Dream Dinners: We’re about children

We’re about getting them to school, a soccer game or band practice on time. We’re about mothers who have too much to do and too little time to do it. We’re about home, family and friends—the good times, the sad times and all the times we share with those we care about most. We’re about PTA meetings and church gatherings, the drugstore and the neighborhood café, the places that are the touchstones of our lives. Food and families are at the heart of everything we do. From easy preparation to joyful participation, from a smiling face to a helping hand, we provide all the ingredients for a great meal.

Dream Dinners is a unique company founded on a mission of bringing families together around the dinner table. We provide everything you need to assemble great dinners to enjoy as you relax and talk about the events of the day. We offer freedom from the hassles surrounding the planning and preparation of meals night after night. And we give friends and family an opportunity to come together in a fun-filled setting to assemble their Dream Dinners in just two quick hours.

The Dream Dinners story

Named “the grandmother” of fix-and-freeze businesses by TIME magazine, Dream Dinners is recognized as the originator of innovative and convenient dinner assembly stores. Created by working mothers Stephanie Allen and Tina Kuna, the Snohomish, Washington-based company was the first to roll out this timesaving concept on a national scale.

Dream Dinners evolved from the homegrown practice of co-founder Stephanie Allen, a working mother who began making fix-and-freeze meals for her family in 1986. By preparing and freezing entrees using fresh raw ingredients, Allen improved on traditional pre-cooked methods, resulting in better tasting meals. She refined the process for efficiency and began developing a collection of specialized recipes.

Allen was showered with requests to share her secret method for timesaving meal preparation. When the demand became overwhelming, Allen enlisted the help of long-time friend and experienced business manager Tina Kuna. The partners hosted the first series of large-scale meal assembly sessions in March 2002, which became the catalyst for opening the first Dream Dinners store three months later.

Within six months, the company expanded to two new Seattle-area locations. By early 2003, the Dream Dinners concept attracted national media coverage, and the company began receiving thousands of unsolicited franchise inquiries from potential owners across the country. The partners expanded their business model and established a national franchise in June 2003. Allen and Kuna signed 35 new stores in the first six months, selecting from more than 6,800 applications.

Dream Dinners moved into its new Snohomish, Washington offices in January 2004, complete with a recipe test kitchen, corporate training facility, and playground for employees’ children. The Dream House, a four-bedroom home on the property, serves as a bed-and-breakfast for new owners during their five-day training session.

In less than three years, Dream Dinners rocketed from a smart concept to a thriving national brand. The company is driven by Allen and Kuna’s commitment to make people’s lives easier and restore the tradition of family meals.