A Springfield restaurant and a meal prep service have joined forces and unveiled a new business model.
“Essentially, Will Hoecker and I are merging both entities into one,” said Celeste Malham, co-owner of FED Kitchen, of the new partnership with Papo’s Café. “It’s kind of like Pease’s does with BUNN Gourmet.”
Celeste and her husband, Brennan Malham, who both have extensive backgrounds in fitness and nutrition, launched FED Kitchen in 2019 to offer pre-packaged meals to people who want healthy options that are often lacking with convenience foods. Rather than operating out of a brick-and-mortar location, the Malhams prepared the food in a commercial kitchen and then partnered with various other businesses to serve as pickup points.
Malham said her initial quest to find a new kitchen led to even bigger changes.
“My kitchen was kind of out in the middle of nowhere, and I was looking for a west-side location,” she said. “Will has other restaurants and has his hands in a couple of other things, too, so he was open to exploring a partnership.”
Papo’s Café closed its dining room at the end of December while changes were in the works and reopened Jan. 25 with a new look and a new menu. Malhalm said that while some healthier options were added to the Papo’s menu, many of the customer favorites still remain.
“We did add some FED kitchen bowls to the menu for healthier options and changed up some of the breakfast sandwiches – just amped them up with protein,” she said. “But we still have the cinnamon rolls, lattes and cookies… the sweets are there, too.”
Malham said Papo’s Café will serve as a pickup point for pre-orders. “Customers go online and order by midnight on Thursday and have their meal prep for the weekend,” she said.
Grab-and-go meals are also available at Papo’s Café, as well as at CarpeDiem CrossFit, CrossFit XLT, Wellthy Juice Co., Peace, Love & Sweat and Living Well Chiropractic.
In addition, FED Kitchen has teamed up with AlignLife of Springfield Chiropractic & Natural Health Center to offer free health socials at 6 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month at Papo’s Cafe. A guest business will join a monthly roundtable discussion at each health social, focusing on a different health topic.
On Tuesday, Feb. 18, Malham will join Ann Cowhick of Peace, Love & Sweat and Dr. Bryne Willey of AlignLife of Springfield Chiropractic to discuss gut health and dysfunction. Attendees can sample products from each business and network.
