Meal prep business created for people who want healthy food, convenience

When Kevin Zhang was a college student, he was into fitness and health but didn’t have time to cook nutritious meals from scratch during the week. So, he would prepare several meals on the weekend and heat them up to eat during the week.

Following graduation from Mercer University in 2014, Zhang continued preparing his meals during the weekends after going to work, first as an EMT and now as a medical assistant at Neurology Associates in Macon. He also is a CrossFit coach.

“After a weekend of cooking I would post something on social media to show people how effective this could be ... and actually close friends contacted me and asked if I could help prep meals for them for the week,” he said. It started out with a couple of people and then it just grew from there.”

That’s how Zhang, 24, started his business, EverFresh Meals, LLC, which he describes as “a quality meal prep service catering to Middle Georgia.” As the owner and chef, he makes nutritionally balanced meals with all natural ingredients, and everything is purchased on an as-needed basis, he said.

Each Monday about 9 a.m., Zhang posts on his website, http://www.everfreshmeals.com, the new menu items he will prepare for delivery the next weekend. Customers can place their orders online through 9 p.m. Wednesday, pay for the meals using PayPal and choose the delivery location.

On Saturdays, he buys the food and prepares it. He currently uses the kitchen in his family’s restaurant, which he declined to name. He has a few part-time employees he can call on to help out on Saturdays but he does everything else himself.

Since EverFresh doesn’t have a store front at this time, Zhang delivers the pre-ordered meals to Eastman and Dublin on Saturday and to three locations in Bibb County on Sunday afternoon. The pickup locations and times are listed on the EverFresh Meals website.

“Everything is measured out for you,” he said. “I don’t follow any specific diet program. I just like to cook as clean as possible using as much local or organic produce as possible. ... I use as little processed food as I can.”

Two of the meals that were prepared include grilled chicken breast with jasmine rice and beef burger patty over bed of red cabbage slaw with sweet potato fries. The average cost per meal is about $7.50. Each meal item lists the amount of protein, carbs and fats it contains.

“We generally do a single serving of protein ... then a carb, and usually we do a rice or sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes or pasta ... and then we do a veggie,” he said.

Some people order from one meal a week up to 25 meals for their family, he said. He started the business in July and most of his customers have learned about it from other people who use the service.

“A big part of our customer base is the working class,” he said. “Just busy people who want to eat healthy. ... Three-fourths of them are athletes of some sort. ... But I have a lot of nurses ... and we also have a lot of college students.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Meal prep business created for people who want healthy food, convenience."