Lisa Scribner was doing some work in the attic above her garage when the drywall gave way, and she tumbled through, landing hard on the concrete floor below and suffering a bad blow to her head. Oddly, she also lost her sense of smell.

Lisa takes a great deal of pleasure in preparing meals for her family – husband, Jay, and sons, Pierce and Bo. But without a sense of smell, she felt more than off-balance. She felt lost in the kitchen. “Smell is vitally important to cooking,” Lisa says, “And I still had to feed my family.”

Looking for options, she started reading about the blossoming meal assembly business, in which customers can go to a commercial kitchen and work in social groups or individually to prepare meals, which can then be boxed up, taken home, frozen or served, without having to do all the marketing and after cooking clean-up. Lisa wondered how long it would be before someone in Columbia latched on to that idea. (more…)