What adjustments were made as safety precautions for the PTYD team?

The first shift Prep To Your Door made was requiring face masks even though there was no State or Federal mandate. Heather was a medic in the United States Air Force, and knew medical protocols to prevent disease and germ transmission. Faiez bought cotton T-shirts for staff to wrap around their faces. The next step was to increase sanitation practices. Each staff was assigned an area to wipe down, like door handles, or faucets, with extra focus on frequently touched places. We checked temperatures every morning. We increased our delivery standards, including gloves changed at every stop, sanitizing the bags, and even wiping the steering wheels and radio buttons of the delivery vehicles.

We also had to create a COVID delivery driver protocol. Then Prep To Your Door moved into a new 4000 square foot facility during the middle of the pandemic. This was oddly comforting as we got to create a safe open space for our team, and no longer had to share a commercial kitchen with three other companies. In addition to the masks on shifts, the company purchased face shields, to cover moments when staff was unable to remain six feet apart. With the face shields came fogginess & claustrophobia challenges for some of our kitchen team, so we explored goggles.

It’s safe to say finding the right PPE for our team was definitely a journey. Our biggest win was providing short term disability coverage that will allow team members to be paid a salary should they receive a COVID positive test. This keeps our staff safe. The company included all staff in return back to work policy conversations, which includes a negative test after air travel, to ensure everyone feels safe during this unprecedented time.

What was changed in order to maintain stable revenue? Did you promote new services/products? Special offers? Discounts? Complimentary items?

Thankfully, our product is a non-contact customer experience at its core. We did however raise money through a GoFundMe for hospitality workers in need. We successfully distributed over $5000 to over 25 displaced service-industry professionals. We also successfully hired three people during the pandemic from those who reached out for help.

Our biggest challenge during the pandemic was growing awareness of our company. Before the pandemic, we relied on in-person tastings and popups. Now that we are unable to create valuable experiences in person, we try to utilize social media even more so people can still learn about us.

What has been the biggest challenge you faced as owners of a small business and how have you overcome these challenges?

At first, it was navigating the many emotions our team faced and working together to create a safe space for us to express fears and concerns.

In addition to managing our team, the biggest challenge was making decisions without any guidance. For example, one of our team members tested positive for COVID. Due to our mask and face shield policy in place, we were fairly positive that it was not transmitted to others, but we had to be sure. We scheduled testing for everyone and waited for results. While no one else tested positive, we still wondered if we should shut down the business for 14 days to allow for quarantine. We didn’t want to be a part of the overflowing hospitals contributing to more deaths.

Instead of staying still and waiting for things to open back up, we decided to take a chance on growth: We launched Houston deliveries. We are still navigating the growing pains that come with a new market launch, but we are happy to be offering a reliable, organic, meal service to other Texans at a time when everything feels a little unpredictable.

How did you stay motivated and positive as founders and owners of Prep To Your Door? How did you help your team stay motivated and positive?

Recognizing that we were able to provide our team a stable source of income during a pandemic was one of the most gratifying experiences for us. Our team grew closer because of this shared collective experience of being essential workers. In addition, we got to create and bring love into our new east side headquarters.

We also moved all of our meetings to a virtual format, which allowed for all members to be a part of them. COVID may have taken away our ability to congregate in close quarters, but it did not take away our ability to create a culture based on trust, compassion, and conscious communication. In addition, we started book clubs which covered topics like using nature inspired lessons for leaders of today, and business concepts like open-book management.

These many variables simply added another layer of purpose to our mission of delivering healthy food to people during a time where immunity was at the forefront of our concerns.

What has been your biggest take away/lesson learned from this experience?

The biggest lesson is emphasizing the importance of taking care of our personal health and the health of our planet. Through our organic, plant-based, and zero-waste business, we strive to improve the quality of life for our soils, our farmers, and our local community. Seeing how precious life can be, really challenged our team to approach each day from a place of gratitude, and learning how to communicate our more negative thoughts or emotions to serve as an invitation for growth.

How’s PTYD doing now compared to the beginning of the pandemic?

While we have much to learn, we are stronger because of the challenges we faced. We now have our own headquarters with the space we need to carry out all of our operations, fully developed departments, and an entire leadership team with salaried packages. We couldn’t have gotten through this pandemic without our team in place.

Having a team as dedicated to our mission as ours is, has allowed us to show up for the community in even bigger ways. Given the recent winter storm we had, we were able to boil & distribute over 800 gallons of clean water to Austinites affected by the water boil, raised over $20,000 to serve meals to Texans in need, delivered over 2,000 organic meals, distributed over 200 vegan sandwiches to Houstonians, and partnered with Johnson’s Backyard Garden to distribute over 100 CSA boxes of fresh produce to Houston.

The pandemic has increased our capacity to give back to the local community, and in alignment with our fellow UT saying , we truly believe that what starts here changes the world.