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If you walk through the apartments of Victory at Syracuse, you might catch scents of seasoned meat and sauteed onions wafting out of an empty unit. The cooking smells come from Orange Plate, a small business delivering fresh, pre-made meals to the doorsteps of Syracuse University students every Sunday.

The company’s founders — seniors Gavin Mitchell and Harrison Goldberg and junior Hudson Landau — noticed slim off-campus dining options that were both reliable and healthy, Mitchell said. After making an arrangement with Victory, they started cooking meals in the vacant apartment to cater to SU students.

“Students are stuck in their ways, food-wise, and we wanted to introduce a new food option that could contribute to a healthy and consistent lifestyle in our busy lives,” Mitchell said.

Unlike other food delivery services available in the Syracuse area, there are no hidden fees or long waits behind the Orange Plate deliveries, and the meals are microwaveable. Orange Plate offers a wide range of prices on its menu: $12 to $15 for entrees, $4 to $7 for appetizers, and $2 to $3 for desserts.

“We want our customers to not feel overwhelmed by the question of ‘What am I going to eat for dinner after my day of classes?’” Goldberg said.

When Goldberg and Mitchell shared their business plan with Victory, Goldberg said the group thought it was a good business idea that would be beneficial for the community. Usually, there’s a two-dollar delivery fee for Orange Plate customers, but the fee is waived for customers who reside in Victory properties.

Avery Magee | Assistant Photo Editor

Orange Plate, started by Syracuse University students, noticed slim off-campus dining options that were both reliable and healthy. They started cooking meals in a vacant Victory at Syracuse apartment to cater to now over 70 SU students.

Every Tuesday after class, the group decides what’s on the menu for the week and creates the Google Form they’ll link in their Instagram bio later that night. Clients can order via the link until Friday at noon. Once the form closes, the team gathers back inside the kitchen, making note of how many servings they’ll need for each customer.

On Friday and Saturday, the team makes several trips to the grocery store. On Sunday morning, they start cooking, and that night they drive around Syracuse delivering meals door-to-door. With a short turn around, their weekly routine repeats again.

Since its inception in early November, the small business has attracted over 70 customers and offered weekly subscription plans to consistent customers, Mitchell said. Among those customers is SU architecture sophomore Theo Chalker, who’s had Orange Plate meals delivered every week since the business started.

Chalker said that without a meal plan, it’s challenging to stay on top of eating at regular meal times, so he “jumped on the opportunity” to address that with Orange Plate. His subscription has helped his eating habits while at college, he said.

Orange Plate hand-delivers Chalker’s order on Sundays — usually eight or nine entrees, sides and desserts that will last him all week. Before discovering Orange Plate, Chalker tried techniques like meal prepping to help him eat frequent, healthy meals amid his back-to-back class schedule, but they didn’t work out. Since eating meals from Orange Plate, Chalker said he doesn’t go to bed hungry anymore, and he’s been able to start working out again.

Cole Ross | Digital Design Director

SU junior Jason Silver, another Orange Plate customer, also tried to improve his eating habits with the service. Silver said his eating had become so inconsistent he tried Factor75, a nationwide pre-made meal subscription service.

At the time, Orange Plate had just taken off. After Silver received a different service’s box with unsatisfying portions, he canceled the subscription and decided to try Orange Plate’s pre-made meals.

The Orange Plate subscription relieved stress and eliminated extra time he spent preparing meals during the school week, he said.

“I don’t have to think about what I am eating for the week, I just submit a Google Form and have food,” Silver said.

Heading into spring semester this year with Landau studying abroad, Goldberg and Mitchell knew they needed to hire another employee to help run Orange Plate.

They brought on SU sophomore Dax Nguyen this January, whose cooking expertise was recommended to Mitchell and Goldberg by a friend. Nguyen now works as the head chef of Orange Plate. He said he was eager to join Orange Plate because of the cooking experience he gained in the five years he worked at a local Mexican restaurant.

Nguyen joined Mitchell and Goldberg in devoting a large portion of their free time during the school week to running a business. Goldberg said they spend four out of the seven days of the week in the apartment to connect with one another and make sure their business continues to bring profit.

Avery Magee | Assistant Photo Editor

Orange Plate, a pre-made meal delivery service started by Syracuse University students, offers a range of prices on their menu. Each week, the group creates a Google Form for customers to fill out, and on Sunday nights they drive around Syracuse delivering meals door-to-door.

Since establishing a routine, Goldberg said he and his co-workers have seen an improvement in their productivity. It started out differently — for their first Sunday cooking session, they hadn’t done any prior preparations, he said.

After spending over $1,000 on meat they didn’t need and 12 hours in the kitchen, Goldberg and his business partners learned the organizational skills Orange Plate needed. Though it isn’t “rocket science,” Goldberg said, the numbers can still be a lot to manage, and they have to keep track of it all.

“You really can’t skip a beat when it comes to finances,” Mitchell said.

The Orange Plate staff hopes to continue growing as a self-reliant business with a permanent industrial kitchen. Even after Mitchell and Goldberg leave SU in May, they’re positive that Orange Plate will be in good hands with Landau and Nguyen.

“I want Orange Plate to be around Syracuse for decades,” Landau said. “I want this business not to just be making food, but I want us to create a platform where people can order our food and have it for a week and then order again, and really cater to Syracuse students.”

Published on February 26, 2025 at 10:57 pm

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