In recent years, meal kit delivery services have capitalized on the needs of our fast-paced, time-deprived society. They offer a convenient solution for families, busy professionals, and aspiring gourmets looking for a quality home-cooked meal with less effort. Green Chef stands out in the crowded meal kit market for its unparalleled dedication to organic food, dietary tailoring, and sustainable practices. We spoke with their VP of marketing, Jennifer Beechen, for an insider’s take on the driving forces behind this mission-based organization.
Green Chef was founded by Michael Joseph, whose commitment to healthy, quality food runs deep. With a father who wrote food transparency legislation, Joseph benefited from the lessons of that trade from a young age. Parlaying his inherited know-how into a career as an entrepreneur in the organic food space, Joseph has gone on to create three organic startups. The commitment to Green Chef, his latest creation, is personal—it reflects how he wants his family to eat.

With the simple mission “to provide the highest quality meal solution through the convenience of e-commerce”, explains Beechen, Green Chef was able to go from concept to first box delivered in a four-week period. “The food space is so large when you consider all the options that are out there, but there still is an unmet need for high-quality convenient meals at home. Green Chef has done an amazing job at tapping into that,” says Beechen. With organic, quality food hitting its stride in the mainstream markets, demand for this type of service all across the country was strong from the beginning. Together with their commitment to the environment and dietary accommodations, this unique business model can offer other organizations something to aspire to in an era where consumerism has developed a conscious.

Commitment to organic

As the first USDA Certified Organic meal kit delivery service on the market, Green Chef imposes upon itself the most stringent standards for the foods they buy. And while organic usually elicits a higher price tag than conventional varieties, Green Chef uses their decades of buying experience in the organic market to get the best product at the best price. Employing practices like focusing on seasonal ingredients, using local suppliers, and negotiating better prices as the company scales up all contribute to their production efficiency. Beechen shares, “In Michael’s mind, if people are buying organic food they are expecting that type of care in every aspect of how the product is sourced, created, produced, and delivered and that’s a challenge that we take very seriously.”

Flexible dietary tailoring

Green Chef’s trailblazing continues with the different meal options they offer. As the first meal kit company to offer special diet options, customers can choose from Omnivore, Carnivore, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Paleo, Vegetarian, and Keto plans. For the eater looking for flexibility, it’s easy to switch up their plan choice, skip weeks, and cancel. With this type of variety, consumers are getting chef-crafted, quality meals that allow them to discover different cuisines with recipes that fit their dietary needs. This level of specificity takes the brainwork out of the process, allowing people to focus on the enjoyment of cooking.

Built-in sustainability

With a director of sustainability implementing processes that offset Green Chef’s carbon footprint, environmental consciousness is built into the foundation of this company. From their eco-friendly packaging to their operations and shipping methods, every aspect of the organization is taken into consideration. Through their partnership with terrapass, a company whose purpose is to help others offset their carbon footprint, they’ve implemented multiple green initiatives across the country. For every meal delivered, Green Chef provides a carbon offset. To date, more than 100,842 metric tons of carbon have been offset.
The majority of Green Chef’s customer base is female. Calling moms “the gateway for dinner solutions,” Beechen knows how crucial the mom audience is to their success. Moms plan the meals and share their experiences with their fellow moms. As a working mom, herself, Beechen knows this first hand. “The whole quandary of what to do for dinner resonated really strongly,” she said. “When I tried the meals with my family and saw what a delightful experience it was I was really hooked. You want to be marketing and working for something that you believe in and it’s definitely something that I can believe in.” Because of this, Green Chef came to us to reach our passionate community of influential moms. Of those who participated in the sampling program, the reviews were resoundingly positive and a whole new batch of budding green chefs was born.