David and Vickie Shuman opened Your Meal Ticket, a meal-assembly business, in Lancaster this month.
By Catherine S. Molitoris
Updated Feb 04, 2008 06:00
Vickie and David Shuman hope not.
They opened Your Meal Ticket, a meal-assembly business, Nov. 14, at 1509B Lititz Pike, in the Lancaster Shopping Center.
The business is the third of its type to open in the past two years in Lancaster County. Dish it Up Dinners debuted in Elizabethtown in May 2005, while Dream Dinners opened in the Granite Run Shopping Center last week.
The exploding meal-making business doesn’t worry Vickie Shuman.
“I think it’s great for competition,” she says. “In any given month, our menu might appeal to some people, and theirs will appeal to others.”
Like the other stores, Your Meal Ticket offers customers a list of entree choices each month. Customers select what they’d like to prepare, register for a session and then come to the store to make their meals.
Ingredients come frozen and are easily assembled into disposable pans, which the customer takes home to bake at a later date.
The Shumans chose to create Your Meal Ticket themselves, without relying on a franchise system such as Dream Dinners.
“We wanted to do our own thing and have as much flexibility as possible,” Shuman says. “We are both entrepreneurs and have it in our blood.”
Shuman has an MBA from the University of Baltimore and handled the business plan for the store, which was more than a year in the making.
David Shuman earned a culinary arts degree from Harrisburg Area Community College and was the chef at Armstrong Manor.
Part of the flexibility of Your Meal Ticket comes in its offerings for customers. There is no minimum number of entrees that must be prepared; patrons can make just one meal if they prefer.
“We want people to have fun when they come in here,” Shuman says. “Our tagline is: ‘Where food is fun and fabulous.’ ”
The Shumans began transforming the former K&G Meats location in August, completing floor-to-ceiling renovations.
“We brightened up the place with new paint in bold colors,” Shuman says. “We put in a new ceiling and a new floor.”
Your Meal Ticket is open Tuesdays through Saturdays, with the first session at 10 a.m. and last beginning at 7 p.m. (or 1 p.m. Saturdays).
The cost of a session varies depending on the amount of servings in each entree and the number of entrees chosen but averages about $200 for 12 four-serving meals, Shuman says.
For more information on Your Meal Ticket, visit www.yourmealticket.net or call 735-6888.
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