In the past year, a few personal philosophies have become central mainstays in our way of living: Staying healthy and supporting local.

For obvious reasons, health is on the forefront of our minds. Achieving and maintaining health is not only beneficial to your own self, but the community and all those that rely on you. Speaking of community health and reliance, supporting local business is also more important than ever – showing love to the economy that feeds back into the services that we rely on most. It’s been a hard year for everyone, and a community that supports each other helps to make it a little better.

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Combine these two ethos – personal health and community support – and you have Crafted, a gourmet meal prep service based out of our neighboring Costa Mesa. Made by members of the community, for members of the community, they are devoted to promoting a culture of healthy eating. All their meals are made fresh locally by talented chefs and delivered or available for pickup twice a week on Monday and Thursday.

What inspired Crafted’s creation?

“The idea came about after several of our team members at 24 Carrots Catering and Events tried similar services through their local gyms, but weren’t impressed with the quality, variety or price of the meals,” answers Andres Manzo of the Crafted team. “After discussing with our award-winning culinary team, we realized we had an opportunity to deliver the same fine dining, high quality cuisine people had come to expect from us, filtering it through a macro-based model to service the health and wellness community.”

From that day, Crafted was born.

“We serve active individuals who enjoy exercising and eating healthy, busy professionals who may not have time or energy to eat right, and even everyday households that may have too much on their plate and need someone to help fill it,” invites Manzo. “Whether you’re going to the gym or not, the health and wellness community is booming in the area. And in light of recent events, people have become even more in tune with their bodies and wanting to make a change for the better.”

Calling Orange County home – based in the same facility as their sister company, 24 Carrots Catering + Events – they service the entire area. The team is hoping to continue to prosper and expand into Los Angeles and the Inland Empire.

“Being one of the younger names in the meal prep game, we’ve had the opportunity to study the business model of other companies and see what works best and how we can set ourselves apart,” explains Manzo. “We emphasize quality by always making our meals fresh and never freezing them. Even though this presents a unique challenge of every meal being made-to-order, we never want to compromise the freshness and flavor of our meals by freezing them.”

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“We also set ourselves apart with our emphasis on variety, offering a new menu each month. Eating healthy generates results over time, and we’re in it for the long haul with our clients. We never want them to feel bored or tired of the Crafted dishes, which is why we change up the menu so frequently and consistently introduce new, exciting flavors to the menu.”

Is Crafted subscription-based?

The short answer: no.

“There is no commitment, and our clients are free to order when it best suits them,” answers Manzo. “We’ve entertained the idea of adding a subscription feature to the website, but we don’t want our clients to ever feel pressured or stuck with meals they don’t need. However, we are adding features to the website to resemble the convenience of a subscription model without the commitment.”

Eating healthy is easier said than done, especially if it’s a lifestyle change that’s being pursued. Crafted aims to support those looking to maintain healthy eating in a way that’s approachable and sustainable.

“Eating healthy can be difficult and overwhelming,” supports Manzo. “So much noise out there in the form of different diet fads and diet culture has a reputation for being restrictive and unappealing. We want to provide a platform for long-term, sustainable change.”

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If you’ve tried to make this change and had trouble keeping it up, you aren’t alone.

“We hear stories all too often about people being strict for a few weeks, then relapsing and gaining all the weight back,” Manzo empathizes. “By making it easy, convenient, customizable and fun, we feel like our clients will get a better understanding of what their body needs and how it reacts to certain eating habits. We take the guesswork out of eating right by weighing and portioning each meal and providing the corresponding nutrition facts. Customers trust us to give their bodies the right type AND right quantity of macronutrients to best support their health goals, allowing them to focus on other areas of their health and fitness. We value the impact eating healthy has on all facets of life, not just from an aesthetic point of view. We want to make this available in the simplest and most delicious form possible.”

If there’s anything you could know about Crafted, it’s how sincere they are about their mission.

“We want people to know how seriously we take the honor of trusting us to deliver quality and nutritious meals to them,” says Manzo. “We respect the hours they dedicate in the gym or in their respective fields, and we consider it a privilege to be able to fuel their hustle. With so many other factors to consider when trying to eat healthy, achieve fitness goals, and be well, we want to act as personal chefs to our clients and take the guesswork out of meal prep.”

To learn more about Crafted, visit getcraftedmeals.com

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