Today we’d like to introduce you to Jan Leife and Amanda Mayo.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Jan: Just Add Cooking is inspired from the Swedish meal kit market, which has been around for double the time that the American one has. I used a meal kit service in Stockholm for many years and when I moved to the States 5 years ago I couldn’t find anything similar so I decided to start one myself. At the time, the term “meal kit” was not familiar to most and there was no standardization of language around it. Now, five years later, it has become common lexicon.
Bringing the company model from Sweden, the focus on local, sustainable food was always a part of the foundation. In Sweden, you don’t think about pulling produce from far away. For example, if you live in Stockholm you would never think of buying a meal kit from Rome or Madrid like we do here in the States. That is why I wanted to focus on cultivating relationships with local farmers and producers that we could grow with and support. We are connecting the farmers, fishermen, and entrepreneurs that start small food companies with the customers.
A lot of people talk about transparency but don’t follow through with action. We are here to change the food system and to do that you have to get involved in it, you have to get your hands dirty. We know who is providing our food and we meet with our suppliers on a regular basis. There is not twenty steps between your fish and your table, there is one. It goes from the fishermen to us, to you. Our core values have never changed, which is why as we continue to grow and expand we feel good about the business that we are doing.
The meal kit industry is here to stay and we plan on growing with it. Our employees live Just Add Cooking’s mission, which is why they all came to the team organically. They are our biggest asset and each member is vital in our success. For example, when Amanda joined the team, she brought with her, previous experience in the meal kit industry, an academic eye, being a professor of Gastronomy, and Korean flavors, along with many other things.
Amanda: When I saw all of the amazing things that Just Add Cooking was doing it was a clean slate for me to start fresh with a company who was doing honest business. This company was already building a sustainable, local food system but the community didn’t know about it. It was remarkable that Just Add Cooking was doing what the competitors said they were doing.
I saw that these local and sustainable practices were integral to who the owners were and I said, “why are we not shouting this from the rooftops?!” They never thought to bring it to the forefront because this is just who they were, it came naturally. As the Chief Gastronomic Officer and spokesperson for Just Add Cooking, I have helped to share our honest story with the public. I believe in this company and everything that we do, which is why it makes it so easy to work here.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Jan: It’s been much more complicated than we could ever think of, one of the challenges with this kind of business is that it is so broad. There are so many areas that we need to cover, from sourcing and production to creativity in writing recipes, to marketing and funding. It’s a lot of hats for very few people to wear, but we get it done! Things would have been easier with more people and more money but because of some of these struggles, I know every part of this business inside and out and so do the rest of the staff. We have developed the best practices and the most thoughtful way to handle our customers and our vendors.
Looking back on the past five years the biggest lesson we learned was that we should have started fundraising earlier. We are better at business than most farmers and vendors. People in the food system are good at food. We are also good at food but we are learning to be good at the fundraising too. The financing part is what we are learning as a business so that we can grow, and we need it. We are also a tech company. If we had done things differently we would have put equal focus on tech as on food. So we are playing a little catch up on the tech side. We are learning, and progressing; not as fast as we would like, but we will get there! I have confidence in our team and in this company, and from all of our struggles, we have learned, which has benefited the business.
Amanda: We are committed to who we are and to changing the food system for the future and as a result of that we have to always be thinking about best practices when it comes to food waste, food safety, production, routing, and delivering. This poses some challenges, but we have a highly skilled team who is great at problem-solving.
Also, writing a recipe for a meal kit is not like writing a recipe for any other industry. It’s hard! There are many components to take into consideration including sourcing, size of ingredients, time, cost, and most importantly flavor. Lots of times we have to cut out or swap out an ingredient that we have our hearts set on to meet criteria.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Jan: We are New England’s only local meal kit service. We are building a local, sustainable food system for the future. By offering food sourced from local fisheries, farms, bakeries and more, we are able to support the local community, while helping busy folks feed responsibly sourced food to their families. We make dinner easier for people without sacrificing flavor or nutrition. We offer seven unique recipes for our customers to choose from each week, including vegetarian and gluten-free options. Our goal is to save people time at the grocery store and give them more time to spend with their families cooking together and sitting around the table.
We are proud to bring sustainability to the meal kit industry, and honestly, we see no other way to be. That’s why we’re different. As a local meal kit, we pack and deliver all boxes on the same day. Our packaging is sparse, recyclable and compostable, thanks to the fact we ship ingredients less than 45 miles and they’re in transit for 4 hours or fewer. We have also eliminated gel packs and foil cooling bags from our packaging and replaced them with frozen water bottles from GIVN Water (which you can drink and recycle) and a 100% recyclable box liner.
For us it’s not about the bottom line, we need the company to be successful because we have to pay our employees, but to us, it’s not just about how can we make more money faster, that’s not a success, it’s about doing things the right way. Staying true to our practices in sustainability, continuing to support our vendors, and bringing ease to our customers, that’s what’s important. Getting positive customer feedback and helping out vendors, that makes us proud. We are helping our vendors and they are helping us, it has to work both ways.
Amanda: We make good food! I am proud to stand behind the food we are making and the recipes we are offering people. The recipes are tasty and quick. As a Mom, I’m proud that we make dinner easier for people and that we support local food system in a sustainable way. It makes it really easy to do this job. When customers tell us that we change their lives by allowing their family to spend more time together in the kitchen and around the table, that is one way of measuring success. A fellow mom who uses our service told me recently, “My kid will eat vegetables now.” She said that it was a battle before, screaming and crying on both sides, and now her kid unpacks the box and they cook it together. Making their struggle less is a huge win for us.
What were you like growing up?
Jan: I was interested in sports. I always had a lot of friends that I liked hanging out with. I also liked reading and sailing. I liked cooking quite a bit, I used to help my mother in the kitchen. Personality-wise I was ambitious but humble, never the loudest talker in the group.
Amanda: I was a nerd. They tried to skip me from kindergarten to second grade in elementary school. I liked books a lot, you couldn’t get me out of the library. I was a good kid. I was outgoing, but I was a rule follower. I liked being with older people more then I liked being with kids. I would have rather hung out with my great-grandparents instead of playing on the playground.
Pricing:
- 2-person, 3-meal box, $69
- 4-person, 3-meal box, $109
- We have created a special offer code for Boston Voyager readers to take $30 off their first box (valid until the end of February): BOSVOY30
Contact Info:
- Address: 535 Albany Street Floor #5 Boston, MA 02118
- Website: justaddcooking.com
- Phone: 617-708-1316
- Email: customersupport@justaddcooking.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/addcooking/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JustAddCooking/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/AddCooking
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/just-add-cooking-boston-2
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2905946/
Image Credit:
Nina Gallant
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
