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Community Food Systems Coordinator
Krishna and Shiba Bhatterai pose in the Happy Curry Foods kitchen. Photo credit: Emilie Chen
Because of the Bhatterai family’s business Happy Curry Foods, students across Oregon can enjoy healthy, local Indian and Nepalese dishes in their school meal programs. Hear from Krishna and Shiba Bhatterai on how contacts at Oregon Department of Agriculture and Education helped kickstart their first sales, and their perseverance in building relationships with districts across the state.
This is part of the Farm to School Stories series.
Shiba Bhatterai prepares food to fulfill an upcoming school order. Photo credit: Emilie Chen
“You’d be surprised by what I’m going to show. This is magic right here,” said Krishna, gesturing to the scant teaspoon of mango sauce Shiba was ladling onto chicken. “Okay, you saw it — one teaspoon, nothing more than that… We just boil the chicken. Okay, now we’ll cook it in less than a minute.” By the end of our tasting, we had sampled six to seven different dishes within the span of ten minutes.
This is at the heart of what Krishna wants school nutrition directors to know: making delicious, culturally relevant foods purchased from local producers can be quick and easy. The Bhattarais have even adapted and customized their recipes to meet districts’ differing needs.
“She is the main person, Shiba,” said Krishna proudly. “Her brain works faster than light in [the] food area. She has a real good strength. If a need arises to create a new recipe for tomorrow, she overnight will create the recipe and would be able to produce the final product within a day or two.”
Momos with mango sauce. Photo credit: Emilie Chen
Happy Curry Foods samosas. Photo credit: Emilie Chen
The Bhatterais used to run Happy Curry Foods as a storefront, but have since shifted to selling their products wholesale. Shiba’s skill and creativity in the kitchen, combined with Krishna’s persistence in building and maintaining relationships with buyers, have paved the way for their sales to New Seasons, universities, and over 50 retail stores.
Their first foray into farm to school sales happened in 2018, when they cold-called the nutrition director at Cascade School District about doing a taste test demonstration in one of their cafeterias. Krishna still remembers one of the students in the cafeteria that day.
“When Shiba and I went to do a demo to the school, there was a small boy. We served him, and he went and stayed in the line again and he came six times. We were very pleased to serve him six times,” said Krishna. Although they had success with their initial taste test in the Cascade district, the Bhattarais had their hands full with wholesale orders at the time and they did not revisit the idea of selling to schools until 2023.
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In 2023, Krishna contacted a procurement compliance specialist at the Oregon Department of Education, who provided him with school district contacts and facilitated introductions to Oregon farm to school partners. Through this outreach, Krishna connected with Amy Gilroy, Farm to School Manager at the Oregon Department of Agriculture, as well as the Nutrition Directors for Portland Public Schools and the Hillsboro School District.
In the summer of 2023, Krishna renewed his school buyer outreach efforts with fresh determination. He began cold-calling nutrition service directors across the state, using contact information gathered from district websites. Since that time, Krishna estimates he has made between 700 and 800 calls—a figure he mentions almost casually, underscoring the persistence required to connect with school nutrition staff. His experience reflects a broader challenge shared by other producers, who also describe significant difficulty establishing communication with school nutrition departments.
Through his diligent call outreach and repeated follow-up calls, Happy Curry Foods conducted taste tests with multiple Portland Metropolitan area school districts and school food service management companies. They have now sold to 18 school districts across Oregon and Washington.
Part of the Bhatterai family, from left to right: Shiba, Krishna, and Anisha. Photo credit: Emilie Chen
“The thing is, unless you call them, they don’t know who you are, and remember, they are busy, no question on that,” said Krishna. “And what I do is, even though they are busy, I’m trying continuously. My goal is to serve the school districts with our great products.”
This is how they made their very first school sale, with Lake Oswego School District. When I asked him how he got in contact with their nutrition services director, Krishna said in a serious tone: “You know how I am. I’m very persistent, definitely persistent and resilient. So, for some of them [other school districts], I have called maybe 30 times, 40 times, whenever we get an opportunity [to call]. I mean, we have to, in spite of many ‘hang ups.’”
He described self-employment as owners of Happy Curry Foods as a 24-hour job. “It’s not [an] eight hour job. If you don’t perform, you don’t have food on the table the next day.”
Despite their successful taste test with school districts in the Portland Metropolitan area and Salem in 2023, they haven’t had any luck selling to these districts. All of his outreach efforts are in hopes that he will be able to establish strong relationships with school districts that will regularly place orders throughout the school year. He says that farm to school funds can be a powerful supporter of local businesses and he hopes that nutrition directors use their funds to support smaller local businesses like Happy Curry Foods.
School and ECE buyers who are interested in Happy Curry Foods products can call Krishna at (503) 588-2771.
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