Long Island meal prep services: HummusFit, Redefine Meals and more

Hello, September: that sweet, sepia-toned season of apple picking, chunky sweaters, pumpkin spice. And school. And weekend-long sports tournaments upstate. And summer’s over meetings (in Houston), and the resulting projects and deadlines … fall can feel like a lot.

Nationwide, meal-prep delivery services are a fast-growing segment of the food industry. Long Island entrepreneurs have launched dozens of businesses promising healthy diets and nutrition, delivering ready-to-eat food that spares you the trouble of recipe-searching and grocery shopping, dishwashing and dealing with leftovers. Some cater to people following niche diets, others promise local ingredients, zero-waste and low food-miles. Regardless of your food priorities, there’s clear appeal to having fresh, healthy meals delivered to your doorstep or ready to pickup and power you through the week.

HummusFit

HummusFit began as a side-hustle in 2015 when Liana Mavruk — a nutritionist and sometime bodybuilder — started making meals for her gym friends out of her Holbrook restaurant, Hummus Mediterranean Kitchen. Seven years later, the business has grown to include five Suffolk County storefronts, and the Mavruk family plans to open two more this fall, co-owner Tony Mavruk said.

Redefine Meals

In 2016, longtime friends and then-Stony Brook University undergrads Mark Ciaburri and Matthew Riss started slinging healthy eats to hungry athletes at regional college sports tournaments. A year later, they were feeding Stony Brook’s entire athletics roster. From there, they expanded to Hofstra, then to local gyms. These days, the company has seven storefronts and delivers meals to Orange Theory Fitness and Unique Fitness locations. The company prepares 20,000 meals weekly, vice president Jessica Fallica said.

Eat Better Meals

In 2015, Eat Better Meals preps and ships thousands of fresh, healthy, “farm-to-table rustic” meals each week from its commercial kitchen in Farmingdale.

Empire Nutrition

Fitness-oriented Empire Nutrition began eight years ago as a set of Total Nutrition franchises, but owners Mike Napolitano and Mike Adamcewicz decided to break off on their own.

HonestPlate

East End chefs Jon Albrecht and Nicolas Reisini send out a new menu each week. Dishes are plant-based, local-farm-fresh, and comply with Melissa Hartwig Urban’s popular Whole30 program, which omits sugars, alcohol, grains, dairy, legumes and many common food additives.

“We provide the restaurant-private chef experience without the restaurant-private chef cost,” Reisini said. The company also operates on a zero-waste model, so each plate is packed in earth-friendly (and pretty) glass containers, which swap out with each delivery.