It has been an exciting few weeks of M&A announcements in the prepared meal delivery space. Last week, New England-based Feast & Fettle announced that it had acquired WECO Hospitality and this week, CookUnity announced its acquisition of Canadian home chef delivery platform Cookin’. Meanwhile, November’s CPI report showed a 3.6% YoY increase in food away from home (aka restaurants) vs. a 1.6% YoY increase in food at home (aka groceries). Ready-made meals like those from WECO, Feast & Fettle, and CookUnity all fall in the latter category despite their convenience factor of the former category. To top it all off, a federal judge blocked Kroger’s $24.6bn acquisition of Albertsons this week in order to “prevent prices from rising even more,” according to an FTC spokesperson. Despite this rhetoric, the 2% inflationary gap between the two categories bodes well for grocers and prepared meal delivery startups that can drive more value for consumers while leaning into their convenience factor. This week, HNGRY sat down with Feast & Fettle CEO Carlos Ventura Jr. to discuss the WECO merger and broader trends within the space.