I genuinely cannot believe I am this emotionally invested in a meal-planning app, but here we are.

My name is Katy. I’m a Registered Dietitian, and I have been using Mealime basically every single week since 2018.

I LOVE THIS APP.

I’ve recommended Mealime to hundreds of clients over the years. I’ve recommended it publicly to my 100,000+ followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. If you’ve ever watched one of my TikToks where I’m making dinner for my family, there is a very good chance I am making a Mealime recipe.

This isn’t sponsored. Mealime has never paid me. I am simply, apparently, a Mealime evangelist against my will.

And now Albertsons is shutting it down on October 21.

Respectfully: what are we doing here.

Albertsons acquired Mealime in 2021, but for the past five years, Mealime has remained its own beautiful, simple, functional little app.

You open it.

You pick recipes.

It combines the ingredients into ONE grocery list.

You tell it what you already have.

You can send your groceries directly to services like Instacart, Walmart+, Target whatever .

You make dinner.

THAT’S IT. THAT’S THE APP. SHE IS PERFECT. LEAVE HER ALONE.

And apparently I’m not just emotionally attached to her. According to Mealime, I have prevented 201 POUNDS OF FOOD WASTE since 2018.

 

TWO HUNDRED AND ONE POUNDS.

I have personally prevented an entire adult man’s worth of cilantro, half-used bell peppers and forgotten bags of spinach from dying in my refrigerator.

As a dietitian, this is exactly why I have recommended Mealime for years. It solves an actual problem. Meal planning is one thing. Figuring out how five different recipes translate into one reasonable grocery trip without buying 47 ingredients you’ll never use again is another.

Mealime does that extraordinarily well.

So when Mealime announced that users could just move over to Albertsons Companies’ new Meals Hub, I thought, okay. Maybe I’m being dramatic. Maybe it’s basically Mealime with a different logo.

I actually downloaded the app and tried it.

Friends.

It is not the same thing.

First, I live in the Midwest. There is no Albertsons grocery store anywhere near me.

To even get to Meals Hub, I have to download an app for an Albertsons-owned grocery store I do not shop at, navigate through that grocery store’s app, go into its additional features, find Meals Hub, and THEN I can finally start looking for dinner.

 

I have somehow turned “what should we eat Tuesday?” into a side quest.

And once you get there, the experience appears heavily integrated with Albertsons stores, products, pricing and sales. Recipes can be organized around what’s on sale at their stores.

That makes complete sense for Albertsons customers.

 

 

I AM NOT AN ALBERTSONS CUSTOMER.

And that’s really my issue.

Keep Meals Hub!

Seriously. Make it wonderful. Give Albertsons shoppers recipes based on weekly sales. Let people add everything directly to their Albertsons carts. Integrate the hell out of it.

But why does doing that require killing Mealime?

Mealime works precisely because it is grocery-store agnostic. I can shop at Walmart. Aldi. Costco. Target. My neighborhood grocery store. Instacart. DoorDash. Wherever the hell has strawberries that don’t cost $9 this week.

The app doesn’t care.

It just helps me feed my family.

And there are people who have been PAYING FOR MEALIME PRO FOR YEARS. We have saved recipes. Favorites. Preferences. Meal-planning habits. Grocery routines. Literal years of data and history inside this app.

We aren’t asking Albertsons to abandon Meals Hub.

We are asking Albertsons Companies to keep Mealime operational as a standalone app.

Charge us a subscription. Keep a paid Pro tier. Keep a smaller team maintaining it. Integrate Albertsons ordering as an option. Sell it. Spin it off. I genuinely do not care which collection of corporate nouns makes it happen.

JUST. KEEP. THE. APP.

Because taking an app people have happily used for years, burying its replacement three menus deep inside grocery-store apps many of us don’t use, and calling that the same product is absolutely unhinged.

I have spent more time writing this petition than any reasonable adult should spend fighting for a meal-planning app.

But Mealime has helped me feed my family for nearly eight years. It has helped my clients. It has helped people who follow me. It has saved me money, reduced my food waste, and eliminated the weekly psychological warfare of standing in front of the refrigerator at 5:17 p.m. wondering what the fuck I’m supposed to make for dinner.

So, Albertsons:

Please don’t kill Mealime.

Let Meals Hub be Meals Hub.

And let Mealime be Mealime.

If you use Mealime and also screamed “WHAT THE FUCK” when you opened the app and saw that little green October 21st banner, please sign this petition.

SAVE OUR LITTLE GREEN DINNER APP. 🥬🫡