We are all very familiar with meal-prep delivery services like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron. Earlier this year, a local company came across my radar: Pittsburgh Fresh. To my immediate knowledge, I gathered that they were the same type of company: ones that send you recipes and ingredients to cook at home. To my later surprise and lack of research, I later learned that they are in fact a company created specifically for people like myself who are constantly on the go and have little to no motivation or time to cook meals at home. Rather than uncooked meals, PGH Fresh delivers delicious pre-cooked meals that are either cold and ready to reheat and eat, or individual dishes ready to eat to be delivered to you at work or on the go.
The menus at PGH Fresh change every week, giving customers a wide variety of options every time they go to order. When you sign up on their website, they ask you a series of questions to help build your profile and offer you meals catered to your selected options. These options include dietary restrictions, such as allergens or special diets like vegan, paleo, low-carb and gluten-free. They also ask which type of meals you prefer to get, i.e. breakfast, lunch or dinner, or family style, a la carte, or snacks. Their careful attention to their customers’ preferences makes PGH Fresh a very inclusive service appealing to just about everyone.
After you set your preferences, you can look at their pricing page to decide which subscription service you want to use. Broken down by price per week, there are 4 levels of subscriptions listed at first, the lowest being $50 per week, 5% off all items, and a meal allowance of 3 per week, and the highest being $125 per week, 11% off all items, and a meal allowance of 8 meals per week. There are 12 available subscriptions in total in case more food is needed, say for families or groups. An important note about subscriptions that PGH Fresh tries to make clear is that it doesn’t believe in the normal subscription model where you continue to get charge even if not using the service. They will charge the account every Sunday, however PGH Fresh monitors each subscription closely and will pause it if over 50% of the subscription is unused, so that you are not locked in and in debt.
The best part about their subscription model is that you don’t have to start a subscription just to try their service out. You can order food a la carte at first, or for however long you’d like, and they will never force you to start a subscription. The benefit of doing so, though, is getting meals at a discounted rate, like detailed above.
After completing an order, you can decide if you would like home delivery, or pick up your food at their location. You must spend $50 to qualify for home delivery, and there is a $6 delivery fee, unless you spend over $100, which qualifies for free delivery. Their delivery days are Sundays and Mondays. Leftover meals after the week are actually stocked at a few local gyms across the area for people to buy on-site, while supplies last, so no food goes to waste. They also recycle their delivery box, foil liners, and ice packs each week, so that as their drivers deliver new meals, they can take away your old packaging. As for the meal packaging, each Tupperware container is reusable, or can go straight to the trashcan. The containers look like plastic but are not, even their clear lids are made from PLA, a plant-based plastic that is 100% compostable, according to their website. However, this does mean that the lids are not microwavable.
From my personal experience with PGH Fresh, I can vouch that their customer service is top notch. Everyone I spoke to, including the customer service employee who helped me when my order got erased due to website updates, were incredibly personable, candid and sweet. The company was founded right in Brookline, and the team members all have close Pittsburgh ties. My food came on time and my favorite item was most definitely the chocolate protein truffles – YUM!
I know a lot of people who struggle like me to keep up a healthy diet, let alone eat enough throughout the day. PGH Fresh has taken that necessary goal we struggle with out of the equation, making life ten times easier. I highly recommend supporting this local business, and changing your own life for the better using their service. This could be a key factor in any New Years’ resolutions you may try to make! Visit pghfresh.com to start your first order!