Beckie grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado, where her family raised cows and the occasional pig. This environment led to her interest in pursuing a degree related to plants and agriculture, which eventually became a B.S. in Plant and Soil Science in the Department of Agri-business and Agri-science. Inspired by medical issues, she and her husband Toby went on a great life changing cleanse and completely changed their eating habits. Without any professional culinary background, they decided to start The Organic Dish which sells healthy, frozen organic meals (and sometimes fresh ones too!) primarily in the Boulder / Denver area.
TRE: Hi Beckie. You must know by now how I like to start my interviews, so here goes: What is your current relationship with food?
BH: I value clean, healthy, and balanced ingredients and food. Lots of whole grains, seasonal fruits/veggies when available, “tight” simple recipes that aren’t bogged down with salt, fat, dairy, and mainly sugar. Toby (my husband and business partner) and I went on a life changing cleanse a couple of years ago and “re-trained” our taste buds. We have pretty strict parameters about having too much sugar in our diet (excluding wine, ahem!) and we pass along so many of our values in the meals we decide to make at The Organic Dish. Food is an energizer and has the possibility of nourishing our bodies, mind, and soul.
TRE: What made you decide to change your eating habits?
BH: I went in for my annual exam and a high level of pre-cancerous cells were found in my cervix. The doctors immediately scheduled a LEEP Procedure which basically “zaps off” these areas. Leep is a “simple” outpatient procedure, but I was not interested in having it done. Note here: I am not advocating not getting this procedure, I am saying based on my knowledge and after researching and consulting with my and my husbands holistic doctors, I decided not to get the procedure done.
We decided that we would try a month long cleanse in the hopes of permanently changing our eating habits. I knew the author of the cleanse that we decided to do (https://howhealthworks.com/) and then we went for it and eliminated alcohol, caffeine, sugar, dairy, wheat, and any processed foods, as well as we started juicing every morning.
Sugar was a very hard ingredient to get rid of because I was such an addict But there are many studies noting that sugar creates an acidic environment in your body. Cancer loves acidic environments and so we were determined not to let it back into our diets…. We ended up changing our eating habits permanently and dramatically, but also re-introduced most of the above things in moderation. On a side note, I had 2 1/2 years of in depth colposcopys and biopsies and there are no more pre-cancerous cells. This could be due to any number of reasons, but I definitely love to think that changing our diets was at least one of the reasons!
TRE: So how did that lead into starting The Organic Dish?
BH: Toby worked in Boulder and I worked in Fort Collins. We were having a hard time getting home and getting dinner ready at a reasonable hour after work. We loved to cook, but had got in the habit of using different meal preparation services to fill in the dinner voids when we didn’t have time to recipe plan, prep, and cook.
The meals from these companies didn’t taste good before our cleanse, but after our cleanse the meals were no longer edible. Not to mention, they were completely loaded down with meat, sugar, salt, fats, and cheese, and were really not healthy or tasty. When we asked for different options from these company’s to fit our dietary needs, they just basically laughed at us.
We have always loved to cook and to cook together. We started chatting about how we could really give these yucky meal prep companies a run for their money if we started a company that focused on healthy, organic meals that were well balanced and worked around people’s dietary concerns. Toby had previously started several non-food related companies and knew the ropes to starting a LLC. The next day after our chat, he officially started The Organic Dish. It took us 6 months before we opened our doors.
TRE: And what type of person is your service best for? You ship everywhere, right?
BH: We’ve got so many different types of customers, but the reoccurring theme is that most of our customers are too busy to think about “what’s for dinner” and want a healthy, tasty, and organic option. They are tired of restaurants, take out food, or grocery store deli sections - all of which are costly, sometimes not healthy, and sometimes not organic. They are increasingly wanting to cook at home but don’t want to spend a lot of time on the prep or clean up.
We have folks that use our meals exclusively for most of their dinners throughout the week, or folks that just want one meal a week that they don’t have to plan. We also have “good food accounts” for people going through a major life change such as illness, birth, or a death and their friends/family want to give them something other than flowers or presents. A variety of people with a large variety of reasons use our services.
We ship meals via Fed Ex Ground to the 48 contiguous state. Shipments are sent on dry ice in recyclable boxes and insulation and with compostable peanuts. In the future, it is our goal to have Fed Ex bring the shipping boxes and insulation back to us so we can re-use them. However, this is logistically difficult and expensive. As you can imagine, it is complicated when trying to figure out what’s best for the environment while still running a business. We are always finding a balance between sustainability for our business (our livelihood) and the environment.
TRE: I bet you also have to make difficult tradeoffs between local and non-local foods?
BH: True that! We love to support local farmers and local business’. It’s super difficult because our customers are already paying a premium for buying organic. If we add a premium for buying local and certified organic, we could lose customers.
