Today we’d like to introduce you to Jacklyn Chung-Young.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
It all started with my mother. She started cooking for her family of five (her parents and three sisters) at the young age of 12 years old. They owned a vegetable booth in a wet market in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She and her family immigrated from Taiwan to Brazil when my mom was ten years old. Since they owned a vegetable booth, they always had a bunch of vegetables that either didn’t sell or couldn’t sell, so my mom would bring it all home and find creative ways to cook it. That’s how her cooking journey began. Fast forward 20 years (the 90’s) we are now living in the San Gabriel Valley, CA. Due to my mom’s rural upbringing, she wanted to re-create that for my brother and I. We raised chickens and ducks, grew tomatoes and chilis, and had a bunch of different fruit trees in our back yard. I was frying eggs and making fresh pasta from scratch at eight years old.
There was never a dull moment in our house and I always ate such good food made with love. I didn’t know how lucky I was until my mom was on THE TASTE in 2014, a cooking competition on ABC 7 produced and judged by the late Anthony Bourdain. It was then when my mom gained international success for her unique and unusual ways of cooking. With that being said, my brother and I took up cooking in no time and our family’s food became very popular with friends and loved ones. Fast forward another 20 years (hello, 2019), we as a family decide to switch over to a plant-based diet. It was something we decided to do together for spiritual reasons and having a more positive impact on the health of our planet. My mother had longed to own something of her own- a restaurant, some type of food business but being a single mother of two kids, she never really pursued it for the sake of my brother and I.
Now in 2020, both my brother and I in our early 30’s we decided to create and launch our plant-based meal prep delivery service. We had done several food ventures together as a family, the 626 Night Market a couple of years in a row, farmers markets, and several catering dinner parties but they never lasted. We also had a fourth family member join us on this new venture, my brother’s fiance! We had planned to launch our meal prep business in April of 2020 but thanks to Covid-19, we were afforded a lot more time and energy to perfect our portions, menu, website and much much more! We have a passion for food and family and we wanted to share that with the world by planting love, one meal at a time!
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?
It most definitely has not been a smooth road. As a family, we’ve had many ups and downs. Being such a strong unit together took a lot of our own personal work. There were many disagreements and arguments. What family doesn’t fight? And of course, since we are family, triggering one another seems much easier and faster than if we were in a different environment. I can laugh about it now only in retrospect. We’ve had to work on respecting each other’s opinion, perspective, time, and much more. We had to make sure that our values, morals, and mission were all aligned before we could venture onto this new creation.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
Plant Love is a plant-based meal prep delivery service. We are Allium free as well! We do our best to source ingredients that are fresh, local, seasonal, and natural. Our meals last up to 7 days in the fridge and are delivered fresh straight to your door! I am most proud of us being family owned and operated. We have poured our hearts into this business. We design, create and cook every meal with the utmost love, effort, and respect to our customers. It is truly an honor to feed people! The feeling of making someone’s day with our meals is what drives us to go above and beyond. Because of our unique background and experience we are able to create thoughtful plant-based meals that everyone can enjoy and experience! All our meals come in compostable containers ensuring that we are doing our part to create less plastic for the environment. You can feel good about a Plant Love meal from start to finish!
What were you like growing up?
If you ask my mother, I was a silly goofball who was wild and wacky and had a taste for the arts. I always enjoyed making faces and making people laugh. My imagination ran wild and I would come up with all sorts of stories to keep me entertained. I didn’t grow up with much television and didn’t get my first smartphone until my first year of college! Growing up, we had a treehouse in our back yard and I played everything from a helpless princess to a swashbuckling pirate. I collected bugs and stole chocolate from the pantry when my mom wasn’t looking. We also had a karaoke machine and I would pretend to be a pop star and sing Christina Aguilera’s “You are Beautiful” while wearing my mom’s high heels on repeat. I had a very active busy childhood.
We (my brother and I) took ice skating for a couple of years and also did some acting. A typical school day for us was, wake up at 5am, Ice skate from 6am-730am, school, then auditions after school. Both my brother and I shot a couple of commercials during those years! We also did ballet, gymnastics and Chinese folk dance and school. It was very busy indeed. I absolutely loved performing and entertaining. I was a loudmouth, always getting in trouble for talking too much in school and some would say that I was also a very bossy little girl. I would say that I just knew better and wanted to show them my ways 😉
Pricing:
- Nourish for 1: at least five meals, 10 dollars per meal
- Nourish for 2: 18 dollars per meal
- Nourish the family: 36 dollars per meal
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.plantlovemeals.com/
- Phone: 6263837130
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @plantlovemeals
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