Meal Preparation Company Redefine Opens Bellmore Store

BELLMORE, NY — Matt Riss keeps expanding his meal preparation company, Redefine. The latest store opened on Merrick Road in Bellmore two months ago. It's one of four locations Riss and his co-owner Mark Ciaburri have, including Commack and Syosset. They are planning to debut two other brick-and-mortar spots by July.

Created while students at Stony Brook University in 2017, the idea was to feed student-athletes healthy meals. Eventually, they realized for this business to take off, they needed to expand their clientele.

"[We] started with 100 meals a week and now we're up to almost 15,000 a week," Riss told Patch.

He said as much as 85 to 90 percent of customers are "hard-working 9-5 individuals [who] don't have time to cook," Riss said.

Unlike other businesses that offer pre-made meals, Riss said they are local with a 3,000 square foot commercial kitchen in Ronkonkoma.

His decision to add the Bellmore location was because Riss noticed a large number of residents buying meals on the website. They deliver across the island and five boroughs.

"We came down and visited a couple of Saturday nights and saw how live the town was," Riss said. "It wasn't really anything too scientific other than just a feeling."

Riss said the Bellmore store is proving to be a "strong" location for them.

For customers who choose to order online and pick up at the store, they avoid the $10 shipping fee.

But wherever you get the meal, Riss said customers can expect it is fresh, having been prepared the day before. They have up to 60 healthy options for breakfast, lunch and dinner, ranging from Keto Thai Peanut Chicken to Hawaiian Salmon.

In the world since COVID-19, minimal to no contact has been another unexpected perk. Plus, as Redefine grew in the pandemic, "we donated over 10,000 meals to health care workers," Riss said.

Now that restrictions are easing and people are slowly getting back to a version of normal, Riss is looking to expand his charity footprint in Bellmore.

"I just joined the Chamber of Commerce," he said. "I like to work with local sports teams to do fundraisers. If there's a community cause or they're trying to raise money, we're always down to work with them."