By ROWENA PLETT

Staff writer

As a working mom, Carla Hamm of Hillsboro has had a difficult time providing well-balanced homemade meals for her family. She has tended to rely on quick, convenient food, about the only kind available locally.

“I didn’t feel good about the food I was serving my family,” she said. “I would come home from work and think, I wish somebody provided home-cooked meals for us.”

She and her husband, Jason, and two teenage girls have busy schedules, not leaving much time for cooking and eating together.

That’s what led her to develop a business that would do just that.

Hamm has left her job at Midway Motors and plans to install a commercial kitchen at 111 W. Grand Ave. in Hillsboro. The building is the former Hillsboro Chamber of Commerce office, and before that, a donut shop.

The building is being updated to city code in plumbing and wiring.

Naming her business Mama C’s Take and Bake LLC, she plans to prepare homemade meals to go. The meals will be ready to be warmed up and eaten.

Hamm will provide a variety of fresh and frozen items that can be selected from a menu and combined to make a meal, whether it is for one or two people or a family. People will be able to purchase an entrée or a whole meal.

Breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus will be available. Lunches will include a fresh salad bar, wraps, and sliders. Desserts also will be available.

“It will be like walking into someone’s home kitchen,” she said.

Hamm plans to provide lunches for groups of employees. The lunches won’t be catered but will be picked up.

Several major steps remain before the business can open. The kitchen has to be installed, and state and city licenses will need to be obtained.

Hamm has no idea when she will be ready to open, but she is hoping the community will respond favorably to her efforts.

Hillsboro’s Board of Zoning Appeals will consider a request for a variance from requirements to install a commercial hood with fire suppression system over cooking appliances in a commercial kitchen on June 20.

“I’m hoping this will help working people and also elderly parents,” she said. “I’m trying to bring family back to the table more conveniently.”