BUSINESS FOCUS
Plant powered & running strong "It’s not about being plant-based and miserable and living for two years longer, not entirely happy with life. This is about being plantbased, enjoying your health and really, really making the most of your time." When Martyn and Liz Williamson attended a seminar in Wellington over two years ago, they never expected to come away with the germ of an idea that would provide food boxes throughout Otago. It was still early days then but, over several meetings with a person they met there, and the introduction of one other person, Plant Strong Living was borne. The business partners, Paula Colloty, Nicole O'Neill, Liz and Martyn Williamson, are firm whole food plant-based advocates with a passion to carry the healthy eating message to all who are interested. At their initial and subsequent meetings, Martyn says they were greatly encouraged by Paula's enthusiasm for plant-based cooking and nutrition. She had been introduced to it by her brother, and she was very clear about the value of its benefits.
Working it out Liz explains: "We talked about what a business around this could look like. We talked about how we wanted to inspire people and its potential for rejuvenating health. Paula declared that she was brimming with vitality that she just hadn't had prior to making those changes." In a separate discussion between Paula and himself, Martyn said he was able to outline some of the hopes he had for the future practice of medicine. "As a GP, this had given me the tool with which I could actually cure the diseases that I had hitherto believed were incurable. We can modify them with tablets, but we can not stop their slow and inevitable
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progression." Plant Strong Living had its initial beginnings last year with talks and seminars in the local community. "We found that really quite intensive but fun," says Liz, "and we had people coming up to us asking us to talk in their area. We would like to be able to talk to people more widely so we can get the message out as far and wide as possible." Although very important, the food box, "is just one arm of what we want to offer," she says. "Our goal at the end of the day is for everyone who has received a food box is doing whole food plant-based living themselves. To have that happen, of course, people need to develop new skills. That's what we offer people." Martyn says continuing the talks will be "really important. Firstly, to get the message out to people and secondly, as a follow up for people who have chosen Food Box and have become interested in healthy plant-based nutrition. So far talks have been presented to several interested groups in the community "‌ I've done a couple for the University of The Third Age which is an Otago initiative and is local government funded. Those have gone well. In one sense it doesn't matter to us how many come along to a talk, but we would like to develop a system which funds this kind of thing.� The business also involves Nicole, who has skills in graphic design. Nicole and Paula are sisters-in-law
and "Nicole cut her own journey into discovering what whole food living was all about," Liz said. "She has her own story, and it's a very powerful one of curing Crohns disease with wholefood plantbased nutrition "
Being value driven Martyn said when Nicole came on board, the partners began to hammer out what their values were and what they saw as important to the business moving forward. "Obviously we would like Plant Strong Living to earn an income, but primarily we are motivated by health and the people around us, including our communities. We would regard it as a success if we had a lot of people improving their health and their outlook through whole food plant-based nutrition . "We also looked at service development, and one of the services we looked at providing is some online education and also, consultation services." This means people who have a medical issue will be able to run their concern past Martyn in terms of plant-based nutrition, and "we will also offer some health coaching which is Liz's forte. Paula is interested in teaching people how to cook plant-based. "And Nicole is really keen on helping people and talking to them about her experience with her with young children because she and her husband are whole food plant-based and they have young children who are also now whole food plant-based. She has practical experience
