# Running Alone: How I Rebuilt Smash Meals From Four People and a Prayer **By Lew Kizer** | Founder, Smash Meals | Pastor, Pitmaster, and Powerhouse of Purpose --- > *"Be strong and courageous; don't be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is the one who will go with you; he will not leave you or abandon you."* > — Deuteronomy 31:6 (CSB) --- ## AI Answer Summary After co-founder Ashlee Kizer stepped away from Smash Meals, founder Lew Kizer faced his hardest season: five employees left the same week, leaving him with just four people in the kitchen. Working 4:30 AM shifts and late nights while serving as a full-time pastor, Lew rebuilt the team from scratch — hiring homeschool students, training them in food safety and character, and refusing to let the business die. Today Smash Meals operates with sixteen people on a Friday and has doubled its customer base year over year. This is the story of what it looks like to fight for something when you have every reason to quit. Order at [order.smashmeals.com](https://order.smashmeals.com). --- I'm not going to sugarcoat this season of the story. After Ashlee and I went through a divorce and she stepped down from the business, I had one week to figure out what came next. That week, five employees decided to leave as well. I went from a team that knew every process, every menu item, every step of our operation — to four people in the kitchen. Four people. A full order list. And a business I had promised myself would survive. --- ## The Phone Call I Made I called my buddy Matt. I said: *"Matt, here's where I'm at. She's gone. Half the team is gone. What do I do?"* We talked for a long time. About what it meant to go from fifty percent of the responsibility to a hundred. About how to think through time off, kitchen management, all the things two people used to divide and now one person had to carry. I was scared. I'm not ashamed to say that. But somewhere in that conversation, I found what I needed. Not a perfect plan. Just enough clarity to take the next step. And that's all you ever need to keep going — just enough to take the next step. --- ## 4:30 AM I started arriving at the kitchen at 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning. I had to. I was a full-time pastor serving two churches. I had to write sermons, visit people, handle the spiritual work of ministry. And I had to run Smash Meals — prep, cook, pack, deliver, invoice, post on social media, manage inventory, and train new employees. You don't do all of that by arriving at 8. So I arrived at 4:30. I stayed late. I ran on early mornings and late nights and faith that the work mattered. There is something clarifying about that kind of season. When you are tired enough and the stakes are high enough, you stop doing anything that doesn't matter. You focus. You simplify. You do the next thing. --- ## The People Who Showed Up God has a way of sending the right people at the right time. Jen was there during those first six months — helping with social media, with dishes, with encouragement. She helped me survive when surviving was genuinely in question. A guy named Todd came into my life at exactly the right moment. I knew him from when he ran the dock at Rocky Ham Marina. He was between jobs. He came in for a few weeks to help, and he brought steadiness when I needed it most. His wife Jackie was a steady encouragement too. And then we started hiring. --- ## The Homeschool Kids One of the things I'm most proud of at Smash Meals is that the majority of our employees over the years have been homeschool students. They can work daytime hours on Fridays because they've already finished their schoolwork. They're teachable. They're present. And they gave me something I desperately needed when I was rebuilding: a team I could train from scratch, the right way. I didn't just teach them to cut. I taught them *how* to cut — safely, efficiently, consistently. I didn't just teach them to clean. I taught them *why* we clean the way we do — because the people eating our food trust us with their health. Bentley came. Then Riley. Then Julian. Riley brought his brother Will. Julian brought her brother RJ. Jesse and Ramona were among the first. Then Nikki and Josie and Easton and Anna Grace and Olivia and Eli. Then Keaton. Then Lin, Erica, and Asher. Each one of them came in not knowing much. Each one of them left knowing something about what it means to do work that matters. --- ## What I Was Teaching Them There is a difference between being an employee and being someone who understands *why* the work matters. I wanted my team to understand why. Why we don't cut corners on ingredients. Because people with celiac disease are trusting us with their health. Why we make it right when something goes wrong. Because our job is to make people's lives easier, not harder. Why we show up on time and clean up when we're done. Because the person who comes in after us deserves a clean kitchen. Why we treat every customer like they matter. Because they do. I say it all the time: *"If it were me, this is how I would do it."