There’s a new business in town, and it’s putting a spin on healthy eating.
HealthSavor is the first and only organic, gluten-free, vegan-optional meal delivery service in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky to bring fresh, ready-to-cook fare right to the customer’s door. The company’s mission is simple: Improve the quality of life for Cincinnatians by healing people through the power of clean, natural food.
“HealthSavor is our answer to the current food climate in Cincinnati and abroad,” says executive chef and nutritionist Brandon Schlunt. “Preventable diseases continue to flourish as more of the same kinds of restaurants pop up everywhere. A lot of people are really frustrated with this. We are, too. Making fresh, healthy food from scratch takes time and preparation, and the only way we are ever going to see a decline in obesity, heart disease, diabetes, etc., is to make healthy, great-tasting food convenient. So we prepare everything to the highest nutritional standard and deliver it to our customers' doors once a week. Everything is fresh, never frozen. It’s ready to simply heat and serve.”
As Schlunt and his business partner Kara Livesay have found, there’s a serious demand for a service that helps busy people avoid fast-food dinners. In fact, HealthSavor’s growth comes primarily from word-of-mouth advertising from satisfied customers, including doctors who recommend the service to their patients and colleagues. This interest in meals that meet incredibly high nutritional standards is what prompted Schlunt and Livesay to start the business—and then revive it a few years later.
Launching the Company—Twice
“We actually started this business twice, strange as it sounds,” Livesay says. “Once was on purpose and once was accidental.”
It all started three years ago when Schlunt and Livesay discovered an unfilled niche in the community. “We decided that it was crazy that there was no service in Cincinnati that delivered clean, tasty food that made the nutrients the main priority,” Livesay explains. “We set out to become that service. We didn't know anything about the business end of things, so we set ourselves up with a less-than-sound business model. We created a menu and set out to get people to order from it. With only a handful of customers, less-than-ideal food and labor costs and no capital, we only made it about eight months before throwing in the towel. HealthSavor went dormant.”
Then in May 2013, a friend contacted Schlunt and Livesay to see if the two would act as personal chefs. “Our reply was that it would only be worth their money and our time if it were for more than two people,” Livesay says. “Three days later, she called back with five people ready, asking, ‘Is that enough yet?’ We put feelers out, and week one we fed 15 people. We kept it up and realized after a couple months of our numbers increasing by word of mouth only, that we had accidentally relaunched HealthSavor. Talk about addressing a direct need. This time it was a direct request.”
Today, the business is full swing with an executive team (Schlunt, Livesay and Don Schlunt), five employees, including the two founders, who help with cook and prep, five delivery drivers and two people who manage data entry. As HealthSavor continues to focus on securing the freshest organic ingredients, it will be creating at least one farming position this year as part of a partnership with local farm
Urban Greens. HealthSavor offers kid's meals, sweet treats, FRESH juices,and breakfast packages each week, too.
Tweaking the Business Model
The business model has also changed to help HealthSavor keep costs manageable. Now customers are required to purchase a minimum of five entrees from a changing menu that is posted every Monday. Customers have until Saturday at midnight to submit their orders. Food that was ordered the previous week is prepared from Sunday to Tuesday. Tuesday afternoon, HealthSavor employees focus on the logistics of bagging and labeling the food and planning the delivery routes. The drivers then work until 9:30 p.m. getting the meals to hungry customers.
Wednesday, Thursday and part of Friday are dedicated to processing orders and the extremely precise nutritional analysis that each customer receives via e-mail as a way to educate clients about nutrition. During this time, Schlunt and Livesay also work on preparing the shopping list and attending events and answering emails. Everyone gets a break for family time on Friday and Saturday.
In the new business model, the company eliminates food waste by beginning the extensive shopping process after most of the orders are in. Because the meals are packed and delivered, instead of mailed, HealthSavor avoids packaging waste as well.
As the company continues working toward truly getting itself off the ground, HealthSavor’s commitment to quality and nutrition remains as fierce as ever. As Dr. Tiffany Diers, a regular client, puts it, HealthSavor is providing “the missing link in health care.” Many other customers have also reached out, praising the company for making a difference in their lives. And Schlunt and Livesay are only getting started.
“Our mission isn't just to sell people food,” Schlunt says. “Our goal is to change the world by improving the quality of life of people here in Cincinnati and beyond. Kara and I are natural healers at heart, and we hope to have a lasting effect that's way bigger than what's for dinner.”
Karli Petrovic is associate editor for HOW and Print magazines. She contributes regularly to the HOW blog and tackles freelance articles in her spare time.
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.