Quick Take
MamaSezz was named by Forbes as 2020's Best Vegan Meal Delivery Service...
Of course, we strive to be the best plant-based meal delivery company we can be and we also know firsthand that there are plenty of awesome vegan food delivery options out there so we started to wonder: why did Forbes choose MamaSezz as #1?
After talking with some customers and chatting internally here is what we came up with...
On This Page
The MamaSezz story is compelling and genuine
MamaSezz is environmentally conscious
MamaSezz takes back your trash and recyclables
MamaSezz ingredients are sustainably sourced and local
MamaSezz teams with socially and environmentally conscious organizations
MamaSezz is zero food waste for the planet and the people
MamaSezz donates an average of 70-100 pounds of meals each week to local food shelters
MamaSezz food is fresh, never frozen
MamaSezz is healthy and science based
MamaSezz is inclusive
MamaSezz meets you where you are
MamaSezz is a lifestyle company
The MamaSezz story is compelling and genuine
It took us a while to realize just how important it was to share our story. If you aren't familiar with how MamaSezz got started, grab some tissues, and check out this short video:
Don't have the time to watch? Here are the footnotes:
Co-Founder Meg Donahue's mother, Millie, was in her 80s and dying from congestive heart failure. The doctors recommended hospice care for her last months, and everyone was preparing to say their goodbyes. Meg did not take this diagnosis sitting down, and Googled, "who has survived CHF." She found that a plant-based diet had actually reversed many cases of CHF for those who had tried it. Meg started feeding Millie mini plant-based meals, blended and through a straw. Millie doesn't remember much of her time in recovery, and needed assistance in almost every aspect of her life.
They continued a plant based diet and today, Millie is 90 years old, swims and does yoga, plays with her grandchildren, became a great-grandmother, and is a social butterfly! She was given a new shot at life, and Meg along with her partner, decided it was time someone made this WFPB lifestyle easy for busy folks by offering ready-made plant-based meal delivery. And from there, MamaSezz was born.
MamaSezz is environmentally conscious
One of our main goals as a company is to help each other make a positive impact on the planet.
Of course, plant-based foods in general have a much smaller impact on the planet than the Standard American Diet. In fact, eating one month worth of plant-based foods, or doing our 4-week Weight Loss Program results in an average of:
- 600 pounds of CO2 saved
- 900 square feet of forest saved*
- 1,200 pounds of grain saved*
- 33,000 gallons of water saved*
- 30 animals saved
*Confused by these stats? I'll break it down. Think about it this way; it takes 14 grams of plant protein (feed) to produce 1 gram of animal protein (meat). That’s right, agro farming (growing feed for animals raised for meat and dairy) is a huge industry that takes up a lot of water, space, pesticides, and fossil fuels! Then, add the amount of water animals drink a day (a cow drinks about 3-30 gallons of water a day!) and the amount of methane they produce. Then there is the act of processing the animals….You get the picture. It would be much more environmentally sustainable and efficient to go right to the source: enjoy plant protein!
MamaSezz takes back your trash and recyclables
Speaking of the environment...we reuse and recycle all shipping materials and even take back your recyclables and trash! With each MamaSezz order you also receive a custom return label. That way, you don’t get a buildup of liners, boxes, and ice packs in your garage until trash and recycling day — and you don't have to worry about wasteful packaging.
Here’s how it works:
1. When your MamaSezz box arrives, unload all your tasty MamaSezz staples into your refrigerator.
2. Use the provided strip of tape to seal up your box with the liner and ice packs in it, and slap the free return label on the top.
3. Call FedEx to schedule a pickup and leave it outside your front door. That’s all!
4. And did you know after you've eaten your MamaSezz meal staples, you can send back the recyclable bags and trays that they are packaged in as well?
Our hope is that we're not only making it easy for you to recycle your boxes, but we're encouraging other plant-based meal delivery services to follow suit! Together, we can make a huge impact.
MamaSezz ingredients are sustainably sourced and local
Maybe we're feeding a fed horse here, but let's keep this environmental vibe going...
Did you know that MamaSezz is so dedicated to ecological preservation that sometimes we choose our favorite eco-friendly ingredients even before we create a recipe for their use?! Yep! Our best-selling MamaSezz Tuna "Ish" Salad was thought up when we were racking our brains to use sustainably-sourced kelp!
Why were we trying to use kelp? When MamaSezz co-founder Meg Donahue gets a bee in her bonnet, things happen! Last year she discovered a team of sustainable kelp farmers in her home state of Maine, and knew she wanted to find a way to partner with them.
