Meet Our Members – Pantea Dougani

We love our members at The Produce Box. Y’all are awesome at spreading the local love with us!

This week, we wanted to introduce you to Pantea Dougani, a Produce Box member and co-founder and managing director of Excel Body Fitness in Cary. Excel is a fitness center that offers classes and group personal training to help clients push themselves and achieve their fitness goals. In addition to being a fitness enthusiast and business owner, Pantea is passionate about volunteering and served as the Vice President of the Laura Holland Uzzell Foundation, which is a governing board for Sterling Montessori Academy and Charter School in Morrisville.

She also somehow manages to do all of this while being a mother – you go girl! When she does finally have some down time, some of her hobbies are cycling, hiking, camping and reading. Here we’ll share our conversation with Pantea, so you can get to know a bit more about our member community:

You joined The Produce Box in 2010. Why did you decide to become a member six years ago:

Pantea: I joined because I did not want my food to travel two weeks from California or Chile before it gets to me and I was terrified of my produce sitting in my refrigerator and not going bad because of the chemicals they put on them!

What are your favorite items to get in your Box? 

I love the fresh fruits and vegetables and the fact that there is an organic option available every week for me to order.  I have recently ordered the ground beef and absolutely love the taste of it since it is grass-fed beef. Anything that I have ordered has been great! We all look forward to Wednesdays and we cannot wait until the next week comes.  I practically order all my produce from TPB!

As a mom and a business owner, what impact does The Produce Box have on your life?

I feel like I have taught my kids what to eat and what fresh is. As a business owner, especially in a fitness area, I feel very proud that I promote healthy fresh eating to our clients. I feel that TPB was the best idea in the last decade especially with diabetes and obesity on the rise. Providing recipes with every Box has made it very convenient for people to try new produce and feed their family.

We asked Pantea is she had anything else she wanted to share with y’all and she said, “love, love, love my Produce Box!” We love you Pantea – and all of our awesome members!