Dinner is (prepared and) served
New food startups cook and deliver healthy meals right to the kitchens of busy families
Jacqueline Tupper has a busy life and little time to cook healthy meals.
The challenge of eating well is made that much harder when her dietary requirements differ from those of her children, ages four and six, which differ again from those of husband Bryce. Oh, and she also owns and operates a South Granville boutique, Lord’s Shoes and Apparel.
“It’s a really busy time, which is why Eat Your Cake saves my bacon,” she says.
Eat Your Cake is one of a dozen or more Vancouver startups that shop for food, prepare meals and deliver them, ready to eat, to your door. There are companies that just do your shopping, while others will send food and a chef or nutritionist to cook it for you in your own home.
“We get three totally different levels of food from them,” Tupper explains. “I get my lunches and snacks, all vegetarian. When we get dinner, half of it caters to my kids and their palate and the other half is for my husband and I, so part vegetarian for me and fish for him.”
Eat Your cake delivers to Tupper’s home twice a week, leaving prepared meals in her fridge while she is at work.
“Before I go to work I check the fridge, pick my lunch and there’s always a yummy treat to go with it and off I go to work,” she says. “It’s always something new, it’s always something fresh. If there’s anything I don’t like, I just say I didn’t enjoy it and it never shows up again.”
The Tuppers are typical of a growing market: families that are outsourcing shopping and cooking to experts who ensure that they are eating healthy, often organic, meals as often as possible. Depending on the service level, people pay from about $200 to $500 a week.
Eat Your Cake has nearly 500 subscribers in mainly Vancouver, on the North Shore, Richmond and Surrey, and their client base is growing “rapidly.”
“We specialize in pre-made meals,” says founder Joanna Wolski. “Our clients discuss their health goals with one of our nutritionists and then we come up with a meal plan geared to weight loss, athletic support or healthy eating.”
Most people opt for a weekdays package that provides lunches and dinners Monday to Friday, which allows them to cook or go out to eat on the weekend.
The rest break down into two groups: People who want three meals a day, seven days a week; and people who just need meals a couple of days a week, for a weekend meal or a difficult weeknight.
“Some people want to be taken care of all day every day, breakfast lunch, dinner and snacks,” says Wolski.
Buying prepared, healthy meals is a double win for Annie Wang, a project manager for an IT consulting firm who works 70 to 80 hours a week. It saves precious time and relieves her of the need to obsess over labels, macrodiets and micronutrients.
“I do not have time to cook. This gives me a lot of freedom with my time and helps control my weight,” she says. “I’m a bit of a label whore and I don’t want to be counting carbohydrates or weighing food on a scale. I’ve done that and it’s so hard on you mentally.”
Wang buys prepared meals — some vegetarian and some with meat — to eat Monday through Thursday while her husband is travelling for work.
“It’s a pain to cook for one and this leaves me the flexibility to vary my diet on the weekends, see friends and be social,” she says.
Fresh in Your Fridge takes the concept one step further, not just prepping meals, but coming to your home and cooking them, too.
Founder Erika Weissenborn has a stable of nutritionists with culinary training who do home visits to cook between 10 and 25 meals to be eaten throughout the week.
Most of her clients have highly specialized diets or long lists of food sensitivities, but she also caters to people who want to eat vegan, paleo or gluten-free.
“We work with a lot of people that want something a little more high end, especially families that don’t want to eat out of four little plastic tubs,” she says. “It feels more natural and a little more homey to have someone cooking in your home.”
A brand new startup, Community Grocer, hopes to tap into demand for local, sustainable and organic groceries from people who are still keen to cook their own food. Their Kickstarter campaign is selling $50 memberships with the promise that ethical grocery choices will be offered at a 20- to 40-per-cent-below retail prices.
“If we sell 150 memberships we can buy about four months inventory of non-perishable foods,” says founder Michael Menashy, a serial entrepreneur. “This is going to allow us to buy in mass volumes.”
Clients can shop online and then either pick up their groceries at the Mount Pleasant depot or have them delivered. When membership hits 500, Menashy will add frozen meat to the product list and hopes to include Avalon Dairy, fresh fruits and vegetables within a year.
“We envision this as a one-stop shop for people,” he says. “There are a lot people who want to support these products but find them hard to get or unaffordable. When you do find these kinds of food all in one place, you realize you’ve met your moral goals but spent your whole paycheque.”