Amy Sherman, a former NCAA athlete, is a Certified Holistic & Sports Nutritionist and CrossFit-L2 Trainer.
Four years ago, she began cooking healthy & delicious meals in her parents’ kitchen to make eating well easy and delicious for her friends and family. Honey Bee Meals has since grown into one of the top meal delivery services in Toronto. Honey Bee Meals are fully prepared, hand-crafted meals, breakfasts and snacks made with real, fresh and quality ingredients delivered to your door twice a week.
Honey Bee Meal’s newest community initiative is #HoneyBeeHeroes. Through social media, they’ve collaborated with communities across the city to find deserving heroes to whom they then donate a week of their meals. There are so many heroes (from the frontline and beyond) and they want to hear their stories and help make their life a little easier.
As well, during this challenging time, anyone ordering with the for the first time can use promo code NEWBEE10.
Tell us in more detail about how COVID-19 has changed your business.
Our heightened focus during this time has been adding extra levels of food safety protocols and implementing non-contact delivery. We are facing some food supply challenges, but overall we are fortunate our business model is such that people are able to order from the safety and comfort of their home and receive safe delivery.
What has been the best surprise in how people have shown up for you or your business during this time?
It is not so much of a surprise, because we have an amazing team, but I am blown away by the dedication of our chefs and drivers. Their care and dedication to serving our customers and community is extraordinary. We are so grateful for all of their hard work and I cannot applaud our team enough!
What has been the easiest shift to make?
Certain operational changes have been quite simple, such as the types of bags we use and the implementation of non-contact delivery. Our team, and our customers, embraced these changes seamlessly.
What about the hardest?
The demand for healthy food for front-line workers and individuals in need is huge; we receive so many requests. We are so proud to do our part and it is a great feeling for us to be able to donate hundreds of meals, but it is a challenge to balance our commitment to the community while ensuring we can also sustain our business.
What have you learned about connecting with your community during this time?
I’m just so gratified with the compassion of the community. Our customers seem even more understanding if/when we need to substitute certain ingredients based on availability; our suppliers are supportive if/when we need to ask something extra of them. The community as a whole just seems kinder than prior to this situation.
What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about yourself (or your business) in light of what’s happening?
Flexibility. I’m a planner. But I have actually found being more flexible in a customer-focused business is actually a good thing in an ever-changing time whereby one day we operate one way and then new information comes to light whereby we need to transition to operate another way. I am trying to focus on three words: today, tomorrow and yesterday. Today: what do we need to get done? Tomorrow: what’s coming up? Yesterday: what have we learned?
What is the easiest thing people can do to support your business right now?
Join our efforts to help others during this time: send a delivery to a family or friend. Of course, to help us help others, order our meals! If you love them (we know you will), post about us on social media, refer us to a family or friend.
Do you think it is going to change your industry going forward? How? The food industry across all sectors will certainly change and we are seeing this already. Restaurants, grocery stores and food suppliers have quickly pivoted to delivery models. Given this, the competition will be even greater in the ‘eat at home’ category.
For kitchen tips, recipe and/or workout ideas check out Honey Bee Meals on their Instagram, Facebook, or check out their website to see what types of yummy deliveries they have available.
