Today we’d like to introduce you to Marianne Lacko.
Hi Marianne, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
My sister, Annette Baker, (and business partner) and I both started off with careers that had nothing to do with nutrition, health, or veganism. Annette has a degree in marketing and I have one in IT – both from University of North Texas. We both had 20+-year careers in those fields. I spent 20 years at Goldman Sachs, and Annette spent over 25 years in running business process outsourcing centers. Those careers provided for our families, but the older we got, the more we knew we wanted to make a difference instead of just continuing to climb the corporate ladder.
We had been meal prepping for ourselves and each other (we always traded food to keep it interesting) for a number of years. Some people at my office would participate periodically. A friend at work told me she wanted to participate but she didn’t want to cook — she wanted to pay me. I had just had my daughter, so I said no, but I told Annette. She thought it sounded intriguing. That is really how it all started.
Several people at my office started “ordering.” Annette cooked all the food on Sundays, and I hauled it all to work on Mondays. 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.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Balancing our mission with profitability and fair wages for our employees has been a struggle from the beginning. Margins in the food sector are very tight. We didn’t go into this to better our financial situation; we have always been motivated by our passion for plant-based food. But we have had to make some very tough decisions to keep the business moving forward…balancing growth, taking care of our team, and keeping ourselves afloat.
2020 brought its own unique set of challenges for us as it did for everyone else. We are really grateful for our customers who stuck with us, for those switched over to home delivery, and for all of those who found us during the past year and a half. While our retail business has not gone back to pre-pandemic levels, our delivery business continues to grow.
Our primary struggles have always been about balancing our personal wellness with the wellness of the business. Anyone who has started and run a small business knows it can be all consuming, 24/7 and 365 days a year. We remind each other when we’re doing too much.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We founded Nature’s Plate 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 specialize in creating whole food, plant based meals that are nutritious and delicious. We make it easy to not only eat vegan, but to eat healthy and nourish your body. We make almost everything from scratch in our Northeast Dallas kitchen and are completely locally owned and operated.
Our bakery items are unique even in the vegan world – we have a wide variety of whole grain, gluten free cookies and other goodies with no added oil. And no one feels like they are sacrificing taste when they eat them.
We brought a customer-focused mentality with us from our previous careers. It’s a lot tougher to provide top service as a small business with limited resources, but we know that it’s important. Feedback and customer reviews tell us we’re doing something right!
We’re also proud of our team – they’re passionate about our mission and many of them have been with us for years. We strive for a cooperative environment where everyone works hard and shares in the “grunt work,” like cleaning and washing dishes.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
We definitely see it growing as more and more people switch to a plant-based diet for their health, for the environment, or for the animals…or for all three! The beauty of a plant-based diet is that it’s good for us, the planet, and the animals.
We see a continued shift to home or office delivery. Things were already headed that way and the pandemic accelerated it greatly. We now use our own drivers (rather than a 3rd party) to make sure we can provide a good customer experience.
We also see more concern around single use plastic and other sustainability issues. We’ve eliminated almost all of the plastic from our container rotation. We still use some non-BPA plastic due to supply chain and cost issues with compostables, but we will continue our transition as quickly as we can. We’ve always used recycled paper products, sustainable cleaning products, and other eco-conscious processes within our kitchen.
Pricing:
- Weekly Meal Plan Subscriptions starting at $51 for 5 meals
- Cookies and brownies starting at $3.25
Contact Info:
- Email: info@naturesplate.biz
- Website: naturesplate.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/naturesplate/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naturesplate
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/NaturesPlate1
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZgJgTPOa6fw7llRnrHVrQg
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/natures-plate-dallas
Image Credits:
Tiffany Wilkerson
