With the emergence of food delivery initiatives like Peapod and Hungry Harvest—as well as the city’s many Community Supported Agriculture programs—there have been serious strides to increase accessibility to healthy food. Now, a new service set to launch this spring is taking things one step further.
Baltimore-based Terra’s Kitchen will soon deliver farm-to-table meal kits, complete with prepped ingredients and step-by-step recipe cards, that can be transformed into gourmet dinners in 30 minutes or less.
Lightning struck for CEO Michael McDevitt when he saw the need to unite families at the dinner table, but wasn’t satisfied with the meal-prep times associated with similar services in the market.
“I grew up as a product of the ’80s and ’90s where we ate dinner together every night, and I give that a lot of credit as to why I’m still so tight with my family,” McDevitt says. “That’s a concept that has gotten lost, and we’re trying to introduce a new way of helping people get back there.”
The brand, which soft-launched on the West Coast in November, will officially debut in its hometown the first week of March, offering fully prepped seasonal meals like skirt steak with chimichurri sauce and pan-roasted eggplant with penne, tomato, and basil. Each meal serves two, and costs $10-15.
The online system allows users to create a personal profile based on their tastes (both paleo and vegetarian options are plentiful) and schedule a time for their kits to arrive. All locally sourced ingredients are delivered in an eco-friendly, temperature-controlled case that keeps protein and produce fresh during shipping.
Another perk: After all of the items are unpacked, Terra’s Kitchen retrieves the empty vessel from your doorstep and recycles it. McDevitt says that this process is one that sets the business apart, as it eliminates all of the excess waste that comes with other pre-packaged meal services.
“We re-use each vessel 100 times,” he says. “It definitely takes away that shameful feeling you get when you take your trash outside and it’s overflowing with packaging.”
In an effort to make its mark on the community at large, Terra’s Kitchen has already formed partnerships with local staples such as Tessemae’s, Zeke’s Coffee, Union Craft Brewing, and the Y. (A Zeke’s-rubbed pork loin dish is in the works, recipe cards suggest Union beer pairings, and Terra’s will work with the Y to host health education programs.)
“We’ve created a coalition, we all share the same values, and it’s really great that we can come together to rise the Baltimore tide,” McDevitt says. “Everything starts in the home. If we can help families reunite around the table, it can create a tremendous ripple effect.”