Devon Olberding and Mariah Andrews believe that if you transform your pantry, you transform your life. As co-founders of the newly formed business, The Plantiful Pantry, they provide the tools, information and support to move toward cooking and enjoying plant-powered food. The Plantiful Pantry offers online courses, custom plans and programs to anyone from across the country or around the world.
The women launched their business virtually in December 2020 and were up and running with their website and first program – called Jump Start – in January.
Andrews left her 20-plus year career in marketing to pursue her dream of making plant-powered eating accessible to everyone.
“I’ve always loved to cook,” she said. “My grandma had a huge garden, so I learned how to cook with all kinds of vegetables. Once I had a family, I made it my mission to help them learn to love plant-powered food. When my mom got cancer, I realized plant-powered eating could really help heal people and change lives.”
With a long-time passion on the topic, Andrews prepared to launch her own business. During that process, Andrews kept chatting with Olberding about the project, and they realized they should partner.
“We share a lot of responsibilities as far as running the business — most of the decisions made on a daily basis we make together and amazingly we’re usually thinking the same thing,” Olberding said.
A certified health coach and fitness instructor, Olberding manages more of the health coaching and nutritional aspects of the business. She’s the videographer.
Andrews has a long history of making delicious plant-based food. She has expertise in techniques, equipment, ingredients and learned the flavor profiles – a few of the lessons gained while working at Frontier. Andrews works more in front of the camera and does the food photography.
Though they had a plan when they launched, Andrews and Olberding have adapted and added new products as they’ve gone along.
“It’s crazy to think it’s only been a little over six months since we started, because so much has happened,” Olberding said.
“It’s been learning as you go,” she said. “Trusting the process, getting feedback from people who have gone through the program already.
“But I think we’re really good at working together and talking things out as to what our next steps will be.”
The tech — Zoom fees, email programs, a recipe data base — is the biggest expense, but they’ve run in the black and didn’t need a loan to launch.
For photography they’ve gone simply — no special lighting, set, director or script. About all they use is a phone, Olberding’s kitchen and printed recipe.
They generally film in order and keep the editing in a minimum
“We’re not trying to be perfect,” Olberding said. “If we make a mistake, we laugh about it and keep going because that’s the way it goes.”
To be perfect, they’d have to charge a lot more. Andrews has worked on shoots with hundreds of thousands of dollars in production costs.
“We don’t really need that, and the clients that we’re serving don’t either,” Andrews said.
Their customers come from across the country as the The Plantiful Pantry is web-based. Launching the business in 2020 helped raise people’s comfort with platforms like Zoom.
Some clients are single young millennials trying to reduce their carbon footprint, some are cooking more healthfully for their family, some are people with serious health concerns who need help navigating the shopping and the cooking of a special diet. They’re also people who have been on a plant-based diet for years, but need new ideas, new techniques and some confidence in the kitchen.
Their business has multiple prongs.
Jump Start, the duo’s virtual group course, teaches enrollees how to make adopting the “Plantiful” lifestyle as easy as possible. The 30-day course includes weekly guides, meal plans with recipes for three meals per day, plus shopping lists, a weekly virtual food prep and cooking class, and a private Facebook group.
In response to customer demand, Olberding and Andrews launched a new product called Crash Course that lets clients adopt the “Plantiful” lifestyle at their own pace – with four virtual plant-powered eating guides and 11 video cooking lessons delivered via email.
For those clients looking for ongoing community and support, the company offers two products – The Plantiful Community and Custom Plans.
“The Plantiful Community is where our other program graduates can come together for ongoing encouragement and support,” explains Andrews. “Each week, we try six new meal plans and recipes together and provide a virtual cooking class or video for one recipe. There’s lots of interaction with members sharing their own dishes, questions and even tips in the Facebook group.”
The Custom Plan option offers clients a weekly meal plan and recipes, plus a shopping list and even online shopping services – all tailored to their specific needs. This is one of the most labor-intensive products that the pair offers.
There are similarities but also differences among their customers. Many are seeking to be part of a community. The custom plan people are really reliant on having the recipe and shopping list. It’s a huge time saver and big value to them, Andrews said.
With Jump Start just knowing how to navigate the plant-powered world is really valuable, the pair said. Crash Course simplifies and lets people go at their own pace.
“A lot of people, including me, were a little intimidated at first,” Olberding said. “When Mariah does a video and it shows how simple it, you think ‘I can do that.’”
Olberding has making a commitment and doing advanced preparation is helpful.
“When you do that, you’re setting yourself up for success for a whole week,” she said.
“It’s been fun, too, to challenge ourselves to step out of our own comfort zone,” Andrews said.
They’re grounded in real life needs. They have a “Gary’s test,” – trying to avoid long and complicated lists of ingredients. Olberding’s son has nut allergies, and many vegan recipes are heavy on cashews.
Andrews has found other ways to add richness, leading to one recipe that took off.
Experimenting with Tik Tok, they posted a recipe for queso dip, which used yellow squash instead of cheese – or cashews. The video got thousands of views; Olberding credits her teenaged daughter for helping them with the format.
Andrews and Olberding also relay on their community for feedback. They asked their first Jump Start group if there was anything they wanted to learn to make – to plantify. The answers — pizza, mac & cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, and shepherd’s pie – became some of the group’s favorite recipes and the pairs favorite recipes.
A gateway to other recipes, Andrews said. And for their community to build their own versions.
“Our model is based on the Italian proverb, ‘Give a man a fish and you’ll feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you’ll feed him for a lifetime,’” explains Olberding. “We know that if we give you the tools to make planning, shopping and cooking as easy and delicious as possible, you’ll stick with it.”
For more information go to:
theplantifulpantry.com

Gallery • 3 Photos

Andrews does the still photography for their website while Olberding does the videography.