How one Small Start-up is Gearing Up to Give the Ultimate Gift — Time.
Yes! Of course I want to eat gorgeous whole foods all the time!! And Yes, of course I want my meals to be full of the best local fare around. Who wouldn’t want to have the choicest produce and proteins available, beautifully prepared by top chefs, plated in waste-less glass containers, completely ready to pop in the oven or micro? Leaving almost no clean up? And what if I could get this tiny little miracle for as little as $10/plate?
Delivered easily?
For my entire family?
But it couldn’t be possible… Could it?
Well, surprising Hamptons’ Start-Up, “Honest Plate” says… It Could! Honest Plate is the brain child of local entrepreneur, Ashley Heather, and many early adopters feel it could change the course of modern day meal delivery, and the very way we shop, cook…and eat. Do tell.
First things First — Just how much time does ‘food’ actually suck?
OK — so — let’s just do the math. Most people start their shopping experience by taking inventory at home. It’s common for average shoppers to spend about half an hour canvassing their kitchen cabinets, deciding meals for the week and figuring out what they have and what they’ll need — that’s already 26 hours/year (Can you say ‘S-p-a Week -End?’).
Then there’s the time spent driving to the store, shopping, bagging, paying, transporting to car, driving home again, and finally unpacking the car and arranging groceries correctly in the kitchen — that’s easily 2 hours a shot. (And yes, there’s always Peapod around to help with the delivery, but filling out your order for a week is aHassle— ask anyone who’s ever done it! 45 minutes at least—and same as above for unpacking!) Oops, um, and sorry… there’s a little more bad news. Most Americans grocery shop1.5 times a week.That adds up to a whopping 156 hours/year! (a 6.5 day vacation — but who’s counting?)t’s a flexible format that’s really hitting home,” Heather said.
What?? A MONTH A YEAR??
Next we’ll add in time spent preparing the food, cooking it, and cleaning up after eating it. Errrr… that’s another 1–2 hours daily, which on average, logs in an additional 547 hours/year. The grand total then, for time spent shopping for, preparing and cleaning up after — food — is about 729 hours per year. Which translates into… 30.395 days /year.
What? Really? — That means that as an average family of four, we are spending close to A MONTH A YEAR concerned with the process of feeding ourselves (and usually not doing a great job at it)!
What could you do with an extra month of your life to … exercise? explore? engage … with the people and things most important to you?
What are we doing?
Enter Honest Plate; What is it — and how can it save me?
The concept for ‘Honest Plate’ grew from founder Ashley Heather, and his wife, Diana’s, annual January devotion to “Whole30”. Whole30 is a food program that removes problematic and processed foods from your diet. This short-term ‘reset’, Whole30 says, “helps you curb your cravings and bad habits, boost your metabolism, heal your digestive tract, and calm your immune system”. The elimination period will leave you with a new “normal” — a healthy baseline that will leave you looking, feeling, and living better. Practitioners report ‘positive changes in energy, sleep, digestion, mood, cravings, focus, anxiety, self-confidence, chronic pain or fatigue, athletic performance/recovery, and more’. Sign me up!!
But although Ashley and Diana’s experience with the food program had been spectacular — they had to admit — hunting down the right ingredients proved difficult — especially with two super full time jobs, young kids…You get the picture. Next came an in-depth research period during which Ashley combed the market of high-end home grocery delivery services… from Blue Apron to Hello Fresh.
The Inner Innovator
The services of course had their great pioneering points — they saved shopping and planning time. And they encouraged healthy eating and time spent together… but Ashley’s inner innovator wouldn’t let him stop. He wanted his food to come from the ‘good ground’ around him, from the fields he passed everyday.
One Family Food Delivery — 29 Plastic bags
In addition to the farm to table touch he wanted for his family, he also wanted help in preparing the food — from local chefs who knew how to do it! Oh — and one other thing — can we stop with all the plastic? The perfect food delivery service would come in beautiful clean, clear, glass, containers — ready to be heated — with labels that disappear instantly with water — re-usable, hassle-free and environmentally friendly.
Honest Plate is Born
Thus, Honest Plate (HP) was born. In January 2020, A. Heather partnered with Honest Chefs, Nick Reisini Jon Albrecht who bring amazing skill and local flair to HP’s growing group of employees and enthusiasts. This team has created a meal delivery system that allows you to bite into beautiful foods, lovingly prepared by local chefs daily (for almost less than the cost to shop for them!). Meals start with $10 plant based plates, and allow you to add on with customized proteins. The meals follow Whole30 restrictions, are gluten free and organic. Delivered conveniently to several nearby locations, this seedling start-up seems to be taking The Hamptons by storm.
And don’t think for a minute that this ardent venture will wither away any time soon. Having served over 1000 meals in its first 30 days, and with more customers and delivery points popping up daily — watch this space! Ashley H. even has some interesting ideas about ‘Mobile Shipping Container Kitchens’ that would allow ‘Honest Plate’ programs to harness the power of fresh food —everywhere.
Procuring the very best food for your family
Saving precious time to spend with them
Employing local food workers
Vastly reducing the over $2,798 worth of US food waste/per capita/yr :(
Honest Plate. Something worth getting excited about.
Written by Bethelle Desmond. Published on Mar 3rd on Medium.com