Community Spotlight: Green Light Vitamin Drinks

We are so excited to learn about Green Light Vitamin Drinks for this weeks Community Spotlight. It’s always important to make sure our children have everything they need to stay healthy, but these days it’s more dire and more essential than ever. As much as we’d love food to be the main method of getting vitamins, between busy schedules and picky eaters, that’s sometimes almost impossible! With nutrition in mind and community at heart, local South Bay company Green Light Vitamin Drinks™, has brilliantly solved the challenges that many parents face when it comes to supplemental health! Creating a low-sugar, non-gmo, gluten free drink that’s jam packed with vitamins, nutrients and yummy flavors that kids actually like…we wish we had a grown up version for ourselves!

Community Spotlight: Green Light Vitamin Drinks

Tell us about Green Light Vitamin Drinks

“Green Light Vitamin Drinks™ can be summed up as low-sugar kids’ vitamin/sports/everything drinks.  We thought of everything we wanted in a drink for our kids, and that has resonated with every parent who has been introduced to the drinks.  From natural spring water and natural flavors; to organic monk fruit, organic colors and only 9g of organic cane sugar; to using organic lemon juice instead of citric acid to ‘preserve’ freshness.  We always knew we had to make the drinks Non-GMO Project Verified and Gluten-free, so we did.  The bottles are fully recyclable PET, and even the caps are bigger than minimum in order to create less of a choking hazard.”

“The biggest key regarding the vitamin content is that we base those percentages on recommendations from the American Academy of Pediatrics.  Children don’t need the same amounts of vitamins that adults do, so our drinks reflect age-based needs (we have a very cool filter tool on our website where you can enter the gender, age range and drink size and see how much of each vitamin that child is receiving).”

What inspired you to launch Green Light Vitamin Drinks™? 

“Every time we finished the kids’ pediatric dentist visits, she would remind us to never give the kids gummy vitamins. “We are seeing a lot of cavities from gummies sticking to teeth and not being brushed off consistently”. By the third or fourth time she said this we thought, how do we deliver enough vitamins to kids when all they want is pizza, mac ‘n’ cheese and nuggets?!” 

“Having never been able to find anything like it on the market, we had this idea that maybe we could create a true vitamin drink. We reached out to our kids’ incredible former pediatrician in Beverly Hills (Dr. Lauren Crosby) to ask if she’d be interested in being a part of this idea.  We were very pleasantly surprised when she said, “This is amazing.  I’ve wanted to do something like this for years.  I’m in!”  She immediately validated our idea.  When we received Dr. Crosby’s response, we knew we had to follow through and create Green Light Vitamin Drinks™”

What is one of your proudest moments at Green Light Vitamin Drinks™? 

“We very clearly remember the day of our first production run. Seeing the very first bottles come off the production line, and actually holding the finished product that we had been working on for several years, was a phenomenal feeling.  It felt incredible knowing how much effort we had put into creating something that is actually positive and better for kids than so many other products out there.  Truly a watershed and extremely proud moment.“

What can one expect when drinking Green Light Vitamin Drinks? 

“They can know that first and foremost, we are parents too.  Our company most likely wouldn’t have been created if we didn’t have children of our own. We care tremendously about our kids and what we/they are putting into their bodies.  We know so many parents are in the same position, so we feel great about being able to help so many.“

Tell us a little about you: 

“We have lived in the South Bay (Manhattan Beach) since 2011 after moving from the Mar Vista area of LA.  Malia is originally from Maui, and I (Colin) am originally from Sebastopol in Sonoma County.  We met in 2003 when I pulled over in Westwood and ran two blocks to tell Malia how stunning she is (true story).  17 years later (married for 15) and we have a 12 year old girl and 9 year old boy.  We love the South Bay.  In fact, Malia, born and raised in paradise, doesn’t see herself leaving the South Bay.  And I’m totally fine with that!“

What do you enjoy doing in the South Bay when you are not working? 

“Pre-pandemic, I loved coaching just about every sports team my kids were  on (soccer, basketball, baseball). We are big foodies and love supporting local restaurants. This year, with the shutdown orders in place, we have rediscovered the beach and are out there most weekends.“

How do you give back to the community? 

“We have been giving to MBEF and our PTA’s for years now.  An epiphany Colin recently had was to start a “donate a pallet” program where individuals or companies can purchase an entire pallet of the drinks to be donated to South Bay and/or other LAUSD schools.  We reduce our pricing specifically for that program so more kids in need can receive a healthy drink option, and private citizens and companies can feel great about giving back to their local communities.  Having a philanthropic piece to the company has always been important and will always be a part of what we do.“

Though we pediatricians know that the best drinks for kids are milk and water, there are (many) times when they want something else.  This is a much healthier option than soda or juice and it is better for teeth than gummy vitamins. It’s also great to help fill nutritional gaps in the picky eater’s diet. –  Dr. Crosby

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