Citrus Pear Dinners wants to help your family with quick, delicious meals - East Idaho News
Small Business Spotlight

Citrus Pear Dinners wants to help your family with quick, delicious meals

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McKenzie Rockwood, Owner, teaching meal assembly class | Mckenzie Rockwood

SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Citrus Pear Dinners

IDAHO FALLS – Convenience. Healthy. Fun.

These words were used frequently by Megan Beutler and McKenzie Rockwood when they told us about Citrus Pear Dinners, the focus of this week’s Small Business Spotlight.

What is Citrus Pear Dinners?

The purpose of the business is to teach people how to make quick, nutritious meals that taste good. That is accomplished by teaching classes.

How does it work?

citrus pear broulims 3

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During a class in Idaho Falls, participants prepare freezer meals | Rett Nelson, EastIdahoNews.com

A group of 10 or more people come together to assemble 10, 20, or 40 freezer meals. They prepare the meals during a two hour class, and then put them in the freezer at home.

“All you have to do is open the bag and stick it in the crockpot, and not worry about it,” says Megan Beutler, Lead Dietician and Manager of Citrus Pear in Idaho Falls.

The classes are held at Broulim’s multiple times a week. The cost to attend varies, depending on the number of meals you want to make, and the services you want.

Prices:

  • 10 meals – $185 (feeds 6-8 people)
  • 20 meals – $320 (feeds 6-8 people)
  • 20 meals – $195 (feeds 3-4 people)
  • 40 meals – $332 (feeds 3-4 people)

In Idaho Falls, you can pay an additional $60, and their staff will assemble the meals for you to pick up.

Rockwood began offering classes in Cache Valley, Utah, where she lives. In the last year, Citrus Pear classes began in Idaho Falls. They began offering classes in Rexburg the first week of January. Rockwood says classes have also been requested in Pocatello and Boise.

How did Citrus Pear get started?

McKenzie Rockwood started the business in March of 2016. While working as a dietician at a hospital, she consulted with people who needed specialized diets for various medical conditions.

“I felt like there was a disconnect between the hospital and the home,” Rockwood tells EastIdahoNews.com. “I was giving them all this information, but not giving them a way to implement these special diets. So I had this idea to help make it easier for them to be healthy.”

The original intent of Citrus Pear Dinners was to provide special diets for people with diabetes or heart disease, but Rockwood says it evolved into something with mass appeal.

“Busy families and busy moms who want to feed their families healthy food–these were the kind of people who started to attend the classes.”

What are people’s biggest misconceptions about nutrition?

“When people aren’t eating healthy, it’s (due to lack of) time or information,” Beutler says. “There’s a lot of false information out there. A lot of people are just misinformed about what’s healthy or what’s nutritious.”

“People grow up learning convenience and adapting to convenience. A lot of people think convenience means getting a frozen pizza or a sandwich at the deli. Those options are convenient but they are not always healthy.”

“You can make healthy meals, and it’s not that complicated.”

What do you find most rewarding about Citrus Pear Dinners?

“The most rewarding thing is when you’re in a class and you’re helping these people assemble meals and they are so grateful because they know how much harder it would be at home, in their own kitchen, making a mess, and having to do all the grocery shopping and the meal planning,” Rockwood says. “They’re just so excited and so grateful. I think my favorite quote (I heard from a customer) is ‘it’s just like Christmas.’ They show up and then they leave with all this food to feed their family and they have a good time.”

“I think it’s fun to teach people different things, like how to use a juicer. During the class, we’ll teach people…simple things that a lot of people don’t know how to do. I think it’s a lot of fun to see people learning new things,” says Beutler.

Anything else people should know?

“It seems like once you try it and see how easy it is and how much stress it can relieve on families at dinnertime, it’s a no-brainer,” Rockwood says.

To find out when classes are held, follow Citrus Pear on Facebook. Their website also has more information.

If you want your business to be featured in the Small Business spotlight, send an email to rett.nelson@eastidahonews.com.

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