This year my goal has been to simplify things. My plan for 2016 was to make friends with minimalism and embrace efficiency.  During the month of January, after an embarrassingly long stretch of procrastination, Jeremy and I finally purged our disastrous crawlspace of clothes, household items, books, boxes, sports gear, and trinkets that haven’t seen the light of day in years. We’ve also slowly been organizing our kitchen and we plan to tackle other areas of our house step by step.

In last month or so, I’ve been doing a lot of work-related cooking. These jobs usually result in a huge grocery list with specialty items and lots of produce, which means several trips to grocery stores and health food stores. Oh, and lugging around lots and lots of heavy bags of food. As you can imagine, this isn’t very efficient, it’s time consuming and is definitely not in line with my goal for 2016. 

Thankfully, early into the new year I met Brendan Gorman, owner of Eating Well Ottawa. His company is an online grocery delivery service focused on fresh, organic, non-GMO fruits and vegetables, as well as natural products. Customers place their grocery orders online and they can either pick up their groceries or have them delivered. It’s as easy as that! I had heard a lots of great things about Eating Well Ottawa and had known of the company for a while. However, the serendipitous meeting with Brendan and learning more about his company prompted me to give the service a try.  I’ve used Eating Well Ottawa a few times now (for both big and small orders) it has saved me so much time and loads of mileage on my car.  This is an amazing service for people in the Ottawa region. It offers easy access to fresh, organic produce and an array of products that you may or may not find at your local grocery. Plus, the price is very reasonable too!

I could go on and on, but instead, I decided to ask Brendan to tell us more about Eating Well Ottawa, his commitment to local producers, and his plans for expansion. You can read the full interview below.

Amy: Eating Well Ottawa is a fantastic concept. Can you give a quick run-down of how it works?
Brendan: Thanks! Eating Well Ottawa is an online organic produce and healthy grocery delivery service. We have tried to make the entire experience as convenient as possible!

You start by signing up on our website at www.eatingwellottawa.ca. There are a couple of different shopping options. We have pre-designed Harvest Boxes that are filled with a mix of organic fruits and veggies. The variety changes every week and we design these boxes in a way that allows you to try new things and get creative in the kitchen! Recipes come with all of the Harvest Boxes as well so that is a fun feature!

You also have the ability to totally design your own grocery cart from scratch! Simply browse through the grocery categories and build your box! We have a huge selection of organic produce, groceries, meats, dairy and even an in-house artisan bakery!

Amy: What inspired you to start your own organic food delivery service?
Brendan: I went to University in the USA on a soccer scholarship and so I have always attributed my athletic successes to my eating habits. My peak level of performance came when I was eating whole, clean foods! With that being said, I also realized that it is hard for people to buy healthy food at an affordable price… much less organic foods! This lead to the creation of Eating Well Ottawa. I thought hard about creating a system that made eating healthy affordable AND accessible!

Amy: I really love your commitment to working with local producers. Can you tell me a bit about that?
Brendan: We love working with local producers and local farmers! Our motto is Local, Regional, Canada First – meaning we try to source things from local sources before we go anywhere else. In the winter months it is a bit more difficult but during the local season, Eating Well is abundantly sourcing local produce. We also carry local grocery products like raw honey, marinades, meats, you name it! And we are constantly looking to expand our list of local farmers and producers!

Amy: What’s your favourite part about owning and operating Eating Well Ottawa?
Brendan: My favourite part of owning Eating Well Ottawa is the enjoyment we bring to people’s kitchens. A lot of my customers tell me that it is like Christmas every week when their green box of groceries arrives at their doorstep. Not only are we bringing affordable organics and clean foods to people’s homes, we are encouraging creativity in the kitchen and helping people make better choices!
Though shopping for groceries online is definitely a new concept, once customers get their first box, they are hooked!

Amy: Do you have any plans for expansion?
Brendan: We sure do! We are currently undergoing construction on a new and improved website with some fun new features! (I have to keep it a secret until the launch!) We plan to launch the new site by the end of March and are very excited!

We also have plans to do more outreach to our local community and get involved in more community events. The more local producers and farmers we can support, the better.

Lastly, we are working on improving our offerings and variety of products. We want to be a fully functioning online healthy grocery store by the end of 2016!

To learn more about Eating Well Ottawa visit their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.