Meal-preparation stores are facilities that provide all of the necessary ingredients, recipes and equipment for people to come in and assemble a group of nutritious dinner entrees (generally between six and 12) at one time. The prepared dinners are then taken home and frozen. When it's time to cook, the dinners are cooked as per the instructions given by the facility.
There are several key factors that make these centers very popular. One, they allow busy parents, and increasingly childless professionals, a chance to create several home-cooked dinners quickly. The prep, cooking, and cleanup time is generally minimal once the entree is brought home, allowing those parents and professionals more time to allot to other tasks. Two, they provide fast, nutritious, home-cooked food for the whole family in less time than it would take to get takeout from a restaurant. Three, they end up costing less per serving than takeout food.
Meal-preparation stores began in Seattle, Washington, USA in 2002 with Dream Dinners. A positive mention in O magazine helped propel the idea into the national consciousness. By 2006, there were over 900 of these establishments in the United States and Canada. By 2007 there were 1400 stores. The industry even has its own trade group, the Easy Meal Prep Association.
SupperWorks is a meal-preparation store with locations all over Ontario, including Waterloo. For more information on SupperWorks' products and services, call (905) 849-1550 or send an email to info@supperworks.com.