 and welcome to Connecting Hawai'i Business on Think Tech Hawai'i. My name is Kathleen Lee, owner of Kathleen Lee Consulting, and I am your host for this program. Think Tech Hawai'i is currently live streamed on ThinkTechHawaii.com, as well as on Think Tech Hawai'i's Facebook and YouTube channel. And for viewers out there who are watching us live, you may email us questions to questions at ThinkTechHawaii.com. Let's launch into this today's show is called Mother Prepper Packs Punches Through Meals. So catchy, I had to come up with a line that goes through the company name. Our guest is Chantel Perry Montabo, the owner of Mother Prepper. So, Chantel, welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you for being here today. Tell our viewers about yourself. Well, I am what I would like to call a geriatric millennial. I love anything 90s. I'm a mom of two boys, three if you count my husband. I was a pharmacy technician for over 15 years before pursuing the food industry. I'm a graduate of the UHWCC culinary arts program, a nutrition coach, behavior change specialist, weight loss specialist. I recently earned my certification in ketogenic and low carb high fat nutrition and treatment. I am also a member of the Native Hawaiian Chamber of Commerce. I recently graduated from the Kuhana Business Program by the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. I'm currently a full-time student pursuing my doctorate in healthcare, focusing on nutrition and diet. I'm a total foodie. I love food and I love supporting locals. So when I'm not meal prepping, you can catch me at farmer's markets, pop-ups, either walking around talking story, or even working with other local food vendors. That is a lot. So you are a partner, wife, mother, entrepreneur, student certified in a bunch of things, food and nutrition related. And that is, I think that is wonderful because your business is meal prepping. So tell us about Mother Preppa. So Mother Preppa, we are a really small meal prepping company based on O'ahu. It's just me and my parents who kindly helped me on the weekends. We do all sorts of meal preps. The low carb menu is the most popular, but we can also accommodate any diet. I love how your goal is to have, to create healthy meals without compromising taste. Is that correct? Yes. That's cool. How did you come up with, well, first the concept, but then the name, Mother Preppa. It's so catchy. Well, I wanted something that said exactly what we do, but something that was a little different, you know, kind of gave the misfits of the meal prepping vibes. I also wanted something that was more me and Mother Preppa was a little too proper. So we settled with Mother Preppa. I think we were talking about your logo before and how it was a great graphic, but you had switched it up to tone it down a bit. Yeah, we toned it down a little bit. Yeah. So we toned down our logo a bit. You know, when I first started this, I never meant for it to go full time, like fully into it. So now we're trying to attract all different markets. So we had to tone it down a little bit. I still love it though. Still love my new logo. I mean, it's a great logo, right? It's a punch. It's like a hand with a punch and a spatula. Yeah. Very cool. So when did you start the company? Well, I started in 2019. I just started it as an Instagram to display all of my personal meal preps. And then we officially became a business in 2020. And you were talking about how when we were talking before this, you were going over the history of how you started it. So how, what inspired you to start the business? Oh, yeah. So like I said, I started on the Mother Papa Instagram just to display my own recipes and meal preps I created for myself. And then one of my friends inquired and wanted me to meal prep for him. So I did that. And from there, just through word of mouth, it led to next person, the next person, the next person. And then all of a sudden, we registered as a legitimate business and we're able to market to people outside of our friends and family. Awesome. And so as someone who started her business a few years ago, what are some challenges that you have ran into? And I think like challenges overall and challenges during COVID, because that's kind of when things either, you can tell us whether it ramped up or slowed down, especially with the structure of your business, which we actually started right before COVID hit. And honestly, I think it kind of helped us because a lot of people were stuck at home. I think some stores were closed, a lot of places were closed and restaurants were closing. So we got a lot of business. And I would say the most challenging thing was getting ingredients and supplies because we are so small. You know, I have to go shopping at regular stores, like regular people and Costco and Sam's Club, they were limiting supplies on chicken and costs were going up. It was just really hard to find. And also trying to find a kitchen that supported