Though the global health pandemic has put a grinding halt to growth in key industries, meal prep delivery services are experiencing unprecedented growth.

In fact, users are frequently expressing their thanks and gratitude towards the team, whose services provide a feeling of normality and stability during these uncertain times. It’s evident that meal prep delivery services are now offering much more than just food and basic sustenance, bringing a whole new meaning to the term ‘comfort food’.

“Thank you for everything your team is doing during this time. I’ve been a happy customer of yours since almost the very beginning and have been consistently impressed with your customer service and how smoothly everything runs. I’m now even more so seeing that it has stayed that way during a time when I am guessing you are much more busy than usual. It really helps to have the fresh food delivery option right now.”

— Frances C

“Our Fresh Prep delivery has been a game-changer these past few weeks. Thank you again for all the precautionary measures that keep us and your staff safe!”

— Jennyfer C

We had the pleasure of having a conversation with meal prep delivery company Fresh Prep’s Co-CEO Becky Brauer, who shared her insights with us in terms of what the current unique situation means for their business and customers.

P: Florence, Editor-in-Chief, Pendulum Magazine

B: Becky Brauer, Co-CEO, Fresh Prep

P: Under current circumstances, people are staying home and cooking more often. Have you seen an increase in demand and an increase in the number of new clients for Fresh Prep over the past 2 weeks?

B: We’ve seen an increase in demand as soon as the order came that everybody was going to be self-isolating moving forward. This growing demand is seen across the industry right now, including grocery delivery services. We’re not only getting a lot of new clients who haven't had meal kits before, but we're actually seeing a lift as well in the number of meals customers are ordering with us, because being at home you have more time to cook, people are likely cooking a couple of meals a day now.

P: It's interesting that we are seeing other restaurants starting to offer meal delivery services as well, where users can order prepared ingredients to cook at home. Has that impacted Fresh Prep?

B: So far not a whole lot. It's fairly new as far as I understand, we know that a lot of restaurants really had to pivot. With this whole circumstance, restaurants have to move to takeout and delivery. I think it's two different kinds of customers using these two different services. When you look at a restaurant, that's more of an on-demand service, those who order takeout are likely looking for a last minute solution, whereas Fresh Prep is a service where you have to plan ahead as you will need to pick your delivery day and choice of meals.

P: Fresh Prep stands out from other competitors by offering better quality, fresher ingredients, and better value with most of the prep work already done for customers. How has your business operations evolved to be mindful of the current health situation and to satisfy the growing demand for healthy meals at home?

B: We're really lucky because the team that we've built here is great at being able to pivot quickly, this sense of resilience has been built into our DNA as a company since day one. Our team is adapting to the change quite well, but it's been very challenging dealing with a large amount of growth while also having to deal with the social distancing measures. With the current health situation, we've doubled our janitorial staff, making sure that high-touch surfaces are sanitized constantly.

To keep up with the demand for orders, we've increased the amount of production staff. Their shifts are spread out and we make sure our staff are standing at the appropriate distance in the production area. We’ve also scaled up our delivery and dispatch team to keep up with the order demand. Our office staff are now working from home, so members who are working in our facility are those who are absolutely essential to getting meals out to our clients.

P: Has the current situation impacted your farm-fresh produce supply chain? If so, how has your team adjusted the recipes to work with your farmers during these unique times?

B: We are so, so, so lucky right now that our supply chain has not been impacted yet. It's something that we've been hearing, which is really interesting when we saw the grocery store shelves empty, everyone was afraid there were supply chain issues, but it's just that people are buying a ton more — the supply coming in is actually still the same.

“...we saw the grocery store shelves empty, everyone was afraid there were supply chain issues, but it’s just that people are buying a ton more — the supply coming in is actually still the same. ”

We're really lucky that this really hasn't impacted our supply chains yet, but we are also working hard to prevent things from going wrong in our supply chain, for example, as a standard practice, we provide projections to all of our suppliers weeks ahead of time so they know what our menu looks like and exactly how much product they should be bringing in for us for the coming weeks. We give them a sufficient amount of time to prepare and ensure that all of our ingredients are here on time.

P: We’re glad to hear that the supply chains are still fully intact and we don’t have to worry about meal kit shortages! For those who are thinking of signing up for meal kits so they don’t have to go out for groceries, what spring recipes can they find on the menu?

Currently, what you will see on our menu are items that are tried and true classics. We really wanted to make sure that the menus during this time were filled with items that are seasonally appropriate and well-reviewed by our clients.

With the increase in demand, we want to put our best foot forward with our strongest menus. We're using lighter summer flavors right now, lots of recipes that pair well with white wine.

The Spicy Cumin Beef Noodles, Marinated Tofu Sushi Bowls, and the Steelhead + Horseradish Cream Sauce recipes are just a few of the tried and true classics from the Fresh Prep menu that Becky highly recommends.

Want to try out Fresh Prep for your home? Pendulum Readers can receive 3 meals free off their first Fresh Prep order by visiting this page.

P: How is your team feeling right now? What are your obstacles and successes? What has the team learned from the sudden business environment shift in the past few weeks?

B: It's been a roller coaster for sure. We won't deny that there has been lots of ups and downs. But again, going back to the overwhelming resilience we’ve seen from the team. Being an essential service, we’re happy to be providing something that's adding value in our customers lives right now. Our customers have been amazingly supportive of us, we’ve got floods of messages every day from people being extremely vocal with how thankful they are for the regularity we provide in their lives These messages are shared with our team so they know the importance of their work, there is a real sense of camaraderie around the team right now which is really great to see.

There are challenges as well, such as how it's been super busy. But I think in this time of uncertainty, what I get from the team members I work closest with is they're very thankful that they have work to distract them from everything else right now; they appreciate being able to dive in as a team and do something that is improving people’s lives.

SUPPORTING OTHER LOCAL BUSINESSES WITH THE ADD-ON REBATE PROGRAM

With the growing demand for their meal prep delivery service, Fresh Prep is also shining a light on other food services with their add-on rebate program.

Throughout the month of April, Fresh Prep is giving back proceeds from sales to different local food businesses whose products are available in their add-ons menu. Local businesses Bakery Sate, Coconama, East Van Roasters, Nelson The Seagull and The Polly Fox are beneficiaries of this add-on menus program.

For the order week starting April 16 until April 22nd at 11:59 pm, all proceeds from orders of products from The Juice Truck will go directly to their business. They've seen a 90% decrease in business since COVID-19 hit and Fresh Prep is happy to be able to support them while giving their customers the opportunity to give back and support local businesses.

SPECIAL OFFER | 3 Free Meals for New Fresh Prep Users

Want to support local businesses in Vancouver while receiving tasty, healthy and easy-to-make fresh meals every week? Sign up for your Fresh Prep meal delivery service today using code INFPENDULUM20 at freshprep.ca or go to the unique URL www.freshprep.ca/INFPENDULUM20

We are sharing the positive stories of how businesses are working hard to protect their communities and support others in their industries, to show how we are truly in this together, tackling this global issue one action at a time.

If you know of a local business in your area who is taking the lead in supporting their local community, share their story with us by using #PendulumCommunity so we can shine a light on their efforts as well. We look forward to hearing from you.

Photos courtesy of Fresh Prep