheet, a shopping list, essential spices/sauces/grains/garnishes for each recipe, an eat2explore passport, 1 sticker, 1 flag pin for each country, and a cooking tool. There are currently 23 countries to pick from. The boxes are available for purchase either on a one-time basis or through a monthly subscription. What’s great about them is that they don’t contain perishable items, so you can use the ingredients included in the box whenever it’s convenient for you to cook. The boxes also come with simple, step-by-step recipes and a shopping list for you to purchase your preferred proteins and vegetables. The recipes are also adaptable to accommodate your children’s preferences, whether they’re vegetarian, gluten-free, or have a preference for beef over shrimp, encouraging experimentation with different ingredients.
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What sparked the idea for this business?
The concept was born during a family trip to Thailand, during a cooking class. Rowena’s two kids, age 9 and 12 at the time, had no idea how to cut up an onion. She felt like she was failing as a parent, since her childhood was full of memories of cooking with her family in Malaysia. She also realized that her kids were getting too much screen time and not enough family time and cultural awareness. The seed was planted at that moment to create an immersive cooking experience for children and parents to work on together.
Rowena decided to quit her successful career on Wall Street and pursue her other passions: food, travel, and education. Her training at the French Culinary Institute provided a solid background for sourcing chef-created recipes that kids would enjoy.
How does the explorer box enrich family time?
The goals of the explorer box are threefold. First, we hope to increase family connections – create opportunities to talk through social issues, and share family experiences and histories.This also helps to reduce screen time for both adults and kids. When you are cooking, your hands are busy dicing and chopping – no time for a screen! Learning about the world and its cultures and cuisines is truly easy and fun when you are eating a delicious meal. We are all connected by food. It is a universal language.
What challenges is eat2explore facing?
In the current landscape of multichannel marketing, small businesses face significant expenses in promoting their products and raising brand awareness to attract customers. Due to limited financial resources, they must carefully select the most cost-effective marketing options, which may not always be the most effective ones. Additionally, the current market conditions make it challenging to secure funding, posing difficulties for businesses looking to raise capital.
What exciting opportunities are opening up for eat2explore?
Our main focus this year is on the travel industry. With families resuming travel post-Covid, we are reaching out to travel bureaus and agencies to promote our boxes as part of the travel experience. In addition, eat2explore is an approved vendor for homeschool and charter schools in several US states, and we aim to expand our partnerships with these schools. We have exciting plans to introduce two new countries by the end of this year: Ukraine and Germany, with our explore Ukraine and explore World Baking Kits Germany.
