Lambertville family starts meal prepping business, gives back to local food bank

TOLEDO, Ohio — The past 11 months have been tough on everyone, as the ongoing pandemic has created job loss and anxiety for many local families.

One Lambertville family isn't letting their hardships stop them.

"It was a struggle at first. It was very scary. It was hard hearing about everything," Crystal Delman said, describing her family's 2020 experience.

As a result of the pandemic, her husband, Matthew Delman, lost his job with a local produce distribution company.

"When that happened, and the governor shut down Ohio, we lost all of our business, which basically resulted in about 6 months later, me losing my job," he said.

Instead of giving up and giving in to the hardships of 2020, the Delmans took a risk.

Matthew and Crystal pulled their resources together and started a new business, Meal Preps 4 Me, a meal prep delivery service aimed at helping other working families eat clean and stay healthy.

"I’d say within week one of the website, we put everything up on Facebook, and everybody kind of was like, ‘oh my God, we have the same exact problems you are – we're new parents and we’re having issues with trying to come up with good meals and good food,'" Matthew explained.

The couple now spends hours preparing hundreds of meals a week.

Their business has grown so much that they moved operations out of their kitchen at home, and into the industrial kitchen at the Premiere in South Toledo.

Not only are they helping other people reach their goals, the journey has brought their family of four closer together.

"The kids love it, for one. It’s nice to be able to be with him more because we didn’t get to spend a lot of time together," Crystal said.

Now, the Delmans are focusing on giving back to the community each week, too.

"Once we got to a certain benchmark of meals per week, we knew we wanted to start donating to people who needed the food," said Matthew.

For every 10 meals they sell a week, the team donates one to the Toledo Northwestern Ohio Food Bank. They also randomly select two area businesses a week and feed the staff.

"Just put our everything into it. We believe there’s no such thing as a bad idea, just the harder you push, the further you’re going to get," he said.

Meal Preps 4 Me meals come in 5, 10, 15, and 20 packs.

If you’re interested learning more about, or ordering from Meal Preps 4 Me, visit mealpreps4me.com.