By Amanda Raymond
amanda.raymond@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY – Performance Produce is known for growing, packaging and shipping fruits and vegetables all over the Southeast. Now, the company will be bringing those same fresh products to your doorstep to help you prepare homemade meals.

Performance Produce is offering a home delivery service through Vicky’s Kitchen to give households everything they need to prepare a healthy meal made from local ingredients.

Vicky’s Kitchen is part of Vicky’s Brand, a daughter company under Performance Produce.

Waylon Dudley, marketing director, said the company is always looking for different opportunities to offer their fresh produce to customers.

Virginia Roach, vice president of Performance Produce, came up with the idea of offering a home delivery service. She and husband J.R. are the owners of Performance Produce.

Dudley said other meal delivery services in different parts of the country have been successful.

“We’re looking to capture just a portion of that (success),” he said.

The service will be offered locally for now, from Winston-Salem to Concord and from Lexington to the east side of the Lake Norman area.

The meal boxes included all the ingredients needed to create the meal, including spices. The only thing the recipient may need to get on their own is cooking oil. All of the ingredients are individually packaged.

Instructions for the meal are included in the box, but for those who are more visually-inclined, there are online instructional videos available on the company’s website.

“We’re looking for quick and easy delicious meals,” Dudley said.

Most meal boxes contain seven ingredients or less and take about 20 to 30 minutes to prepare. They feed about four to six people and come in two sizes: traditional and deluxe. Dudley said the two target markets are millennials and busy families who like quick and easy meals.

Vicky’s Kitchen partners with a local protein company to provide the meats for the meals. The offerings will depend on what is fresh at Performance Produce at the time.

Dudley said ordering will work like a cafeteria-style restaurant – people can pick the type of meat they want, pick their sides and pick a dessert.

That flexibility is what Dudley says sets Vicky’s Kitchen apart from other meal home delivery services.

Dudley said he has enjoyed looking for healthy recipes to include in the meal boxes. For the Thanksgiving meals, they were able to offer a sweet potato casserole recipe that used caramelized bananas instead of marshmallows. They also found a recipe for a pumpkin pie that creates its own crust.

Vicky’s Kitchen is offering the home-delivered meals again for the Christmas season, and will eventually offer weekly subscriptions. Dudley said he is also working on offering meals that are child-friendly but still healthy.

Vicky’s Kitchen will donate a boxed meal to a family in need through the Salvation Army for every 10 meals sold during the holiday season.

Another part of the Vicky’s Brand is Vicky’s Gift Baskets. The company offers fruit, holiday, spa and coffee and tea baskets.

They can also use a company’s branded items to put together custom corporate baskets.

One of the baskets the company is still working on, the “Taste of Salisbury,” will include locally produced products like Cheerwine and Uglies from the Apple Baking Company.

“It’s a way for people to send the taste of Salisbury to their friends,” Dudley said.

Dudley also said the baskets can be used for employee and company recruitment.

As an incentive, gift baskets shipped to a location in Rowan County get a 10 percent discount. If locals from Rowan County pick up the gift baskets instead of having it delivered, there is a 20 percent discount. Only one of those discounts can be used at one time.

The company hopes to add more to the Vicky’s Brand in the future.

Expect a two-day delivery time for the meal boxes during the Christmas holiday. Vicky’s Kitchen will be accepting orders through Dec. 21. Order online at VickysGiftBaskets.com or call 704-870-2502, Monday – Friday, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Contact reporter Amanda Raymond at 704-797-4222.