When customers walk through the doors of Ideal Nutrition, they won’t find aisles of ingredients. Instead, they’ll find a row of glass-door refrigerators filled with prepared, microwavable meals.
Located at 3730 SW Archer Road, husband and wife duo Miguel Sosa and Gwen Toro own a new location of the Ideal Nutrition franchise, which sells prepared meals. Their store had its soft opening Jan. 26 and is currently preparing for its grand opening March 5, which will feature a DJ, raffles and prizes.
Sosa said he and Toro set a goal to sell at least 300 meals per day and have already exceeded that. The store has gained a lot of interest, he said, even beyond the Gainesville community.
“We’ve had people drive two-and-a-half from Palm Coast and Jacksonville, which is amazing,” Sosa said.
Toro and Sosa are already planning to establish another location in Orlando, which is set to open in August.
For Toro and Sosa, their franchise is also a family business. Their daughter, 20-year-old Isabela Sosa, works part-time at the store while also enrolled at Santa Fe College as a sophomore and plans to later attend nursing school. Isabella Sosa said she enjoys the meals and has even convinced one of her professors to try them.
“It’s just so convenient to have food already prepared — not partially cooked or frozen — that you can just grab and go,” she said.
Toro first became interested in meal prepping during her career as a registered nurse, she said. She noticed the health issues many of her patients were facing, like high cholesterol and hypertension, and decided she needed to make changes in her own life. Toro cleaned out her kitchen and started cooking from scratch.
By meal prepping, she was able to save time while eating healthier. Now, she eats meals from Ideal Nutrition at least once a day rather than cooking herself.
The store has microwaves and outside seating, so some customers choose to buy a meal and eat it right away. Others buy as many as six at a time, opting to eat some fresh and freeze the rest. Each meal costs $8.49 and lasts five to six days in the refrigerator. Customers can freeze the meals at home for up to four weeks.
Madelynn Alyea, a 25-year-old athletic trainer for the University Athletic Association, said Ideal Nutrition has lower prices than similar meal prepping services she has found, like Hello Fresh and Factor.
“I have a crazy schedule, and the meals being made for you brought me in,” she said.
Each meal is prepared and delivered from a West Palm Beach kitchen twice a week and has nutrition labels printed on the packaging.
Two of the most popular meal options are the firecracker meatballs and baked chicken parmigiana. Out of the kitchen’s 43 options offered, four to eight of the meals sold at the store are switched out weekly to keep fresh options for customers. Ideal Nutrition also tries to cater to different dietary restrictions, such as paleo, keto, vegetarian and vegan.
Ideal Nutrition is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays.
Contact Corey Fiske at cfiske@alligator.org.
