Sector: Food and drink, sales and retail.
Principal: Jocelyn Light
Number of employees: One
Unique selling proposition: Exclusively plant-based meal kits that prioritize nutrient-rich recipes with locally sourced ingredients.
Target audience/market: Vegans and home cooks with limited resources looking for nutritious, plant-based meals.
Website: easyvegan.ca
As a professional working from home, Jocelyn Light waited years for a substantial plant-based meal kit option. “I would just check every few months because I was busy,” says Light, who struggled to balance meal planning with a full-time job and day-to-day life. “I don’t want to be doing meal prep on Sunday, I want to be camping on a small island, right? But every time I would look, there really weren’t plant-based options. Or there would be a couple, but then they wouldn’t be consistent.”
When no such offering sprung up, Light (who uses they/she pronouns) took it upon themself to create the very meal kit they were looking for: Easy Vegan.
Easy Vegan partners with organizations throughout the peninsula to create meal kits with local ingredients, such as ginger soy curls, “lazy” lasagna, savoury quinoa bites and peanut butter power cookies. “Everything is coming from as close to home as possible,” says Light. “And of course, the only way to do that with produce is to be aware of the seasons and what’s growing.” Using seasonal produce furthers Light’s commitment to sustainable practices since locally sourced ingredients require less travel and packaging while maintaining the same freshness as imported ingredients. Light also makes sure to partner with businesses that share their own values, such as the Zero Waste Emporium. “They’re definitely incredibly aligned in terms of their sustainable practices and their community focus.”
One of Light’s biggest priorities with Easy Vegan recipes is tasty nutrition, which includes nutrition labels for every meal option. Light also points out that those with meatless diets must be more conscientious about protein intake in particular. “That can be even more concerning if you’re used to associating protein with animal products.”
Plus, Easy Vegan recipes consciously avoid replacement-style ingredients such as imitation meat and cheese. “We’re not trying to just replicate. We’re making really good food that happens to use different sources [than animal proteins].”
In addition to the meal kits, Easy Vegan provides cookies for local bakeries, cafés and storefronts. Light is eager to partner with more local food providers interested in diversifying offerings for customers with specialized diets, but asserts that Easy Vegan isn’t only for those with meatless diets. “I have zero judgment for how people eat,” they say. “We’re really just for anybody who wants really easy, but really good food … You really don’t need to be vegan to enjoy a couple of plant-based meals a week.”
