Today we’d like to introduce you to Heather Emerson.
Hi Heather, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today. You can include as little or as much detail as you’d like.
Hi!
I’m Heather! I’m blessed to do what I love today: build a company that is actively working to transform the food system, consult other businesses on how to grow their business, advise on the board of Truth Be Told, an organization providing transformational opportunities to women behind and beyond bars, and keynote speaking, where I tell my story and encourage others to do so as well.
My mission is to inspire others to tell their story through hearing mine, and I firmly believe that story-telling provides transformational evolutions within each person.
I graduated from University of Texas with dual degrees in Mathematics and Linguistics, and in 2020 with my Masters from Harvard University.
In 2016, I founded Prep To Your Door with my partner, Faiez Rana, to strengthen local food systems so that everyone wins: the community, our health, our planet. The company serves Austin and Houston organic, farm-to-table meals in zero-waste packaging. All products are plant-based, gluten and dairy free. I am currently co-leading a team of 30 people and growing.
My proudest accomplishment is winning “FAVE Sustainable Business” in 2019, being named as Forbes Next 1000 up and coming entrepreneurs for 2021.
I am also a finalist for Austin Under 40 Awards in 2020 and 2021, and we won the prestigious Austin Women’s Way Award for “Business to Watch” in 2021.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My personal story is that for the past 17 years I’ve been rebuilding my life post-incarceration. I spent 12 months in a military prison for a drug-related charge and upon release I got a job at Whole Foods. That is where I learned about our food systems, the importance of non-GMO and organics, how we source our food, the environmental impact of packaging, and a sustainable approach to our food systems.
All of this knowledge never left me and I stayed passionate and committed to sustainable eating and lifestyle even though it took me over a decade after working at Whole Foods to start Prep To Your Door.
Starting a business has been anything but smooth. I truly believe entrepreneurship is the ultimate form of self-development. I had to learn to take criticisms. I had to learn to listen to what the customer wants vs what I want. I had to learn by trial and error which meant falling quite a few times, which was very hard for me because I tend to have a trauma response to failure after spending time in prison.
Entrepreneurship has taught me to evolve at a much faster pace than I ever had to in my entire life. I’m so grateful for these struggles because they improved me as a human being.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Prep To Your Door?
Prep To Your Door seeks to revolutionize local food systems. Our pillars are: Organic, Plant-based, Zero Waste and Locally Sourced. We’re happy being first, but we don’t want to be the last! Each pillar offers a sustainable approach to fulfilling human needs, without compromising the health of our planet. Every day it becomes more and more important to “vote with your dollar” and demand that zero-waste becomes best practice. Today, we call ourselves the only zero-waste meal delivery service because we are. But one day, we hope many, many more companies join us so that we can be “just one of many”.
We hand-make organic, plant-based, farm-to-table meals delivered right to your door in Austin and Houston. Customers enjoy a subscription of weekly rotating, seasonal menus, and leave their containers out for pick up, so nothing goes in the trash. The four pillars of PTYD guide us in all aspects of our company, not just our operations. We are proud to be a “zero waste” company not only in the way we make and deliver food but in the way we build company talent and culture as well. At Prep to Your Door, it is essential that we live, hire, and support each other from a place of abundance. It’s one of the many ways we have built, maintained, and will continue to grow a company culture that changes the world one team member and one customer at a time.
2020 Recap: Here’s a glance at how serving a ton of you with a few jars can make a huge difference!
40,000 lbs of Texas-grown produce purchased. $65K in purchases to local farmers and makers. 1399 lbs of donated food to less fortunate individuals in the community. 77,134 meals served in only 3932 circulating jars! Saving 174,086 single-use items from landfills and oceans. Food might be what we make, but the environment is why we make it the way that we do.
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is that I leave the planet better than when I came into it. To date, our planet has environmental degradation almost to the point of no return. I know I have my work cut out for me.
Pricing:
- Customers can subscribe for as little as $53.75 per week
Contact Info:
- Email: heather@preptoyourdoor.com
- Website: https://www.heatheremerson.com/
- Instagram: theheatheremerson
- Other: https://preptoyourdoor.com/
Image Credits
Teodora Pogonat Photography
