Meal Prep Mate by Publicis Sapient & The Ad Council

The Save The Food campaign has released a free digital tool that offers a different take on meal-prepping—helping users not only eat healthy, but save food, money and the environment in the process.

'Meal Prep Mate' is the latest resource from Ad Council and the Natural Resources Defense Council’s national public service campaign aimed at reducing the massive amount of food that is wasted by consumers in the US and all of the money and resources trashed along with it — from water to energy and more.

While meal prepping can help people eat healthy, it can be difficult to accurately portion meals. Created pro bono by Publicis Sapient, the easy-to-use digital tool is designed to help meal prep novices and experts alike avoid over-purchasing and over-preparing by building personalized shopping lists, portioning meals and making use of what’s already in the fridge.

Users can choose to build their own customized plan or use one of Meal Prep Mate’s existing plans, with vegan and vegetarian options available for both options.

Users who choose to follow an existing Meal Prep Mate plan will share the number of people eating and the number of days they are planning to eat. From there, they will receive a tailored shopping list and pre-designed recipes—developed by registered dietitian Rebecca Ditkoff, culinary producer Clare Langan and Save The Food experts—for nutritious, accurately portioned breakfast, lunch and dinner meals, all of which rely on one set of ingredients.

Users who build their own plan start by selecting the proteins, produce and grains they want to use. Then, they input the number of people eating, the number of meals needed for them and the types of meals being served (breakfast, lunch and/or dinner). Based on this information, the tool then suggests how much of each ingredient users should buy. It also provides a Waste-less Guide for how to best store and use up their ingredients, as well as “remix meal” ideas to prevent home cooks from getting bored of their meals mid-week.