11. DabbaDrop
“...since we started in 2018, we have saved 50,000+ plastic containers from landfill”
My latest Worshipful Ones interview is with Anshu Ahuja and Renee Williams of DabbaDrop, the vegan curry delivery service.
Founded in 2018 and based in East London, DabbaDrop deliver fresh, delicious South Asian-inspired food in a dabba (or tiffin) tin once a week. Each week, you swap your empty tins for a fresh new stack, filled with delicious, lovingly made food.
East London is hugely significant to Renee and Anshu. It’s where they live, where they launched their business and where they became friends. They first met in Clapton, where they were neighbours living opposite one another: “…a friendship was forged over many shared meals, glasses of wine and long chats about motherhood, sustainability and everything in-between”. DabbaDrop’s first kitchen was in Dalston, but they quickly outgrew that space and moved their operation to Leyton where they remain for the time being. “We adore the quick commute to and from work each day, on foot or by bike, through the marshes and past the horses… it really is a great place to be located and we feel very lucky to live so close to our HQ”.
Originally in TV production, Anshu had an epiphany one day while at work: “Life was busy and there were always so many decisions to be made. Work, kids, childcare, schools, lunches, dinners, birthdays, holidays…. By the time it got to the end of the week, I didn’t want to make any more decisions, especially for dinner”. Anshu and her husband would prevaricate for half an hour or more over what to eat and were often frustrated by the lack of decent vegetarian or vegan options on offer. Often by the time the food arrived it was late and past its best. Then there were the plastic containers – always so guilt-inducing.
“This got me thinking about the dabbawala set-up, back home in Mumbai. Unlike a takeaway where you have to choose from an endlessly long menu, these delivery-only kitchens created weekly, changing set menus of home-style food, so all you did was unpack and eat. Hassle-free dinner just when you needed it most! And no guilt; you just left the stainless-steel tiffin out to be collected next time around”.
In the summer of 2018, Anshu started some cooking trials at home to get a sense of what would work. This was the very start of DabbaDrop. Renee was one of the first friends to sign up for the trial run and she loved it so much, she decided to join Anshu in her business venture. Renee says “we wanted to create a convenient, tasty takeaway option that didn’t come with a guilty conscience. Customers pay a one-off fee for the reusable dabba which is then theirs to keep. They choose a frequency (weekly or fortnightly), pick their start date and they’re all set! Our delivery cyclists collect the customers' empty dabbas when they deliver the full ones – and so the cycle (of reusability) continues.”
Their positive impact on the environment is impressive. At the end of each year, Anshu & Renee do a tally to see how many plastic containers they have saved from ending up in landfill: “since we started in 2018, we have saved 50,000+ plastic containers from landfill. That milestone is what keeps us going” says Anshu.
I asked how they get their inspiration and how they keep their offering varied and interesting. They work with a bank of menus that rotate every 8-9 weeks and swap out vegetables depending on what is in season. The menus have been inspired by how Anshu’s and many other Indian families eat at home - freshly cooked food, deliciously flavoured and full of local, seasonal vegetables.
Anshu grew up in Mumbai “a city that’s crazy, chaotic and never stops - I am a bit like this too”, but she says Renee is the calm, organised and meticulous one, which makes them a great team. Anshu’s mother and her cooking have a huge influence on the menu at Dabbadrop “she takes the simplest of ingredients and turns them into magical feasts, with simple spicing and elegant presentation”. Her family also taught her to leave no trace, which forms part of the ethos at DabbaDrop.
Renee and Anshu have two children each. When they set up DabbaDrop, it was crucial that the business worked around family life. In fact, one of the reasons they set up on their own was so that they could manage their own schedules and not miss the myriad parenting duties throughout the week: drop offs, pick-ups and other school activities. While on the whole it does work, they are – of course - still relentlessly juggling, working after their children have gone to bed and on weekends, to ensure everything gets done, “but having a co-pilot means one of us can always step in if the other has a poorly kid, or no childcare, so the business is not affected if the other is not there”.
Running the business has not been without its challenges. It was a bit of an uphill struggle in the early days: moody chefs who didn’t deliver on their promises or unreliable cyclists who didn’t bother showing up. Also, selling their unusual concept to customers - “it all made life quite hard and it was just the two of us balancing everything. But every morning we just put one step in front of the other to get to the end of the day. A glass of wine to debrief at the end always helps!”
“It means the world to us when someone signs up to DabbaDrop - we're a small business so just one sale can make such a difference. We rely on word of mouth, so it just means one more person to help us spread the word, help us with our mission to reduce plastic in the world”.
They have exciting things on the horizon, too. They are in the process of setting up a zero-waste shop on their new website. They have a wonderful community of “DabbaDroppers” who are helping them with their mission to reduce plastic waste, so they wanted to be able to offer a thoughtfully selected range of products, that can aid a plastic-free lifestyle. Even more excitingly, they are also working on selling their delicious pickles and chutneys in reusable glass jars with a view to deliver to all the major cities in the UK… That really would be an incredible achievement.
Finally, I asked the two women which local businesses they admire most and it’s such an inspiring, impressive list I have to include them all:
Kankan – the most delicious-smelling, cruelty-free soap in a can, from our friends and neighbours. One tree planted for every can sold – what’s not to love? They also have an innovative new pump that fits on top of their cans.
RestoreRefill – Our local refill shop stocking ALL the goods and run by one of our wonderful DabbaDroppers.
Topup Truck – Our local zero-waste mobile shop on wheels, dreamt up by the wonderful Ella Shone in collaboration with Megan Adams from Hackney’s Restore:Refill (see above)
Gather – Peckham’s local Plastic free store and organic refillery (and awesome plastic free tips on their Instagram account)
Anna Jones – the woman is, quite simply, a genius. Consistently delicious, easy food to cook for the whole family (and such beautiful cookbooks to collect) as well as great simple tips on reducing everyday waste. *look out for The Worshipful interview with Anna, coming soon…
Sign up to DabbaDrop’s joyous delivery service here and find them on Instagram here.