Through her research, she learned that kelp farming not only helped local fishermen transition to a more sustainable and eco-friendly job as the fish population decreases, but also kelp is really freakin’ good for you! So we teamed up with Atlantic Sea Farms and not long after, our Tuna "ish" was born!
MamaSezz teams with socially and environmentally conscious partners
We've been super lucky over our four years in business to work with some really wonderful partners, specifically other ecologically-driven brands and companies, like One Green Planet and Eat for the Planet.
We even co-branded an Eat For the Planet Bundle with Nil Zacharias, the face of sustainable eating in the plant-based world. This bundle comes with our most sustainable products, made from the most eco-friendly ingredients on the planet, plus tips and tricks for eco-friendly grocery shopping. Anyone can make an impact on the health of the planet and it can start with mealtime.
Other notable socially conscious common mission partners include:
- Deitra Dennis of PCRM and Back to the Root: Deitra encourages the black community to create traditional meals that are just as rich in culture as they are in flavor. And she makes them all whole food and 100 percent plant based to encourage a healthy lifestyle.
- PETA: A champion of the vegan lifestyle and animal rights for decades, PETA has worked with us to create the Vegan Bonanza Bundle, filled with some MamaSezz customer comfort food favorites like Lazy Lasagna and Gardener's Pie.
- PCRM: We teamed up with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to create the MOM Bundle and help busy parents provide healthy meals for their families, without having to spend all day grocery shopping, chopping and sautéing.
MamaSezz is zero food waste for the planet and the people
We know that food waste is a huge issue in the United States and all over the world.
Munch on this for a second:
“The United States is the global leader in food waste, with Americans discarding nearly 40 million tons of food every year. That's 80 billion pounds of food and equates to more than $161 billion, approximately 219 pounds of waste per person and 30-40 percent of the US food supply.”- RTS
We want you to feel good about ordering plant-based meal deliver yfrom MamaSezz. We knew when we started out that we wanted to be zero food waste and we've stuck to our guns. Over the years, this has meant donating pounds of our fresh vegan meals to local food shelters every week, and composting all of our scraps. It also meant finding ways to make meal delivery — an industry that's gotten flack for its waste — an eco-friendly experience. We not only compost and recycle at our plant, but as we noted above, we help you recycle your eco-friendly MamaSezz boxes by sending a return label with each plant-based meal delivery.
MamaSezz donates an average of 70-100 pounds of meals each week to local food shelters
MamaSezz loves our local community up here in New England — they've supported us from day one! To give back, we're an active member of the Everyone Eats program in Brattleboro, Vermont. We also donate an average of 70-100 pounds of fresh MamaSezz meals to food shelters in Keene, New Hampshire once a week.
We also work to fuel our internal team with healthy WFPB foods and provide MamaSezz meal staples and fresh produce to our New Hampshire Production Plant team every week.
MamaSezz food is fresh, never frozen (and never has preservatives)
We sometimes joke that our plant kitchen looks like a surgical suite. I know, I’m sorry to disappoint you. There isn’t a "Mama" in a plaid apron cooking your Millie’s Chili on a wood stove while children play at her feet. But this is a good thing because we take food safety very seriously! We’ve got lab coats, hundreds of glove changes a day, masks (and we've been wearing them long before 2020), and sterilization crystals for our plant-approved shoes that don’t leave the building.
All this to say...our impeccable safety protocols are exactly why we don't need chemical preservatives to keep MamaSezz foods safe. We often don’t talk about it, because it shatters our customers perception of a cute and cozy Mama-style kitchen, and talking about food safety isn't super exciting...but it's one of the reasons you can always count on your MamaSezz bundles to last upwards of 2 weeks once it arrives at your door and we're proud of it, darn it!
Now that's some Mama love!
Speaking of the food quality, we use all fresh and local whole ingredients (beet skins and all!) that are 99% organic.
Why not 100 percent? Many local farms don’t go through the expensive and time consuming process of getting their organic certification, but don’t use any pesticides. Yes, up here in New England we live in towns surrounded by plenty of small family-owned farms that have been here for generations. And yes, it does feel like we live in a cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie.
MamaSezz is healthy and science based
Not only do we hand-select each ingredient based on its nutritional value, but we’ve got a team of well-known doctors that love what we do! We base our blog posts and ingredient selections off of peer-reviewed, double-blind placebo scientific studies (and not the kind funded by the product they are endorsing!).
Curious? Check out endless nutrition studies explained by Dr. Greger at NutritionFacts.org.
And we hear from our customers all the time telling us how MamaSezz plant-based meal delivery has changed their lives.
