How Healthy For Life Gives Back to Their Community Through Kitchen Coalition

A few miles from Second Harvest Heartland’s headquarters in New Hope, Minnesota, chefs are scooping raspberries and yogurt into ready-to-eat portions before being sealed and frozen. This breakfast, like countless others that Healthy For Life Meals offer, is tailored to fit certain nutritional guidelines and needs. 

“It’s really about a nutritionally controlled diet,” says Stephanie, CEO of Healthy For Life. “From calorie levels, to making sure that things like fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbs, and protein are very measured.” 

Healthy For Life has been in operation since 2001 and has seen the meal service industry grow and shift significantly. “It’s evolved quite a bit over the past twenty years,” says Stephanie, Healthy For Life’s CEO. “Anything food related is not a glamorous business. But I can’t begin to count the number of times that we’ve received feedback from a customer saying, ‘this health issue came into my life and it devastated me, and I wasn’t able to cook, but you guys were lifesavers.’ This is why we do what we do.” 

When Kitchen Coalition expanded to providing frozen meals to distribution partners in Greater Minnesota, Healthy For Life was perfectly suited to meet the need. “We have a different facility and different capabilities than a lot of restaurants and caterers,” says Jim, Healthy For Life’s chief operations officer. “We have the freezer space, as well as the heat seal machine,” notes Jim. Healthy For Life also follows the USDA and FDA food regulations, so they were well-quipped to start producing meals for Kitchen Coalition immediately.  

Healthy For Life's freezer space allows for the creation and storage of large amounts of meals for neighbors

Healthy For Life has provided frozen meals weekly for Kitchen Coalition since April of 2024. They offer both traditional meals—such as Korean beef on rice, and chicken breasts with rice pilaf—and vegetarian meals using garbanzo beans, lentils, and plant-based burgers and crumbles. 

“We do, for the most part, try to keep things neutral and Midwestern,” Jim says with a laugh. “From our understanding, our meals are being sent to a lot of rural areas, so we’re all about getting folks that comfort food, which is what the Midwest is all about.” 

Healthy For Life purchases food from Second Harvest Heartland to make their Kitchen Coalition meals and appreciate integrating the fresh produce and protein into their weekly meals. “Based on [what we get] is what we decide we’re going to make for the week,” says Jim. “We’re a manufacturing facility first, so we always want to stretch those dollars further.”   

A heat seal machine creates an airtight barrier keeping food fresh

Healthy For Life not only has their 24 employees preparing Kitchen Coalition meals, but they also receive workers through Partnership Resources (PRI), which creates partnerships between people with disabilities and the business community. “There’s no way we could imagine our business without them,” says Jim. 

Kitchen Coalition is grateful for our partnership with Healthy For Life, as they provide nutritious and easy-to-eat meals for neighbors facing barriers to cooking throughout Minnesota. “The food business has taken care of me since I was 14 years old,” says Jim. “It’s really cool to know that our business that has been taken care of by the community can now give back in a meaningful way.”