Philadelphia Startup Real Food Works Launches Subscription Program for Healthy Eating
Startup company Real Food Works Inc. (http://www.realfoodworks.com) announces the launch of its subscription service in Philadelphia offering healthy meals that are ready-to-eat. The program, based on a plant-strong philosophy, offers meals that are prepared by local restaurants and delivered directly to subscribers' homes. The company is actively seeking angel and venture capital investments.
Conshohocken, PA (PRWEB) October 25, 2012
Real Food Works Inc. (http://www.realfoodworks.com), which recently completed a successful 14-week pilot program, announces the launch of its healthy-eating program today. The firm, located in Conshohocken, PA, has created a subscription-based service that provides ready-to-eat meals that are prepared by local restaurants and delivered fresh to consumers. The launch focuses the firm's service currently on the nine-county Greater Philadelphia region, (including Philadelphia, Montgomery, Delaware, Chester and Bucks counties in Pennsylvania; and Mercer, Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties in New Jersey). The company plans to branch out to other metro areas in the near future.
Real Food Works grew out of a desire by its founder to help people who want to eat a healthy diet but don’t. The basis of the meals is a food pyramid that is primarily plant-based, relying heavily on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. Meat, fish, dairy, oil, salt and sweeteners are kept to a minimum; no processed foods are included in any of the meals. A wide variety of studies show that such diets have resulted in improved health, increased energy, and reduced weight. And plant-based diets are heavily endorsed by experts such as Dr. Dean Ornish (http://www.ornishspectrum.com/), Dr. Joel Fuhrman (http://www.drfuhrman.com/), Dr. Neal Barnard (http://nealbarnard.org/), Michael Pollan (http://michaelpollan.com/), Dr. T. Colin Campbell (http://www.tcolincampbell.org/), and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (http://www.heartattackproof.com/).
"Real Food Works is a journey to improved health through better eating," explains Lucinda Duncalfe, a veteran entrepreneur who has founded and run a number of venture-capital-backed technology companies in the Philadelphia region, including ClickEquations, TurnTide and Destiny Web Solutions. An avid healthy-eating "foodie," Duncalfe saw the opportunity to bring the benefits of eating a healthy diet to other busy professionals through a unique technology-enabled business model. “Everyone wants to eat better, but it’s hard,” she explains. “The key is to tilt the scale and make it easier to eat healthy food than it is to eat unhealthy food. We do that by offering amazing restaurant dishes, re-imagined to meet our stringent nutritional guidelines, delivered right to your door.” The company identifies increased health, additional energy and weight loss as three primary reasons to eat a healthy diet.
Real Food Works selects local restaurants and works with them to create and prepare meals that meet stringent nutritional guidelines. These expert chefs use the downtime in their restaurants to cook meals that are delivered fresh to consumers once a week. By using the slow periods in a restaurant to prepare the food, Real Food Works is providing its business partners with a new revenue stream, helping to support the local economy as well as bringing health benefits, such as weight loss, to its customers.
Participating restaurant partners of Real Food Works include: Trattoria Totaro, Conshohocken, PA; Miss Rachel's Pantry, Wine Thief Bistro and Earth's Elements Foods and Products, all located in Philadelphia, PA; Eat Your Heart Out Edibles, Turnersville, NJ; Su Tao Cafe, Malvern, PA; and The Gypsy Saloon and Stella Blu, both in West Conshohocken, PA.
"I was looking for a way to expand my business and bring in more clients. Working with Real Food Works allowed me to efficiently grow. I'm able to focus on the food and they handle the program and customers. It's also encouraged me to create new dishes or tweak things that I already have on my menu to be more healthy," says Vince Totaro, of Trattoria Totaro.
The 14-week pilot provided more than 1,700 meals to charter members who ate and critiqued the meals. Many of the charter members have reported positive results, from more energy to weight loss.
