Today we’d like to introduce you to Annette Baker and Marianne Lacko.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Annette and Marianne. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
We launched in 2011 in response to friends’ requests – “If I had someone to cook for me, I would eat healthy lunches like you every day.” At the time, we were both 25 years into successful corporate careers but were looking to impact the world in a bigger way. We had always been interested in food and health and had each been vegan for over 20 years – and had been doing our own whole food, plant-based meal prep for several years.
So… we expanded on our personal meal prep: cooking extra portions and selling them each week. As interest grew, we continued to educate ourselves about nutrition and commercial cooking. Nature’s Plate became an official business in 2012… expanding beyond friends, family, and co-workers at the beginning of 2014. With a lot of help from our husbands and children, we opened our own kitchen and the first storefront in August 2015. The second storefront at Preston/Forest opened in May 2018 followed by the Plano storefront in January of 2019.
Nature’s Plate was founded and is still based on our belief that the standard American diet is the biggest cause of our current health crisis and that a diet based on whole, plant foods can help most people avoid pharmaceutical solutions and chronic disease including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and many forms of cancer.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Entrepreneurship is tough under the best circumstances. It’s harder work than anything we’ve done in the past, but we love what we’re doing and it’s worth it. We were fortunate to know that we wanted to do this and to have the means to build our savings before starting, so that has taken some of the pressure off. And we’ve also adjusted our lifestyles to accommodate funding and building a small business.
Some of the specific struggles include gaining a wide variety of knowledge required to run a small business, including regulations, commercial real estate and construction dealings, accounting, marketing. When it’s your business, you do everything. That’s also what makes it so satisfying — along with the knowledge that we’re doing something important.
Having a great team around us helps too! Nature’s Plate started as a family business, and we continue to get unlimited amounts of support from our families, several of whom work in the business or help out at times. Our entire team is amazingly hard-working and dedicated, and we couldn’t do it without them.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Nature’s Plate – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Nature’s Plate is plant-based meals to go. Our mission is to make plant-based, whole food accessible and convenient, and of course tasty and satisfying. We provide prepared meals as well as snacks and bakery items.
Whole food, plant-based means that everything we make is based on whole grains, vegetables, beans, nuts, seeds, and fruit.. and that we do not use processed ingredients, refined flour, or refined sugar. We also offer many gluten free, soy free, nut free, and no added oil options.
We like to say that our informal mission is to help people EAT MORE PLANTS.
We operate a true scratch kitchen and use mostly organic ingredients as well. (Everything is non-GMO.)
Our meals, snacks, and bakery items are available 7 days a week at each of our locations – we have a weekly rotating menu to provide lots of variety.
We also do weekly meal plan subscriptions which offer an even better deal on our food. The meal plans are available for weekly pick up at our stores, an Oak Cliff pop-up, and a Frisco juice spot. And meal plans can also be delivered across Dallas and most suburbs.
We also work closely with a plant-based registered dietician to provide nutrition coaching, and we do cooking classes.
And last, we’re really proud of the relationships with have with other local small business, especially those who share our mission. We carry a few third party products in our stores and also work with others on educational community-based events such as documentary screenings, lunch and learns, and tasting events.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
Well, we just opened our Plano store and are finishing a major expansion of our kitchen.
Once the kitchen is done, we plan to do even more cooking classes and education events.
Beyond that, we’ll think more retail locations, but we haven’t planned anything specific yet. We get requests to go to specific parts of the metroplex all the time and really want to be able to get there.
We’re always working on our menu as well. Our bakery items are truly unique in that they are whole grain, largely gluten-free, made with healthier sweeteners like maple syrup, and they are delicious! So, we’re exploring an expansion of that part of our business.
Pricing:
- Individual meals are priced at $8.50 – $10.
- Meal plans start at $41 for 5 meals per week with quantity discounts for larger plans.
Contact Info:
- Address: Lake Highlands store: 10233 E. Northwest Hwy, Ste 432, Dallas, TX 75238 – northeast corner of Ferndale/NW Hwy
Preston Hollow store: 11811 Preston Rd, Dallas, TX 75230 – northwest corner of Preston/Forest
Plano store: 8404 Preston Rd. Plano, TX 75024 – southeast of the intersection of Preston w/ 121 - Website: naturesplate.com
- Phone: 469-307-4217
- Email: info@naturesplate.biz
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naturesplate/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naturesplate/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/NaturesPlate1
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/natures-plate-dallas?osq=nature%27s+plate
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
