Dietitian Nutritionist, Jessica Todd, owns and operates Perfectly Portioned Nutrition, a meal prep and nutrition company in Atlanta, Georgia.Education and nutrition are the forefront of Jessica’s business. She began meal prepping in 2017 for her clients, unaware it would become a fully functioning business in a years time. Food was the missing piece from her clients lives when seeking advice in nutrition, so she combined her love of culinary and counseling to create Perfectly Portioned Nutrition.
wwww.PerfectlyPortionedNutrition.com
The core of Perfectly Portioned Nutrition’s business is their weekly meal prep. Each week PPN creates a new menu of six perfectly portioned options that posts each week on Sunday at 9 am along with three a la carte breakfast options (new options each month), variety is a core value of Perfectly Portioned Nutrition. Customers place orders online before Tuesday at 5 pm then Jessica and her team get to work to complete the orders that are delivered on the following Sunday or Monday. She also offers meal prep parties that teach customers and friends how to create easy and healthy meals at home.
At the beginning of 2021, Jessica and her team created a new offering, Tasteful Favors. Tasteful flavor is a new line of hand-crafted casseroles that are perfect for gifting to someone in times of need, having in your freezer for an easy and convenient family meal when there is not time for lots of prep and a great dish to pack up frozen and take on vacation. Tasteful Favor casseroles are available on the website for purchase 24/7. Once ordered, the customer will receive their casserole during the upcoming weekly meal prep deliveries that take place on the following Sunday or Monday.
Perfectly Portioned Nutrition is a one-stop shop when it comes to nutritional food. Founder and registered dietitian nutritionist, Jessica Todd and her team strive to instill healthy habits for their on-the-go customers. They create beautifully plated, ready-to-go meals for those who may not have the time or energy to cook—offering weekly menus for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to keep your meals healthy, convenient and interesting. All meals are prepared in Atlanta, GA, and delivered fresh weekly to all locations within a 20-mile radius of Chamblee.
How did you choose your name?
This was super hard! I brainstormed with friends, hired a company to pitch some names, and slept with a notebook by my bed. I would wake up and jot down words, check names to see if they were taken, and finally Perfectly Portioned Nutrition was born.
How did you come up with the idea for your new business?
In 2014 my son was born and in 2016 we bought our first home. I have always meal-prepped and needed a side hustle, so I started meal-prepping for friends which led to meal-prepping for their friends and before I knew it, I had 25 clients and needed to either go legit or quit!
What do you think are the most important skills for a new food concept?
Grit, determination, passion, customer service, and a quality product.
What’s the biggest food business-related challenge that you had to struggle to overcome?
Finding good help is and continues to be a struggle. In the beginning, I was too small to offer full-time, so I had to be flexible and take what I could get. In 2020 I was finally able to hire my first full-time Chef. Two Chef’s later and I am still looking for the right fit.
What is your biggest success?
At this point, I think not giving up has been my biggest success. We continue to grow, expand our reach, maintain our integrity and sanity!
How is your product different from competitors?
I think what makes us different from other companies is that our entire model is based on science-based nutrition information. I am a registered and licensed dietitian by trade and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Georgia State University in the Department of Nutrition. Our product is not based on fads but on science which gives us credibility.
How can someone buy your product?
We are local to Atlanta, so if you live in the area, check out our website, www.perfectlyportionednutrition.com. We post a new menu every Sunday at 9 am. Order by 5 PM on Tuesday, pick Sunday or Monday for delivery or pick up at our Sandy Springs partner site, FUSE Atlanta. It’s really that simple!
What piece of advice can you share with others who are thinking about starting a food business?
Owning a business of any kind, especially a food business is hard work! I would recommend having a strong social media/PR manager, a business coach, and plenty of mentors. You will struggle, you will feel defeated one day and elated the next. Remember that at the end of the day, you are doing what most are too afraid to try, be proud of yourself!
What would you do differently next time if you could launch your business again?
I would have a larger nest egg. I feel like if I had enough resources, I could be more competitive in my hires and in my marketing.
www.MadMamaGourmet.com
Mad Mama Gourmet creates gourmet handcrafts artisanal soups, pimento cheese, and compound butter spreads from fresh, wholesome local ingredients.
Mad Mama Gourmet Soups are a fixture at local farmers markets. Now products can be found in stores, and Amy has her own Local Foods Market including her soups and items from other hyper local artisans and farmers.
“In 2011, Amy Smith was serving her San Marzano Tomato Soup at neighborhood parties and hearing over and over that she should think about selling it.
I told everyone it wasn’t something I wanted to do professionally. But after being told that three times over six weeks, the more I thought about it, the more I thought maybe I should give it a try.
Our first soup was our Southern Spanish Garden Gazpacho. It has fresh grated cucumber in it which gives it a noodly texture and it’s pretty, as well as being pretty labor intensive. And we made Cold Cucumber Soup that we call ‘liquid tzatziki’. We hand chop or grate all the produce to keep the flavor profiles distinct.
We took those two soups to the Chamblee market and the response was amazing. People said, ‘We want one of each, two of each.’ We sold out in less than 30 minutes.
“We made our San Marzano Tomato Soup one day in June and took part of it refrigerated and part of it frozen. We sold out of the frozen soup quickly. We thought, ‘Maybe we’re on to something.’ And from a food safety standpoint, frozen is the way to go. So now all our hot soups are force cooled, then packaged and commercially frozen.”