Two entrepreneurs roll out healthy food plan to curb lifestyle diseases

It seems like a contradiction of sorts: the idea of meals being delivered to your doorstep in order to promote a healthy lifestyle. But it is a little more intricate than that. It is about making healthy living more convenient.

Lifestyle, or non-communicable, diseases are the leading causes of death in Kenya and Loise Nyanjau, 29, who works at the Spinal Injury Hospital in Hurlingham believes the high prevalence is a direct symptom of urbanisation.

And so with her business partner, financial investment banker Wairimu Thumbi, 31, the two opened Purple Earth Foods to address the issue of unhealthy lifestyles in Nairobi.

“With urbanisation comes the need to be motorised so there is less walking and cycling,” said Dr Loise, which translates to a sedentary lifestyle.

She adds that urbanisation also impacts on the commercialisation of food since manufacturers build brand loyalty by increasing the presence of fats, sugars and salts in their products.

“If you want to eat a healthy meal, what do you eat apart from fruit salad?” poses Ms Thumbi, adding that no restaurant in Nairobi communicates the ingredients of their meals and its dietary implications to patrons.

It was a market gap that appealed to their combined experience in medicine and finance, and so in 2011, they started Purple Earth Foods which adopts complete transparency by specifying the ingredients in their meals and the exact calorie count.

With a budget of Sh1 million, the two developed a unique menu - where each dish caters to the basic food groups, has a distinct calorie count and is comprised of pro-fitness ingredients - and opened a kitchen on Ngong Road where the meals would be prepared.

“Convenience is a big factor for any business when they want to up their numbers,” said Dr Loise, and so instead of opening a restaurant - which would force customers to come to them - they adopted a delivery style model which allows them to dispatch meals to customers across the city.

“Businesses that are able to deliver meals and goods to where their clientele are tend to do better,” she said.

The prevalence of a financial service like M-Pesa which allows businesses to supply customers with goods and be paid in advance through mobile money, also appealed to them as it strengthened their delivery model.

Purple Earth Foods caters to two groups of people: those who would like to follow a fixed diet plan for an eight week period (Sh5,875 per week), and those who are simply interested in ordering meals as and when they require.

For the first group, in addition to a regimented meal structure, participants go through a full medical check up, consult a fitness instructor and attend a cooking class which trains them to prepare their own healthy meals.

The company completed a successful 10-week pilot course in October and is currently in its fourth eight-week programme. Each programme attracts around 50 people across all age spectrums, and in their pilot programme, “80 per cent of participants lost significant weight,” said Dr Loise.

The true outcome, she added, however, was less about weight loss than improving cholesterol, blood sugar and uric acid levels, and maintaining a healthy metabolism.

When starting the business, Dr Loise and Ms Thumbi did not expect to exceed an initial investment of Sh1 million but in just three months they had by Sh300,000.

“You almost always underestimate what you will need,” said Ms Thumbi, and the first area where they incurred losses was the pilot programme which they had to subsidise by 50 per cent in order to encourage enrollment.

They also experienced challenges with delivery, a cornerstone of their business model. Broken promises by a service supplier meant they were forced to deliver meals in their personal vehicles, or flag down a passing boda boda in an ad hoc manner.

“We were more worried about the cooking, and managing the kitchen. But transportation became our biggest challenge,” said Ms Thumbi.