New Canaan Woman Launches ‘FreshDine,’ Locally Cooked Meals with Home Delivery

 

New Canaan resident Maureen Shankar, 38, came to a turning point in her life and career in finance two years ago when—between jobs and on break from a daily commute into New York City—it became clear that she wasn’t the only one in her family who’d been suffering from her long hours away from home. “I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next, and at that time I realized how hard it had been on my son, too,” Shankar recalled. She turned to a persistent if not fully explored interest at that time, in food and cooking—an interest that last November culminated in the creation of FreshDine. The New Canaan-based company creates and delivers modestly priced, fresh (no preservatives, artificial sweeteners, food coloring, MSG or trans fats) meals to the doorsteps of customers who order online from a wide-ranging menu. “One of my customers really said it well—because this is one of the things I’m looking to do—she said, ‘I feel like I have a grandmother again,’ ” Shankar recalled.