There’s been media buzz around Ethey, and rightly so. Not only did they manage to get entrepreneur and author Gary Vaynerchuck’s attention as an Ethey partner, but they have managed to disrupt the food industry by creating meals that have a positive impact on our bodies and on the planet.
We’ve all experienced it. You finish up after a long day of hard work and head to the kitchen to prepare food. It’s the last thing you feel like doing. Besides giving in and cooking something for yourself, the most convenient option is to go get some unhealthy fast food to fill the hunger void quickly and easily.
It doesn’t have to be that way anymore.
Ethey is here, delivering chef-prepared, high quality, delicious and nutritious meals directly to food lovers all around Canada. Their food saves time and money, and provides a simple way for consumers to eat well. The food is never frozen and conveniently received within 24 hours of being cooked, ensuring you get delicious food that is ready to reheat and serve.
Delivering food coast-to-coast across Canada, ethey is the brainchild of founder and CEO, Nick Spina. Spina says that he got into the food industry out of his own need. “I was eating out twice a day and had this crazy lifestyle of back-to-back meetings all day,” he says. “I’m sure a lot of people can resonate with this – I love cooking but I had no desire or time to make my own meals. So I was eating twice a day at a local restaurant and that was not sustainable. I needed to find another solution.”
This led him to meet with a chef to create meals that were nutritious, delicious, and could be delivered anywhere around the country. “If you have a busy lifestyle, we can help you save time and money. In addition, when you order from us, you’re contributing to a bigger picture – food that’s not only great for your mind and your body, but for our planet,” says Spina.
It is the difference ethey makes to the environment that is one of their differentiators from others in the food delivery industry. All of their fresh meals are prepared with a closed-loop, zero percent food waste production process. Their food scraps become food for nightcrawlers, a type of worm that is highly efficient in composting food residue. “We have a 10,000 square foot worm farm in the basement,” says Spina. “The Wormery, as it’s affectionately known – a partner of ours, is where the food scraps go.” We also have a closed-loop production system, because the worms eat the food really fast and then create castings (basically, worm poop), which is a very high-quality fertilizer.”
To close the loop, this fertilizer is then returned back to the farmers they have partnerships with and source their food from, to use in crop production. Spina, although passionate about the food he creates, has interests that extend beyond just cuisine.
Ethey is also dedicated to ensuring their products are manufactured in a way that contributes to the wellbeing of the environment. “The beautiful thing is that we’re able to quantify that every meal we deliver saves about a pound of food waste, and also doesn’t contribute to greenhouse gas emissions,” he says.
“We save a ton of energy with every meal because we’re able to make these meals en masse, which means that our bigger pieces of equipment are more energy-efficient. We’re able to cook more than what someone would be able to cook at home with all their appliances. When someone makes a meal at home, they turn on all the burners, the oven or the microwave, whatever it might be, and that consumes a lot of power. We’re more efficient by making meals in bulk and save a lot of power by doing that.”
The packaging the food is shipped in is entirely reusable, compostable, and recyclable. Their containers are also made of sugar cane pulp and will decompose. This is instead of the normal plastic containers most convenience foods are delivered in, which end up in landfills.
Spina is adamant that all aspects of the business are approached with sustainability and care for the environment in mind. “Even when it comes down to the tape – we use corrugated tape that is compostable. That’s where we’re going. We’re trying not to be 99%, but 100% in every area,” he says.
It’s no wonder they have caught the attention of the media and well-known investors. When you order from Ethey, you’re contributing to a bigger global picture. By using nightcrawlers and other innovative techniques to create zero food waste and recyclable packaging, you’re not only purchasing food that will be good for your body and mind but will ultimately serve a greater purpose in sustaining the planet and our environment.
To see their mouth-watering food, hop onto Ethey‘s Instagram.
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Clive Vanderwagen, Writer