As more teens are interested in meal prepping, which is making the same meal for about a week, one Yutan student turned it into a business opportunity. Starting in November, senior Tannen Honke began selling meals, getting the idea from his fellow classmates.
“I remember during football season, a lot of us football players were struggling to maintain our weight goals because there’s not a whole lot of food that they offer at lunch, and it’s not very macro-nutrient friendly,” Honke said. “I remember thinking about this as a big problem, and after football season got over, I realized that demand didn’t just go away, and people were still interested in having some better meals.”
Honke then decided to take matters into his own hands and prepare his own meals, which led to his business idea.
“So every Sunday, I take a solid portion out of my day. This is when I was making food for myself, and I thought to myself, ‘You know, why not just make a little extra for other people?’” Honke said.
He then mentioned it to some of his classmates to see if they liked the idea.
“He started talking about [meal prepping] in October or November, and I didn’t think it was gonna happen. Then he made an Instagram about it, and he gave it out. The first day it was free. So we all tried it, and I liked it, so I continued,” senior Tyler Witt said.
As Honke kept making meals, it was more efficient to sell two different options.
“He sells them individually, but then he also sells week-long packages, and it’s cheaper if you buy it for the week than just buy it individually. So I bought it by the week,” senior AJ Arensberg said.
To maximize profit and keep costs low, Honke buys his ingredients in bulk.
“I shop at Restaurant Depot and buy in bulk, like 40 pounds of meat at a time for one dollar a pound. So it’s not too expensive. I’d say the average meal probably costs me about three dollars to make, and then I sell it for six or seven,” Honke said.
Based on the ingredients, the profit can vary each week.
“So one month I may be buying a load of chicken, and then that week, since I spent so much money on chicken I might profit only 10 to 20 dollars,” Honke said. “The next week I’ll repurpose what I bought last week and end up profiting $70 to $80, so it kind of varies week to week, but I’d say it probably would average out to be around $50 to $60.”
Although Honke plans to stop meal prepping after this year, he has different opportunities to use his skills elsewhere.
“I won’t do meal prepping after this year, but the juniors asked me to do it in the summer,” Honke said. “But I’ve learned to make my own food stands for food festivals, and I have the tools to sell pizza so I could make a profit off of that as well.”
