It was 2 p.m. on a Sunday, and Isaiah Jernigan, 25, and his father, Shane, 51, were three hours into their usual kitchen rhythm. They were prepping 12 orders for that week’s customers of Family Meal, their Durham-based food delivery service.
The quiche was baking in the oven, soon to be replaced by their signature focaccia topped with goat cheese and honey.
“I am gonna package up these cookies next, Kiddo,” Shane said.
“Did you see how I did it last week, Pops?” Isaiah replied, reaching for a small clear plastic bag.
In that kind of casual, back-and-forth rhythm, 15 brown sugar cookies, baked with the sweetness of childhood memories, were packed and set for delivery. Among the recipients was Roger, Family Meal’s most devoted customer, who waits by his door every Monday for meals he and his ailing wife enjoy throughout the week.
The Jernigans’ dream is to make Family Meal their full-time focus. Until then, they juggle part-time jobs during the week as orders come in. Isaiah works the grill at the Washington Duke Inn; Shane is a customer service manager at Whole Foods in Chapel Hill.
Saturdays are spent prepping soups, vegetables, and sauces, while Sundays are reserved for cooking the main dishes, from salads to salmon and meatloaf. On Mondays, Isaiah and Shane pack the orders. Each meal moves through an efficient assembly line: packed into a box with ice packs, wrapped in bubble paper, labeled and then loaded onto the truck.
Family Meal changes its menu biweekly to ensure variety. Drawing from their combined kitchen experience, including Isaiah’s time spent at the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, the Jernigans explore various versions of affordable comfort food, always making sure to include an entrée, salad, bread, and dessert.
The planning process, like much of their food, is both natural and simple. “We like to have weekly meetings about the menu,” Isaiah said with a grin. “But most of the time it’s just us cooking and talking… I have a notes app open in my phone.”
While menu innovation is exciting, it comes with challenges. “It’s hard making it perfect,” Isaiah said. “It’s a little bit scary because I don’t want it to turn out bad.”
Family Meal only launched in September, and every day brings a fresh batch of lessons.
As Shane assembled the chicken salad, adding grapes for a sweet twist, Isaiah dressed the orzo salad with a fresh lemon vinaigrette to pair with olive-oil-rubbed salmon. Meanwhile, four tender meatloaves were taken out of the oven and left to cool on the counter, ready to be flipped and glazed. “It just melts in your mouth,” Shane said proudly.
But not everything went as planned. While straining the meatloaf glaze, Isaiah splattered some of it outside the bowl. Shane shrugged, calmly redirecting his son: “Now go get a bowl and come pour that back through the bowl. That’ll work.”
“Cooking is about problem-solving,” Shane said. “It’s just one problem after another that you’ve got to solve.”
Customers help shape the menu; it’s one reason their chicken pot pie, a fan favorite, keeps reappearing.
The Jernigans transitioned to a larger commercial kitchen on April 1. In the new kitchen, the pair will have the space and time to thoroughly test dishes before they are added to the menu. Over the next year, they hope to build a recipe bank of more than 200 dishes to rotate seasonally and by demand. Though the menu changes constantly and recipes are always being refined, one thing remains at the heart of each dish: a deep sense of nostalgia and joy that comes with every bite.
For Isaiah, comfort food is a kind of remedy. “Sometimes people don’t want anything fancy,” he said. “It’s the food that makes people feel good. It reminds them of home.”
In an age of increasing automation, cooking also remains one of few experiences that requires direct human engagement, Shane says.
“Cooking is visceral,” he said. “You can’t do it with a computer. You have to do it with your hands and your body,”
When Isaiah first launched the company, he envisioned a meal-kit delivery service inspired by the food he had cooked in restaurants across the country. Over time, he realized that the community needed something more familiar.
This model also filled a critical gap in the local market, particularly for seniors. Currently, 70% of Family Meal’s customers are older than 60. Some can’t cook for themselves. “It’s a lot of us taking on that stress of trying to cook,” Isaiah said.
Each week, as they make their rounds, Isaiah looks forward to seeing Roger. “Every time…he opens the door and asks me to come in. He takes the box, gives me the ice packs back, and I talk to him for five minutes,” he said.
Unlike takeout or Amazon deliveries, Family Meal’s delivery service is personal. “There’s a lot more trust involved when they see the person who cooked their food hand it to them,” Isaiah said. “It builds relationships.”
Above: Isaiah Jernigan preps salmon as Shane Jernigan peels potatoes. Photo by Ava Epstein — The 9th Street Journal