It is a fine balance, but it just makes sense to buy local for so many reasons. It’s the right thing to do for the farmer and it’s staff, for the local economy, for the environment, and for the quality of the ingredients. The good news is that it will continue to get easier and more affordable for us to buy locally as we grow. We will be able to offer more certified organic and local ingredients to our menu and not pass on the price difference to our customers. It’s all very exciting for me to think of buying more ingredients locally. I’m currently reading “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” and the one thing (of many things!) that I’m getting out of it is how our society doesn’t really understand the “true cost of food”.
TRE: What advice or suggestions would you give to someone who doesn’t put any thought into what they eat?
BH: Well - there’s the old adage that you are what you eat. I think it’s imperative that we look at what we are eating and try to relate it to how we physically feel. It’s so important to experiment with eating habits and diet and then modify accordingly. I love “cleansing” or isolating foods and then paying attention and being surprised at the results.
We are a society that has grown up with sugar, salt, and fat and our taste buds have been trained to want that. We are in control of our taste buds and not the other way around. So many of us have the strangest relationship with food that is programmed into us since the day we were born. We should be challenging ourselves to think and eat differently than what we are accustomed to.
On a different level (other than how does food make us feel), we all need to put more value on the “true cost of food” and not just look at the price. We should be thinking: where did this come from, were they paid enough, how has it affected the farmer and their family, their local economy, the global economy, and the environment.
TRE: Stepping back for a moment, in terms of our relationship with food, are things getting better, or worse?
BH: I think in Boulder, our relationship with food is getting better. We are super educated and healthy here and I’m finding that our Boulder customers ask more questions about food than our Denver or shipping customers. I’m sure there are little pockets of cities all over the nation that are becoming “more food aware” and buying more local and organic foods. But just going back to visit my home town of Grand Junction or to a town I lived in for 7 years in Tennessee - I would say there are a lot of people that never question where their food comes from or why they don’t feel good after a meal.
I’m not really sure how to answer this question. I think people all over are starting to ask more questions, I guess it’s getting better?! Yes, I’ll stick with that answer - surely our relationships with food has got to be getting better!
TRE: You work in a kitchen all day long…do you feel differently about food now that it’s your job?
BH: It’s definitely different now, but that’s mainly because we are such a small company and so there’s a lot of physical work in the kitchen that tires me out when I get home. Toby is mainly taking care of our home kitchen and home menu now, so he really gets to do more experimenting and funner cooking than me! I am usually thinking how to make a meal healthier or a vegetarian version of a meat dish, and what will be the limitations of the recipe to people that have certain restrictions. I’m really working now on eating a meal and not thinking about how it relates to our business.
Our menu changes every month and is posted one month in advance. So, it’s a lot of planning about what’s going to be in season the next month. It’s also more of a science here than in our home kitchen. We have to think about portion size, have the recipe exact to get correct nutritional information to our dietitian, think about gluten free and dairy free options, as well as having a nicely rounded menu of meat and vegetarian dishes. I have to think about peoples allergies which is a very serious responsibility. In general, I feel more responsible in regards to food that comes from our kitchen in regard that it is healthy and tasty with accurate ingredient lists and nutritional information.
TRE: I’m excited about the event you’re having on December 4th. Here’s your chance to promote it…go!
BH: Thank you Ryan! We are having a holiday party and open house to help raise money for a GREAT cause. Bring your friends and neighbors and enjoy free food and drinks on Thursday, December 4th 5-8pm at The Organic Dish (2690 28th Street). We’re going to be giving away fantastic prizes every 15 minutes. 20% of that nights sales will go to There with Care. We will also have an angel tree to sponsor a meal for a family in need, and There with Care will be taking direct donations to help them in their cause of supporting families and children with critical illness.
Some of the donations and gifts are provided by Justin’s Nut Butters, Organic Vintners, Pasta Bozza, The Little Fig Baking Company, and many more cool organic and kitchen oriented companies.
TRE: Thanks so much for talking with us Beckie. Any last words of wisdom for our readers?
BH: Thank you for the opportunity Ryan! I think we covered so much that I’ve got nothing else!
Please check out The Organic Dish website. This is a business model that I think we’ll begin to see more of in the coming years. Check out Beckie’s blog, and keep your eyes open…next week I’ll be announcing a giveaway contest - a free meal from The Organic Dish!
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I also attribute Beckie’s now clean bill of health to the change in our eating habits. The food we eat can have such an amazing impact on how we feel. For as long as I can remember I used to have a terrible afternoon slump (to the point of falling asleep in meetings - which is very embarrassing if/when you get caught). After giving up sugar and caffeine my energy level is even throughout the day - it’s fantastic! If I hadn’t experienced it first hand, I wouldn’t have thought it was possible.