A Business for Bettering the Community

As I am driving with my father to Athens to visit my sister at college, we get hungry and want to stop and eat. We drive through town after town and the majority of our options are fast food. None of the options catch our eye. We do not want to eat something greasy and unhealthy because we are driving, and it will make us feel bad. All we see is a McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and other drive throughs. Granted there is always a Chili's, but we do not have the time to stop and sit down at a restaurant, and Chili's can get a little expensive. We want something affordable and healthy, and then we remember one of our friends has recently opened a café on the outskirts of Athens.

Healthy eating can be a challenge for many due to grocery prices, accessibility, or even knowing how to cook and taking the time to make a meal at home. Fast food is relatively cheap, quick, and accessible to many. On the other hand, finding a place that serves healthy food that has the same speed as fast food and affordable price points can be difficult. Because of the convenience and prices of fast food, they have become popular. In many towns, there are fast food restaurants spread across the map. Fortunately, with the rising popularity in fast food chains, there is a rapidly growing café franchise in America called Clean Eatz. At Clean Eatz Café, their focus is to educate people about clean, healthy eating, and provide the community with clean, healthy food (“Who We Are”). 

My father's friends, Yarko and Dianne Foltyn, wanted to open their own franchise of Clean Eatz. They were inspired to open their own café when they saw that a family friend of theirs had begun to lose a lot of weight. They asked her how she was getting into better shape, and she said that she was going to the gym and getting her meals from her body builder sister. Her sister owns a Clean Eatz Café in Colorado, which was one of the first to open. She was not receiving her meal plans from her sister’s nutritionist, but from the small café franchise. This inspired them to open their own cafe because they saw the positive impact that it has on their customers and wanted to provide that to their community. 

On August 31st, 2022, Yarko and Dianne opened their own Clean Eatz Cafe in Athens, Georgia. When they first opened, it was only the eighteenth store in Georgia. Now there are over eighty. Clean Eatz is not their first business to open, but there were still minor complications. The opening process took longer than what they had planned for. Yarko said that one of their biggest difficulties was the timeline for the government regulations. He said that the environmental health regulations and getting equipment took the longest and ended up pushing back their opening date. Along with these things, Dianne added that finding employees was hard at first. It took them a while to find applicants until they put up their advertisement on the job searching website, Indeed. Even though there were a few bumps in the road, all of their hard work eventually paid off, and they finally opened. 

One of the first things you will see when you first walk into Clean Eatz is their menu. It is hung up on the wall over the cash register and has a variety of options. From burgers and wraps to smoothies and fudge, they pretty much have it all. On the far right of the menu, you will see a meal plan option. The meal plan menu changes weekly, so customers can eat a variety of foods every week. Meal plans can

Meal prep container

consist of anywhere between five and twenty-one meals. If it consists of nine or less meals, it costs $8.20 per meal. As the number of meals purchased by customers increases, the meal price drops. Once customers buy upwards of twenty-one or more meals, the price is $6.52 per meal (“Meal”). After looking at the menu, if you look to your left you will see a set of freezers. In the freezers are already prepped and cooked meals that you can buy, all you have to do is put them in the oven or microwave. These meals what is offered with the meal plan, but if buying a plan is too much commitment, you can buy single meals. So along with their many options on their menu, they have pre-prepped meals to buy and take home. 

The meal plan food is really easy to prepare at home. I brought home a pizza after one of my visits, and all I did to eat it was put it in the over for ten minutes. Then, it was ready. It takes almost the same amount of time to make as a store bought frozen pizza, but it is healthier. When I have eaten at Clean Eatz, the service has been fantastic. There might not be a drive through, but your food will come out fast regardless. Once you order, your food will come out in about five to ten minutes. I think this is an exceptional amount of time to receive a healthy and fresh meal. Even though the food is healthy, it does not “taste healthy.” Along with being seasoned while cooked, there are many delicious sauce options. There is often a misconception that healthy food does not have flavor and is bland, but that is not the case at Clean Eatz. The food is made with care and consideration; it is not just thrown into a deep fryer. 

Clean Eatz Café’s motto is “We Change Livez,” and they really do. One of their regulars who has come in and gotten his meals since opening day has lost around eighty pounds. He eats there three times a day with a meal plan and goes to the gym (Foltyn). Doing this has allowed him to lose weight in a healthy way. When asked what her favorite part about owning and working at Clean Eatz, Dianne said, “Seeing how it helps people.” She has seen the positive impact that Clean Eatz Cafe has on people in the community first hand, and because of this, she and her husband have been inspired to open another franchise. 

Along with their slogan comes a challenge called the “We Change Livez Challenge.” This challenge runs through February and March. Customers have the opportunity to submit their own story about how they are changing their lives with the involvement of Clean Eatz. Each store chooses a story that they deem to be the most compelling and moving, and the winner gets $1,000 and a month’s worth of meals. Then, each local winner’s story is sent to corporate where they will choose one overall winner. Whoever is chosen by the corporate office wins $25,000 and a year’s worth of meals. 

As healthy eating becomes more and more popular, I am not surprised to see the Clean Eatz franchise growing and spreading all across America. I hope to see more Clean Eatz Cafes and places like it replace fast food chains. The café has the ability to change people’s lives for the better, and I hope that more people continue to gain accessibility to clean and healthy food. 

Works Cited 

“Who We Are.” Clean Eatz, https://cleaneatz.com/about. Accessed 21 Mar. 2023. 

“Meal Plans • New Menu Every Week.” Clean Eatz, https://cleaneatz.com/healthy-meal-plans. Accessed 21 Mar. 2023

Foltyn, Dianne. Personal Interview, 11 Mar. 2023.

Foltyn, Yarko. Personal Interview, 11 Mar. 2023. 

Image Credits 

"Meal prep container" by ella.o is licensed under CC BY 2.0.