Not wanting to be in close contact with others but wanting to help those in need during a pandemic, Julian Cohen set out to feed people.
Cohen, a Cambridge resident, reduced his hours at work and then started Bountiful, a food delivery and pickup service that offers locally sourced meals to residents of Somerville and Cambridge.
“When people are paying for our food, they know that every dollar they're spending on us is going back into the pockets of somebody that lives in this local economy,” the Newton-raised entrepreneur said. “I think that's really inspiring, and that really attracted people.”
Founded in April, Bountiful has been dishing out several meals a week within a nine-mile radius since March. Bountiful has served more than 100 regular customers and is looking to expand into suburbs, such as Arlington, to feed those looking to eat at home and with their families.
Menu options are created by one local chef and prepared in a shared kitchen space on Washington Street in Somerville. Customers can view new menu options every Friday and purchase entrees for the upcoming week.
“What that does on our end is it really allows us to reduce food waste and become a more sustainable business,” Cohen said. “We don't leave the kitchen with a lot of food that could have been used but wasn't.”
Customers visit the Bountiful website, place their orders online and then select whether they want it for delivery or pickup. Deliveries take place between 6 and 7 p.m., and curbside pickup is available from 6 to 6:30 p.m. Orders are reviewed each Sunday night to determine which ingredients will be needed for the week.
Bountiful cuts out the middleman, or delivery service, with employed drivers who deliver customers restaurant-quality meals. Many ingredients, Cohen said, come from relationships with local businesses, including Red’s Best in Boston’s Seaport, Hutchins Farm in Concord and Three River Farmers Alliance on New Hampshire’s seacoast.
Working alongside other food businesses in a shared kitchen space also allows the company to collaborate with others. Cohen said it allows them to adapt their seasonal menu and guarantee their customers high-quality delivery.
“We've learned that customers really want to see variety in the food that we're offering … things that they might not be able to make at home,” Cohen said. “With that, we try and work with as many local suppliers and purveyors as possible.”
Cohen was lucky enough to team up with a Cambridge-based chef looking for work during the pandemic. When that chef returns to work, another will be hired to fill the role.
Because of the pandemic, Cohen’s love of food and renewed interest in cooking had him harkening back to his own dining experiences abroad. He wanted to bring back the sense of community that he had seen overseas when it came to sharing a meal.
He connected with community members on the website Nextdoor with a simple ask: Who needed food? From there, he saw a demand—and a need—for food produced locally.
“The way this started was really out of a desire to help people who might not be able to go to the grocery store, or who might not want to cook or be able to cook at home,” Cohen said. “There was just this really quick turnout of support … for this local food, but also to support a local person within the community and people seeing their money go back into the economy."
Popular dishes include burnt caramel and soy glazed salmon with white rice and cucumber salad, a tofu version of the meal and falafel bowls—cuisine, Cohen said, that is inspired by the diversity in the area.
“We're making sure that the food that we're creating is kind of representing the whole community and the different demographics of Boston at a really high level,” Cohen said.
Thursday night family-style meals are also popular with customers, especially Bountiful's Portuguese-style fish stew.
Though many potential customers may be drawn to order from Bountiful because of its elegant-looking dinner platters, Cohen promises nutritious ingredients and healthy alternatives in each plate.
As the company gains more customers, Cohen hopes to expand the company’s delivery area, add a satellite kitchen and eventually move into an independent kitchen as they grow and scale.
“We're a logistics business just as much as a food business,” Cohen said, “so we need to be able to test out our delivery routes, make sure that we know what our range is to still be able to offer really high-quality food.”
Take a look through some of Bountiful's options below.
