Charlotte’s Source For Healthy Meals
words by Patrisha Galvan
A passion for healthy and wholesome food inspired founder/CEO Amber Lewis to create The Good Kitchen, a farm-to-plate, healthy meal delivery concept that offers prepped and ready to deliver well-sourced meals, including paleo, keto, low fat, gluten-free, and Whole30 options.
Lewis has crafted every dish to be nutritious and delicious for individuals and families to enjoy.
The Good Kitchen is also a new member of Land to Market: As part of the partnership, they will incorporate Land to Market-verified regenerative ingredients into their healthy meals. Products with the Land to Market seal are sourced from farms and ranches showing positive environmental outcomes.
Regenerative agriculture is a nature-based approach that goes far beyond sustainability to continuously improve the entire ecosystem — soil, water, air and animals.
The Good Kitchen meals can be purchased online at thegoodkitchen.com. Meals are fully cooked and shipped directly to home or work, ready to heat-and-eat.
Amber Lewis told us a bit about her inspiration around The Good Kitchen and what she offers in the dishes she’s designed for healthy mind and body.
How do the meal plans work?
Our meal plans are super flexible to fit all lifestyles. You can order on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis. Because our meals are frozen, they are easy to keep on hand for those times you’re in a pinch for a healthy, quick meal.
How do you source your ingredients?
We have a list of criteria we use to help us vet our farmers and producers. We are all about transparency and reality when it comes to our food system. We aim to work with – and have our food come from – regional and local sources.
What influenced your love for healthy eating to then, the creation of The Good Kitchen?
My family has a very genetic predisposition for early onset heart disease. So, I found my way to eating clean, whole foods out of the passion and need to feed myself and my family well. When I was in my early to mid-30’s this became very real to me and I decided to look to food as medicine. This began my journey to making well-sourced food readily available for time-starved people.
How has your prior work and school-related experience helped you in your role as CEO of The Good Kitchen?
HA! I have a degree in Marine Technology and Communication Studies. My prior work experience was in pharmaceutical and software sales. I would say the life experience of being in healthcare sales definitely gave me the thick skin needed to take a risk in starting The Good Kitchen. I also got to see firsthand how broken our medical and food systems are.
What results have you seen from customers?
I think one of the best testimonials I can remember is a customer who had struggled with feeding herself in school due to severe dietary issues caused by an autoimmune disease. Her Mom ordered our meals to be delivered to her and it took the stress off of having to figure out what she could and could not eat. The transparency in our ingredients and labeling makes it very easy for people to choose their meals based on their dietary needs. And, that’s why I created The Good Kitchen.
What advice do you have for someone who’s willing to eat healthy but does not know where to begin?
Start with the perimeter of the grocery store. Visit your local farmer’s market. Place a small order of The Good Kitchen meals to have on hand so you don’t make poor choices. When I used to give Paleo talks at our gym, I would always say, preparation is key.
How do you cater to people who may not be able to afford to eat healthy?
We offer bulk boxes to reduce the cost of each meal. We also provide online content for tips and tricks while grocery shopping and cooking. And we are working on partnerships that would create the ability for us to provide dollars and food for the food insecure. Everything from actual meals being donated to funding for a pop-up farmers market in food desert communities.
What do you have planned for the future of The Good Kitchen?
For human wellness, we are committed to land health and climate change. We are excited to announce that we recently partnered with Land to Market, the world’s first outcomes-based verified regenerative sourcing solution. They are helping us identify and partner with farmers and ranchers who are healing the earth by restoring the land through regenerative agriculture. In the next few months, The Good Kitchen packaging will showcase the Land to Market seal which means that ingredients will be verified regenerative and that by purchasing our products, our customers will also be helping to fight the climate crisis.
We have a lot of really exciting things happening around Food is Medicine and our partnership with Land to Market. We have several very cool partnerships in the works so… stay tuned!
Looking for more wholesome, local options? Check out local restaurants that promote healthy meals!
