INDIANAPOLIS — Restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have closed businesses, canceled events and forced business owners to get creative.
Restaurants have launched curbside delivery and other businesses have launched online stores.
When weddings and events were canceled in March due to the coronavirus, Nameless Catering had to quickly come up with an idea to keep their business going. That's when they started making frozen family meals and they see it as a concept many of their customers now rely on.
"It's really made a big difference on giving me some more flexibility with timing now that everybody is home," Tammy Wegman, who orders from Nameless Catering, said.
Between the two of them, Wegman and her husband have five children. In April, as she focused on keeping her family safe, Tammy started ordering Nameless Catering's frozen family meals.
"I'm not wanting to go out to the grocery store. I'm not wanting to bring our kids out right now," Wegman said. "This has really been a nice option where the kids get to pick something. We keep them in the freezer. The delivery option has been really awesome for us."
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It's an idea CEO Jeremy Brown has wanted to launch but was so busy with catering orders never had the chance. That changed when events started getting canceled during the pandemic.
"The back end of March was pretty treacherous," Brown said.
Brown decided it was the perfect time.
"When your primary bread and butter is having large groups of people come together and eat together and then having large groups of people come together and eat together becomes illegal that becomes a challenge," Brown said. "We were actually able to reopen two of our kitchens because of it. It just got so busy so quick."
Families can order the meals online and get them delivered. Each one serves up to four people.
"If last minute plans come up it's not a big deal I don't have to pull it out," Wegman said. "If last minute plans come up and I need that mean, I need to add something because maybe the college kids will be home for dinner and we didn't know it, they are right there in the freezer and I have a healthy option without having to worry about running out to the store."
With weddings and events now starting to pick back up, Nameless Catering is busy once again but Brown said as long as there is a need the family meals will continue.
Starting the frozen family meals allowed Nameless Catering to reopen its facility in Anderson and bring back four employees. Right now they are offering delivery within an hour of Indianapolis and Anderson and expect to resume shipping meals across the state in the near future.
