09/25/2024
It’s with great sadness, as well as excitement for my next chapter, that I write this letter. It’s been an amazing 30 years in business since I created Healthy Gourmet To Go and it’s time to call it a day!
Healthy Gourmet To Go’s meal delivery and cafe will close after cooking the week of October 16th. These next three weeks we will be whipping up delicious meals infused with joy and gratitude in honor of our long run.
�It’s been an extraordinary three decades feeding people (and some of you for all 30 years!) It’s been an honor and pleasure getting to know some of you personally.
I’ve loved inspiring (and making it easy for) people to eat fewer animals. And, I’ve especially loved watching many transition to going vegan! That alone has left me feeling like my mission in life creating and running HGTG was all worth it!
�So, I lived in Manhattan for 20 years and was vegan most of that time. When I ate out, it was usually at Angelica’s Kitchen in the East Village. I remember telling myself I’d be a wealthy woman the day I could afford to eat at Angelica’s Kitchen all week long.
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Around 1990, I began volunteering at The Manhattan Center for Living in the West Village. It was a healing space inspired by Marianne Williamson of A Course in Miracles (yes, that Marianne who recently ran for President…twice). Interestingly, the head chef there was Richard Pierce who had been the original head chef at Angelica’s Kitchen! A bunch of us volunteered regularly preparing vegan, macrobiotic meals for about 100 people daily. We mostly fed people dealing with life challenging illnesses. Lunch was either free or $5. I was there a couple of years when it dawned on me…I had learned to cook the way I loved eating at Angelica’s Kitchen and therefore I was now a wealthy woman! Much gratitude to Richard Pierce, wherever you are.��
While volunteering with Richard, I was inspired to leave my job and create a vegan meal delivery business. I don’t know what possessed me but I thought: if I could cook and deliver ready to eat vegan meals to busy New Yorkers, maybe they’d eat fewer animals! So, I incorporated HGTG in 1994. Fast forward, I moved Upstate in 2001. Years later I was on the back of an ex’s motorcycle and saw a cafe “For Rent” sign on our present day cafe window and the rest is history. It’s been lovely being the only 100% vegan/gluten free cafe in Ulster County for the better part of 14 years and one of the longest operating vegan meal deliveries.��
There are many vegan options out there nowadays so I hope and pray you’ll continue keeping animals OFF your plates. I am attempting to sell Healthy Gourmet To Go so it can live on as a meal delivery and/or cafe. I’ll keep you posted about that. BTW, if you know anyone who might be interested in buying a ready made vegan business, please send them my way. HGTG has real potential for significant growth with the right people. I’m attaching a link to my “Biz for Sale” post.
�On behalf of the staff and myself, it’s been the greatest pleasure serving people, helping keep them healthy AND hopefully making a difference in the lives of countless animals spared from becoming your three meals a day. Actually, three meals a day times 365 days a year, times 30 years, comes to 32,850 meals. Then times a small average of weekly orders, over 821,250 meals have been served without animals. So, quite possibly 821,250 animals’ lives have been saved from making it onto plates because you ordered. That’s truly amazing and I thank you! I can rest easily knowing so many lives were spared having created Healthy Gourmet To Go 30 years ago.
��I love you all. I will miss you all. And, I will be in touch. I am sure my brain will create some new, vegan-related thing to do after a short rest. I look forward to sharing that with you soon as I figure it out. P.S. It’s quite possible I’ll be available for local private cooking if anyone is interested.
�In the mean time, I hope you’ll order Bags these next 3 weeks.
We promise to give it our all for this fabulous final period.
Oh, and next week is our delicious Rosh Hashanah, Jewish-y menu inspired by grandma Eleanore and not to be missed!��
I look forward to hearing from you if you’re having feelings or thoughts about this news that you’d like to discuss. I know my decision was kind of sudden. Hopefully, the biz will sell and continue on with wonderful new energy. I'll be posting the Biz for Sale info tomorrow.
�Big compassionate and gratitude filled hug, �
Roni