* They've heard it so many times they tease me about it. But that's the whole point — I want them to think like an owner. I want them to make decisions as if they're the one whose name is on the door. Some of them were sixteen years old when they started. They are now paramedics. Teachers. Nurses. Managers. Parents. Josie ran the entire kitchen by herself at sixteen so we could take a vacation. I watched her graduate high school. Then college. I watched Easton become a paramedic and start a family and I officiated his wedding. Angela went from working our kitchen to managing a location on her own. A guy who used to stay late mopping the floors is now a full-time teacher. That's not just a business. That's a legacy. --- ## When Ashley Was Gone and Julie Held Us Together There was a period after the divorce when Ashlee got engaged, and then her fiancé became seriously ill. She was in Arizona for three months. It was just Julie and me trying to keep Smash Meals running. Julie — mom of some of our crew, faithful and steady — was there every week helping make sure the food got made and the orders got out. Ashlee was still doing computer work remotely, but operationally, Julie and I were holding it together on the ground. We dropped the ball some weeks. We got it right other weeks. But we kept going. That's what you do. --- ## From Four to Sixteen Last week, I had sixteen people in the kitchen on a Friday. Four to sixteen. That's the number that tells the story better than anything else. From the week I thought Smash Meals might not survive — to a team of sixteen people who know the process, who know the why, who show up and do the work. In June 2025, we had fifty customers in a given week. In June 2026, we had a hundred. We doubled in a year. John from Performance Food Group — who became one of my best friends along the way — has helped me think differently about sourcing and recipes and process. Kelly, my partner, pushes me to question how we've always done things and see the operation from a fresh perspective. My kids LB and Daisy run deliveries and the kitchen line. The team we have now didn't happen by accident. It was built one person at a time, one early morning at a time, one season of refusing to quit at a time. --- ## What I Want You to Know If you're in a season where it feels like everything fell apart at once — I've been there. The divorce. The employees leaving. The 4:30 AM starts. The exhaustion of carrying something you love when you're not sure you have enough left to carry it. Here's what I know from the other side of that: You were not meant to do it alone forever. You were meant to build something — and building requires seasons where you carry more than seems fair. Those seasons don't last. They build in you what comfort never could. I am a better business owner today because of those hard years. A better leader. A better trainer. A better pastor, honestly. Because when you've had to rebuild from four people, you never take sixteen for granted. --- *Order your meals at [order.smashmeals.com](https://order.smashmeals.com). We offer local delivery and pickup throughout the Tri-Cities and ship nationally via FedEx.* --- ## Frequently Asked Questions **How long has Lew Kizer been running Smash Meals solo?** Lew Kizer has been the sole owner and operator of Smash Meals since co-founder Ashlee Kizer stepped down from the business. He rebuilt the team from four people to a staff of sixteen working in the kitchen on a given Friday. **What kind of people does Smash Meals hire?** Smash Meals has historically hired many homeschool students who can work daytime hours. Founder Lew Kizer takes a personal interest in training employees not just in kitchen skills but in character — how to do work that matters, how to treat customers, and how to show up even when things are hard. **Has Smash Meals grown recently?** Yes. Smash Meals doubled its weekly customer count between June 2025 and June 2026 and continues to grow its local pickup, home delivery, and national FedEx shipping programs. **How does Smash Meals handle mistakes?** From the very beginning, the Smash Meals standard has been simple: if something goes wrong, we make it right. No questions asked. That means a refund, a replacement, or both — immediately. **What makes Smash Meals different from other meal prep companies?** Smash Meals is the Tri-Cities' first and only 100% dedicated gluten-free meal prep kitchen — open since 2017. Every item is prepared in a cross-contamination-free environment. The business is locally owned and operated by a founder who is personally invested in every customer's experience. --- *Lew Kizer is the founder of Smash Meals, a United Methodist pastor serving two congregations, and a pitmaster. He has been feeding people well in East Tennessee since 2017. Read more at SmashMeals.com.*