all of our needs. You know, a lot of the shared commissary kitchens, they don't allow the type of cooking that we do. And they also don't allow you to store your things there. So we're still trying to find the perfect kitchen for us. And Yorah, you mentioned that you are a small business, you have your parents helping out. So who does all the cooking and the packing on all the delivery? So I do, I take the orders, I interact with our customers. I do the cooking, the packing. My mom also does a lot of the cooking. My dad helps cooking as well. He does the breakfasts. We all kind of just jump in where we can. And then I will do all of the deliveries. Where do you get your packaging from? And the stickers that you put on top? Oh, yeah. So I get my packaging from Chef Zone. Love Chef Zone. And then Connor from Sticker, he does all of my labels. They are, you have to check them out. His labels are fantastic. They're waterproof. They stick on. And even if our customers want to reuse our containers for their own personal use, they're easy to peel off as well. I love it. I do love reusable containers though, especially. Yes, it's perfect. I tell my customers because we can't take them back. I think, like I said, they are reusable. Either recycle or, you know, when you have family parties, save your containers for people to take home leftovers. You know, you don't have to worry about asking for your tupperware to come back. Very versatile. Yes. Good thinking. Yeah. And also, my kids, they love putting their art supplies in it. You can put, you know, art containers, they're good for everything. It's great. Sustainability is great, especially here in Hawaii, right? Yeah, exercise are limited. So it's good to know that you are providing that along with the meals that you're making for people. As far as demographic goes, who have you discovered end up purchasing your services, your, your products, your meals? We have a very, very wide. I would say mostly busy working families, mothers, mothers that order for their kids as well. They order for their husbands. We have a lot of nurses shift and might shift workers because while they're at work, you know, they're limited on options. Nothing is really open, you know, on their lunch break at 2am. So it's convenient for them to order their meal perhaps from us. They just take it to work and leave it there. We also have, oh, we also have clients that aren't on any diet. They just, they enjoy meals. So say the order from our low carb menu and say they're not low carb, they'll add in their own rice, their own potatoes, their own starch, you know. And recently, I am so excited about this. This is one of my favorite things to do. Recently, we have a few kupuna who have dysphagia. So they have a hard time chewing and swallowing. So what we do is come up with a menu for them and then charade their food to their specific texture, whether it's NDV1, 2, 3, 4, you know, special for them. I think that's great. That's a pretty wide range as far as your demographic goes. And I think it's awesome that you're able to service people who, like you mentioned, may not have quick access to healthy and delicious food, you know, odd times in the day. I had a question that I completely forgot about. And also, you know, our night shift workers, because they sleep during the day, you know, they can't go out and go grocery shopping because they're sleeping. You know, when stores are open, they're sleeping. So we give them, like, another option, you know, it's home cooked meal, it's convenient, ready to go, pop in the microwave, you're good to go. So the containers are microwavable, the food is microwavable. What is the recommended number of days that people can hold onto the food once they receive it from you? So from me, we don't recommend any of our noodle dishes to be stored in the freezer, but other dishes can be stored in the freezer up to six to eight weeks in the refrigerator up to five days. So what I like to tell our clients are your meals towards the end of the week, I would freeze it and then pull it out the day before to defrost in the refrigerator. It's interesting that you pointed that out because I forget to frost when I meal prep for myself, and that's one way to make it last longer. Yeah. Yes, for sure. Yeah. That's a great idea. We are going to go on a quick break, but when we come back, you can talk more about your business and how you come up with your menus, pricing and all that other good stuff and any other questions that may come up. So we will be right back. On April 1st, at 10 a.m. Hawaii time, Think Tech will be presenting a 90-minute webinar panel program called Burning Global Issues. This will be an examination of six continents by thought and community leaders living in or expert in those continents, discussing burning issues affecting each of them, how they relate to the prospects for functioning democracy, and what we can learn from all of that. The moderator for the program is