This student is tasting start-up success with a meal delivery service for seniors

Sarah Holland — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 17:33:08 +0000

This student is tasting start-up success with a meal delivery service for seniors Sarah Holland Mon, 03/23/2026 - 13:33

Starting a business is a delicate task. Even if you get the measurements just right, without a dash of innovation, a sprinkle of luck, and a heaping spoonful of courage, it’s likely to go straight from the oven to the bin.

Zachary Suh prepares food in the College of Public Health's Nutrition Kitchen. Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Zachary Suh, however, is mastering the recipe.

Suh, a marketing major in the Costello College of Business and member of the Honors College at �鶹��Ƶ, founded HomePlate, formerly Elderly Eats, in his sophomore year. It’s a meal service for seniors that provides medically thoughtful and culturally relevant meals made fresh and delivered right to their doorstep.

The idea first took root during COVID-19 lockdowns, when Suh’s grandmother moved in with the family as her Alzheimer’s reached late-stage. “My mom, who is a George �鶹��Ƶ professor, became her full-time caregiver,” he said. "Caregiving takes a huge physical and emotional toll. I wanted to help her in any way I could.”

Leaning into his love for cooking, Suh took over making all the meals for his family: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He discovered that his grandmother was most interested in Korean food. “Even with her cognitive decline, you could tell she enjoyed those meals much more,” he said.

This discovery led him to another: a major gap in senior food delivery. “At one point, we looked into meal service for seniors, but we couldn’t find anything that did culturally relevant meals,” he said.

Suh is familiar with start-ups: his older brother, Jeremy Suh, founded an AI company while in college. “He’s a big inspiration for me, very much my mentor,” Suh said. “We talked about this idea for a food delivery service, about how I could bring this onto a larger scale.”

And from those conversations, Suh was encouraged to apply for the 2024 Patriot Pitch competition, hosted by Costello College of Business. HomePlate won first place in the General Entrepreneurship Track and was selected as a �鶹��Ƶ’s Choice Award Prize winner, earning Suh $7,000 to start turning his idea into reality.

“From the very outset, what impressed me most about Zach was his unwavering commitment to helping caregivers and seniors by providing them with nutritious, culturally relevant meals that could be consumed at home,” said Jerry Pierce, MBA ’92, a retired KPMG partner and professor of accounting at Costello. “His passion for helping others is always on full display and was a big reason the audience selected him for the �鶹��Ƶ’s Choice Award.”

Photo by Evan Cantwell/Office of University Branding

Previously, HomePlate provided meal plans with an in-house demonstration of meal prep. Now, they’re transitioning to a fresh meal delivery service. Suh works with a registered dietician to craft meals that meet the variety of dietary and health needs of senior populations, such as diabetic restrictions, sodium control, low cholesterol, and general wellness. During the pilot program in March, HomePlate focused on Korean meals with hopes to expand to other cuisines in late 2026.

For Suh, now a junior at George �鶹��Ƶ, this shift lets him get back to doing what he loves: cooking. He is making all the meals from scratch in partnership with Kitchen of Purpose in Arlington. “You’ll see me at every stage,” he said. “In the grocery store, in the kitchen, delivering the meals, and then taking the trash out after.”

Being both a student and a business owner is certainly a balancing act. Suh said that it wouldn't be possible without the phenomenal support from George �鶹��Ƶ. Costello’s Office of Career Services and Jeremy Plotnick, director of minor programs for Costello, have been key supporters. Plotnick mentored Suh and helped him register his work on the business as an internship, allowing him to prepare for the relaunch while earning academic credit toward his degree. Working in the MIX incubator connected him to student and alumni entrepreneurs. Professors have offered advice. Even while studying abroad at �鶹��Ƶ Korea, he was able to network and pitch his business through the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, as well as attend a one-week accelerator program in Australia.

“I don’t think you get this level of care and mentorship at other universities,” Suh said. “Being a George �鶹��Ƶ student gives you access to this unparalleled network of professionals who have so much knowledge."

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Nutrition course lets students examine food and culture

ckearney — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:24:39 +0000

Nutrition course lets students examine food and culture ckearney Thu, 12/02/2021 - 09:24

�鶹��Ƶ students Tony Santos and Leydy Rojas demonstrate how to make Colombian arepas and changua for their NUTR 583 class that examines food and culture. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

Food helps people experience other cultures, said Kerri LaCharite, a nutrition and food studies assistant professor in �鶹��Ƶ’s College of Health and Human Services. LaCharite teaches NUTR 583 Food and Culture, where students learn how the many different facets of culture—globalization, identity, gender, race, socio-economic status, religion and hunger—affect eating behaviors.

Topics in the course include the symbolism of meal structures and patterns, how food served as a locus of oppression and liberation for African Americans in the aftermath of slavery, and the role of food in preserving cultures.

Students also pick a particular country or sub-culture to explore and even conduct primary interviews with people about the culture there.

“Students must demonstrate a recipe, and then we all get to interact and try it and taste it,” LaCharite said.

Close up of the arepas graduate student Tony Santos prepared. Photo by Shelby Burgess/Strategic Communications

“One of my dear friends was born and raised in Ethiopia, and she lives in the U.S. now,” said Marissa A. Rollins, a student in the master of public health program. “I had the opportunity to talk to her about her food in her culture, and she shared a recipe with me that I ended up actually cooking for my fellow classmates.”

Rollins prepared shiro, which she describes as a chickpea stew. Many Ethiopian dishes are served with injera, a spongy, stretchy sour bread that is often used as a utensil, she added.

“A lot of Ethiopian food is served family style, so you’ll have a very big plate with injera on the bottom and different dishes put on top,” said Rollins. “And it’s a lot of vegetarian-based dishes,” Rollins said.

For his cooking demonstration, graduate student Anthony (Tony) Santos, whose family is from Colombia, made arepas, a corn- and cheese-based flat pancake, and changua, a white soup served with an egg.

“In the class, we talked about how certain cultures think of certain foods to be extra nutritious, help with being sick, or help fight certain diseases,” said Santos, who plans to graduate with a master’s degree program in nutrition in May 2022. “I made changua because I want people to see this is something we discussed in class—these concepts of food that we think are actually more nutritious than they actually are.”

Another student who was studying Japan made tofu burgers, LaCharite said, by draining and kneading the tofu and mixing in onions and carrots. “I learn something new every time,” she said.

At the end of the semester, students are challenged to come up with their own food rules.

“You think about what’s your food identity and what taboos do you hold,” said Rollins. “For example, I won’t eat dogs, cats, or bugs. It’s this new way of thinking that I got from this course.”

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