We hear things like “What’s in your food that made my joint pain go away?” We've also been lucky to have customers share heartwarming stories of their own plant-based transformations, like one mother who use our plant-based meal delivery to lose enough weight to finally be able to get on a plane to visit her children.
Another young man found that his pre-gout ankle inflammation that put him on crutches for over 6 months disappeared after just 3 days of a plant-based diet, and he was finally able to return to the tennis court, ski mountain, soccer field and swimming pool as both an athlete and coach. He claimed that he’d never felt better in his 26 years than when he was on the MamaSezz Weight Loss Program.
The super cool thing is: stories like this are the rule, not the exception! And they should come as no surprise when you take a look at the science — a whole food plant-based diet saves lives!
This is why MamaSezz does not use oil, refined sugars, refined grains, or any processed foods to create our clean and delicious meals. And it's why famous doctors and scientists alike (Dr. Greger, Dr. Klaper, Dr. Dean Ornish and Dr. Esselstyn, to name a few) have all enjoyed and endorsed MamaSezz foods.
Here are some of our health-based Common Mission Partners with Branded Bundles:
- AICR Bundle by the American Institute of Cancer Research
- Mastering Diabetes Meal Program by Mastering Diabetes
- True North Optimal Health Bundle by True North
- PCRM Immersion Bundle by The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
MamaSezz is inclusive
We're here for you no matter where you are on your plant-based journey.
Want to put MamaSezz Millie’s Chili on a hot dog?
Just want to dabble in flexitarianism?
Hate to cook and simply want healthy meals delivered?
Trying to lose weight and don’t know what the heck plant-based is but saw a positive review for our Weight Loss Bundle on Facebook?
Are you a diehard vegetarian or vegan?
Are you just trying to get your kids to eat some dang veggies?
Tying to stabilize your blood sugar?
Want radiant skin?
Hoping to detox?
Wherever you are, everyone's welcome at the MamaSezz Table!
Although we promote a whole food plant based diet, we refuse to meat-shame, or make people feel as though they have to go 100 percent plant-based. Heck, most of our customers aren’t 100 percent plant based, and that's A-OK. We're here to help you where you're at with our plant-based meal delivery but also with our tips and tricks for a healthier life.
MamaSezz meets you where you are
Our goal is to help you eat more fruits and veggies. Plain and simple. We don't care what that looks like. When you get plant-based meal delivery from MamaSezz, you call the shots. Don't want to cook at all and just want some healthy meal staples? That's great. All MamaSezz dishes arrive to your door ready to heat and eat so you can just enjoy as is, no funny business. (Heck, you don't even need to heat it up. No judgment here.)
Or...if you're feeling more adventurous in the kitchen, consult the chef-inspired suggestions that come with your bundle and put a unique spin on your MamaSezz staples. Whatever floats your plant-based boat!
MamaSezz is more than a plant-based meal delivery service — it's a lifestyle company
We prefer to think of plant-based eating as “lifestyle" for two reasons.
The first is that when you think of plant-based eating as only a "diet," it's true impact can get lost. Diet culture is a bit toxic and the word diet itself conjures up images of deprivation, which we're not so interested in. The beauty of a whole food plant based lifestyle is you can go back for seconds without the fear of weight gain or guilt! No deprivation here. It’s all about improving the quality of your food, not restricting the quantity.
The second reason we're keen on the lifestyle bend is that when we talk about detoxifying our bodies and unleashing our inner health, we're not just talking about healing our organs. True healing happens everywhere — mind, body, soul. Sounds a little woo woo, but it's true! And when you begin to think of health as beyond just what's on your plate, you'll start to see real results.
Yes, food is a key piece! Heck, we're a plant-based meal delivery company, after all. But we also like to talk about the importance of light exercise, yoga or meditation, detoxing from complaining, social interaction (for now at a distance!), healthy communication, and distancing yourself from social media and electronics from time to time to safeguard your mental health.
In the end, we hope to help you live YOUR life (powered by MamaSezz).
THANK YOU!
Now that we've humble-bragged your ear off, we want to just say THANK YOU! Seriously, thank you, thank you, thank you!
Thank you for coming to our site, thank you for reading our content, thank you for ordering plant-based meal delivery, thank you for helping us get better over the years.
We're so pleased (albeit late to the party) that Forbes named us the best vegan meal delivery service and we plan to live up to the name!
Help us keep at it by reaching out. Let us know what you like, what you wish we would do different, meal staple ideas, you name it! Email us at heartbeetgang@mamasezz.com. We can't wait to hear from you.
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