Pamela Spratlin, a 30-year Foreign Service veteran who has served as U.S. Ambassador and Consular Official in a number of overseas posts. The panel is comprised of Carl Baker, Senior Advisor of Pacific Forum on China and Asia, Rupamati Khandekar, Director of Global Relations Forum on India, Elsa Jhark Hadean, a consultant with Project Expedite Justice on the Middle East, Hilbert Nuagira, an economist in Kampala, Uganda, on East Africa, Carl Ackerman, of the Social Studies Faculty at Punahou School on Eastern Europe, and Juan Telo, a business attorney in Bogota, Colombia, on Latin America. The program is sponsored by Project Expedite Justice. We hope you will attend, and that this program will help you better understand these important global issues. Please go to our website, thinktechhawaii.com and register. Mahalo. Welcome back to Connecting Hawaii Business on Think Tech Hawaii. Today, we, the show's name is Mother Pepper Packs, punches through meals, and our guest is Chantel Perry Montalvo, the owner of Mother Pepper. When we left off, we were talking about some challenges, the demographic for her clientele demographic, and we want to move on and talk about the menus. So Chantel, how do you come up with your menus, and do you customize them for clients? I do. Well, our most popular menu is the low-carb menu. Like I said, I honestly make things that I would want to eat. I don't serve anything that I'm not going to eat, and what I like, I grew up in the kitchen with my mom. My mom is the best cook, the best. So what I do is I take her recipes and then I tweak it. So I take out the sugar, the carbs, and it's kind of like a science experiment. So I take out what I can and try not to sacrifice too much texture and taste. I do a lot of local and Asian dishes. That's for the low-carb menu, and every week we just come up with something new. And sometimes I do ask for my regular clients if they're craving something or they want us to try something different. I'm also open to suggestions, and we try to do that as well. This past week, we tried something new. It was the barbecue pork ribs with cauliflower mac and cheese, and it was a hit. It really came out really good. So yeah, although I like to do local and Asian-inspired things, we can also do regular comfort foods as well. And then for our customized clients, those that are on a specific diet, we take what I like to tell them is bring your plan from either your coach or your physician, and then I'll work through it to see what you can have, what you don't. I also ask them about their personal life because it matters too how busy you are, how likely are you going to stick to this because I want to make it as easy as possible. And I also want to include that you like. I don't want to put anything on there that you're not going to. So the customized macropan, you can come to me with your target macros and we'll try to hit it as much as possible. Your special diet, if you're low sodium, low fat, high-carb, low-carb, we can do basically anything. Customize exactly to your specific needs and diet. What have you discovered so far? As far as favorite menu items go, do people come forward and ask requests for particular dishes that you've discovered? So all where I would say our top two customer favorites would definitely be the patele stew with cauliflower gandudi rice. That is a favorite. And the second would probably be our meatjun. Our meatjun is another hit. Yeah, I think those are the top two. And our different fried cauliflower rices are also popular. So we do your local breakfast fried rice. We do a double fried rice, kimchi fried rice. So that's another one. And our low-carb breaded chicken, that's another favorite because we sell that in bulk as well. So you can order the low-carb breaded chicken, you can put whatever sauces you want it, or we can do it for you. A favorite of that is our garlic chicken or dynamite chicken. Kind of sweet, kind of spicy. The top three. That's a lot. And I'm hungry now. Going over the descriptions. How do you... God, I'm told you just... This is because I am hungry. You know what? I have a question. I'm sorry. I'm so punctuated right now. I'll be right over with some meals for you. Let's take an example of... I'll just throw like a local favorite, right? Locomoco. Heavy on gravy, you know, your meat and your rice, right? Which is your starch. How would you alter that in a way where it could be a bit healthier and still taste really, you know, good? So with Locomoco, the high carb, the high carb ingredients in there would definitely be the rice. So I would take out the rice and substitute it either with tossed salad or cauliflower rice. The next high carb ingredient would be definitely the brown gravy. So instead of sticking in it with your typical starches like cornstarch or regular flour, we use a low carb flour and binding agents to replicate a gravy. That's awesome. I almost want to throw... I know we don't have enough time for