The food that local Trauma Intervention Program founder Jayan Landry eats may soon help fuel her work in another way.
The Foodery, a healthy-dinner delivery company looking to break into the Andover market, has decided to donate a small portion of its proceeds to the Andover-based TIP of Merrimack Valley. TIP is a group of volunteers who respond to traumas such as fires, accidents and sudden deaths to help people cope.
The Foodery was started by Friends Mike Speights and John Bauer to provide busy people with prepared dinners that do not contain all the unhealthy ingredients, animal antibiotics and genetically modified foods often used in factory-farm-raised food, they say.
“Our business is kind of the antithesis of trauma,” said Bauer. “After hearing that she [Landry and TIP] had been on 19,000 calls, we thought it would be a great way to donate to a service.”
The company will donate $1.50 from every meal bundle to the Andover-based TIP.
“We gave up our careers. We were in finance and real estate. We wanted to do something we were passionate about and had meaning,” said Speights, co-founder of the Foodery. “What we do is we craft meals from organic, sustainable material.”
Speights and Bauer have given presentations in town, such as at Yang’s Fitness & Wellness Center in Dundee Park to “raise the general awareness of sustainable food practices.”
“If you’re grandmother doesn’t know what it is, then you probably shouldn’t be eating it,” said Landry, who has heard them speak at such events. She was turned onto their food by friend Betsey Beaven, who operated her holistic food consulting business next to Landry’s former TIP office on the second floor of Olde Andover Village.
Bauer and Speights believe their delivery company will help many people who don’t have enough time -- just as they did not when they were in their former jobs.
“This kind of stems from the kind of hours we were working. It’s a challenge to eat healthy (when you work long hours) and its almost impossible on a consistent basis. We’d been friends for a long time and we kept saying, ‘One of these days...’” said Bauer. “We’re 36 and we said, ‘Let’s go. Here’s something we can fix and will solve a major problem in our lives.’”
“I was big on eating new foods. Eating new cuisine was a passion. John came from a body-building background, and so he was making a lot of his own meals,” said Speights. “We don’t have culinary backgrounds. We understand nutrition, we understand taste.”
The Foodery used a team of chefs to create the recipes for “fully prepared, fresh, delivered, ultra high-quality meals,” said Bauer. Most dinners are 550 calories and there is a four-meal minimum. This week’s dinners, which cost $23 each, include bison meatballs, pasta, broccolini/shiitake mix; and wild sockeye salmon, chard and whole wheat couscous.
The Foodery is expanding into Andover after establishing itself in Boston, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Cambridge and Newton.
The duo cook the food on Sundays and deliver the packages Sunday nights. That means that they can prepare meals people can use in the first part of the week. They expect to expand and offer another cooking and delivery day on Wednesdays, allowing people to get two deliveries per week that could give them fresh dinners for the entire week. They also look to expand to offer lunch, dinner and two snacks per day in the future. For more information, see myfoodery.com.
