It was a typical weeknight and I was late home from work after picking up the kids. I walked up the stairs with my tired and hungry children and realised that I didn't have anything prepared for dinner.
As a former chef, and having worked in the medical industry for years, both good food and health are important to me. So when I picked up the phone to order takeaway that night, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of guilt. Queue mum guilt here... I felt guilty for not being as organised as I should be, for ordering unhealthy dinners on a weekly basis, what was I feeding my growing children? I felt guilty for working and for wanting a career and for prioritising work over being at home for my family. A lot could be added here about the pressures we place on ourselves as mums in this era and the expectations of society... but that's a separate blog post!
By the time my husband walked through the door that night I had worked myself up into a bit of a mess. Why was I failing at this?
Work had been so busy for both of us lately. We would scramble out the door in the mornings taking turns with dropping the kids at daycare, be in endless meetings every day and then rush home to get the kids, feed them, shower them, clean up and pass out.. on repeat. This would be every day except weekends when we would organise the house, social activities, shopping, cleaning, cooking, meal planning etc. ready for Monday and the week to start again. But if something threw out our weekend like a raft of birthday parties or a sick child (and lets face it, in the early years that's almost every weekend), then we would be behind with the shopping, meal planning, cooking, cleaning etc and re-create the same situation of not having anything to feed the kids for the next week... and here we were full circle ordering takeaway again.
That night as my husband and I sat down to our guilty dinner we brainstormed ways that we could manage this better. We wanted a solution that was as close to me cooking as possible... healthy food, homemade and tasty. We considered recipe kits, but I didn't have the time to actually cook and we were worried about the waste if we didn't cook the meals in time. Supermarket meals were just as unhealthy with all of their preservatives and simply didn't meet our taste buds high expectations. And there were some meal delivery options in market at the time but they were all very specifically focused on diet and not really suitable for our family.
So we asked ourselves the question "where could we buy homemade food?" Sure there were lots of ads on Facebook for homemade food but how would we know it was cooked in a clean environment and up to our standards for health and taste? This was the very moment the idea for FoodSt was sparked.
We then set about on our journey to connect people through beautiful home-cooked food and ultimately help everyone live more fulfilling lives. We created a service that gives time-poor people access to beautiful, healthy homemade meals that are quality and safety checked, whilst empowering home-cooks to earn an income from home. Our first step was health and safety. We worked with legal teams, advisors and the State Regulator for 18 months before launching FoodSt to ensure we were building a safe and sustainable service.
FoodSt is more than just another convenience food option. It's about communities caring for each other, empowering skilled cooks to earn an income whilst improving access to great quality, healthy homemade meals.
Whether you are a time-poor professional, working parent or perhaps someone caring for a parent, FoodSt is here to help. Imagine just for a minute a world where communities came together over food, to care and nourish one another like we did in the past. That is what we are creating.
clare warner
August 11, 2017
Dear Lorraine,
Go you good thing!!!
I knew you were a winner.
Xxx clare