it, but I want to take something like really heavy and throw it at you and be like, okay, do this because you see really skilled about really quickly figuring out what to swap out. And I think that is amazing. Thank you. Doing all this, I figured it, especially with the costs going up, how do you determine pricing for your prep meals? So we like to keep it as affordable as possible, even with cost rising. So the plus side of being really small and going out and shopping like a everyday person is, I'm able to look at the sales and see what's on sale this week. And then I will figure out my menu based on that. And we keep, so it's less confusing, we keep the prices the same. So although they're all the low carb menu, they're all meals are at a set price. And so sometimes it will be, you know, more expensive items, but we just keep it that way so it's simpler for our clients. How many meals does a package, I'm unsure what you call, is it a package or like? Yeah, so we do, we do a five day meal prep. So that includes five breakfasts and then 10 lunches and dinners. And that's for $150. So and then the specialized meal plans, it all just depends on what you want, what you can have, what you can't have. Those are just, there's no set price on that. That actually sounds like a very reasonable price considering everything is packed and ready to go. And it sounds like you use only the freshest ingredients to come up with these meals. So I'm going to keep that in mind. And I will contact you at some point to go over what I can actually order from your company. What future plans do you have to, you know, for your business, whether you want to grow it or tweak it, where, where are your thoughts when it comes to the future? We definitely want to expand and start shipping our meals to the outer islands. We currently have clients that travel back and forth from Oahu to Hawaii to Maui. So they will order from us and then take their meals with them. But we want to start shipping to the outer islands and US mainland eventually. We also want a storefront. So we are working on that. And we want to see our meals in stores. So convenient stores such as Somnom, Helicastation, 7-Eleven. So yeah, those are our future plans. I will, I will make a note of that. And hopefully one day I'll go to a 7-Eleven and be like, this is a little presential. So that's great. I think that is great. What are some lessons that you have learned of establishing this business? Wow, going from a regular 9-to-5 job to an entrepreneur. So many lessons. I'll try to break it down. So I would say the first one would have to be, you have to be passionate about what you do. That you have to really love what you do. You can't go into it for the money. You know what I mean? If you had everything paid for, you didn't have a family to take care of and you would still do what you're doing for free, that's your passion. If you wouldn't, then I would say that's not your passion. What else is there? I learned that not everybody is going to support you, but that's okay because especially when you're different, you know, not everyone is going to have the same vision as you, not everyone is going to get it. And that's totally fine because you will have people that support you. And I say those people that do, you hold on to them tightly. Great. Neshidj, is there anything else that you would like to add? I would like to tell everyone to please support local. We all, as small businesses in Hawaii, through this pandemic, through all these rising costs, we really need to stick together, collaborate when we can, support each other, like each other's posts, share each other's posts, you know, just stick together as much as we can and please support local as much as you can. We need to keep the money here in Hawaii for our people. I love that. Let's pull up your Instagram. For everyone watching the show, how can they get ahold of you for questions or to learn more about your meals? So currently we don't have a website, but we do have an Instagram. You can DM us on there. It's at motherprepa.m-u-t-h-a-p-r-e-p-p-a. You can also call or text our phone numbers 808-397-7798 and you can DM text anytime and we will get back to you as soon as we can. But yeah, we are always open. Any question, even if you're not planning on ordering, if any questions in general, we can help you for sure. Thanks, Shanta. Watch, you'll get random questions about it. What do you think about this? Yeah, I appreciate you being a resource for our community and for urging people out there to support local as well, especially during, you know, this day and age. And so thank you again for being on the show. Thank you, Stephanie. Of course. And thank you to Jay Fidel and the entire staff at Think Tech Hawaii for making shows like this possible. Today we had Max and Haley who helped us out. So until the next show, Allah. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn and donate to us at thinktech hawaii.com Mahalo