Yay Lunch, a Charlottesville company that offers a two-way marketplace for caterers and food companies to sell lunches at schools, has rebranded as The Yay Company to reflect an expanded mission.
Founded by Christina Liva Diiorio, the company works with caterers and other food professionals in six markets, including Richmond, D.C., New York City and Atlanta. The meals offered by the caterers are placed on the company’s marketplace and parents purchase them for their kids. Yay delivers the meals to select schools, mostly private schools but a few are public. The company has delivered more than 2 million meals to date.
After several years, Diiorio began to realize the demand for healthy food at school was larger than just lunch time. Schools were asking the company about breakfasts, snacks and other meal options. That spearheaded the company’s move to add Yay Cafés and salad bars in some schools. The company has even taken over operations at several school cafeterias. That has meant installing point-of-sale systems and placing employees inside schools. That expanded operation led the company to make the rebrand.
“When kids are away from home, we want to solve for all those occasions when they want to eat,” Diiorio said. “Let’s get into the cafeteria. Let’s see if we can’t run a store where kids can have access to nutritious food throughout the day instead of just at lunch.”
The company is growing quickly. It has 65 full-time employees and around 150 part-time delivery coordinators, who work in communities where participating schools are located.
Diiorio declined to give revenue numbers but said sales doubled last year. She expects the company will double sales again this year. It is also moving into the Chicago market for the upcoming school year. The company plans to offer school lunches and open a Yay Café at a school in the city. That school will serve as the foundation for growing in the Chicago market.
Diiorio founded the company with Derek Mansfield in 2018. She had worked in the food and wellness industry at Goop and MindBodyGreen. Diiorio, who lived in New York City at the time, saw the challenges schools and parents faced providing healthy lunches to children. She moved to Charlottesville to be closer to family and launched the company with a small pilot project that grew into several schools around the region.
“Schools are not in the business of food,” Diiorio said “They are in the business of education, and yet they are tasked every day with providing a thoughtful, nutritious meal to thousands of kids.”
The company has raised several rounds of capital, the most recent being a $12 million round in 2021. The round was led by Chicago’s Valor Siren Ventures and included Miami’s Animo Ventures, San Francisco’s Reach Capital, New York’s Alpaca VC, Chicago’s Pritzker Group and New York’s TMV. Diiorio said the company will look to raise additional funds in the fall.
She said the biggest challenge right now is managing growth. Schools across the country have reached out and inquired about offering Yay’s products, but Diiorio said the company has to slow down and be strategic. Employees at the company are passionate about getting quality foods into schools, but her challenge is holding back that enthusiasm.
“We need to remember to take it one step at a time,” Diiorio said. “We will get there.”