Colorful and powerful.

Evie Fatz says those two words describe the food offered at her new business in Coeur d’Alene. They’re also behind the name of the organic market and prepared-meal company.

Copow Foods LLC opened in May in a multitenant retail center at 3500 N. Government Way, north of Neider Avenue, just southwest of Coeur d'Alene's Costco Wholesale Corp. store.

The market, which also offers delivery services, sells a variety of prepared, organic meals that rotate on a seasonal basis. It also sells proteins and vegetables in bulk, as well as individual ingredients, sauces, and a variety of snacks and drinks that meet Copow’s nutrition standards.

While Fatz’s company has found its footing in Coeur d’Alene, the journey to get there wasn’t without challenges.

“This was initially going to be in the Las Vegas airport,” Copow’s founder and CEO says.

Fatz says she recognized a hole in the U.S. food industry for healthy-but-delicious food, including at airports.

After building a kitchen in Las Vegas and working with San Francisco-based food packaging and branding company Design Womb Inc., Fatz intended to start selling her prepared meals at the Vegas airport and then expand to other airports.

“And then COVID hit,” she says.

Because of the pandemic, the original airport concept never panned out, forcing Copow to pivot to a new strategy.

“Then we did direct-to-consumer shipping nationwide for two years, but that was never really the concept,” Fatz explains.

Fatz decided to pivot again, and set her sights on Coeur d’Alene, where she and her husband, Casey Fatz, have lived for about 20 years.

“Last summer, I made the executive decision to completely close our operation in Las Vegas,” she says.

Now operating as a traditional storefront, Copow's roughly 14-ounce prepared meals range in price from about $13 to $16.

Copow sources as much of its food as possible from local farmers and ranchers, as long as the nutrition standards are met, Fatz says.

“If it’s in here, it’s organic,” Fatz says, adding that people shouldn’t have to possess a Ph.D. in food science to be able to determine if a food item is healthy. “The biggest challenge is finding products made in the U.S. that don’t have seed oils in them.”

The olive oil and flour used in the prepared meals at Copow are imported from Italy.

The meals sold at Copow are all made fresh daily at a commercial kitchen in Post Falls. Rather than adding preservatives to the meals, they are packaged using a process called modified atmosphere packaging.

“It gives you a seven- to 10-day shelf life, because we have equipment that sucks all of the oxygen out of the package,” Fatz says.

The refrigerated meals can be heated up in the microwave or oven.

The colorful packaging that holds the Copow prepared meals received the American Package Design Award from Graphic Design USA in 2022, Fatz adds.

Fatz has nearly 20 years of experience in the health and fitness industry, including opening Lotus Fit by Design, a boutique-style fitness and nutrition company in Coeur d’Alene that she sold about seven years ago.

She recommends that people count colors in their meals, rather than calories, because not all calories carry the same nutrition or are made with healthy ingredients. Each of the prepared Copow meals includes a color count, instead of a calorie count, on the label.

One of the two cookbooks Fatz has produced, in fact, is titled "Colors Not Calories."

Copow also offers a variety of 8-ounce prepared meals for kids.

In addition to providing a convenient way for people to eat healthier, Fatz also has a charitable giving aspect to her company.

For every meal purchased at Copow, the company donates a meal to people facing food insecurity in the community. Fatz has created a foundation that provides donated meals to various nonprofits and organizations that distribute food to those in need.

This week, Copow plans to launch its online ordering service through its website. An app also will be available.

Copow delivers to some surrounding locations in North Idaho. Customers in Washington can order meals online and pick them up at the Post Falls kitchen, Fatz says.

Fatz says she plans to expand Copow with additional pop-up locations eventually.

Between the market and the commercial kitchen, Copow has 15 full-time employees. The market is open 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Small Bites

*A new tobacco shop is being planned for the former Starbucks space at the northwest corner of Division Street and Second Avenue, at 172 S. Division, in downtown Spokane. A permit application on file with the city for the project titled South Division Tobacco Store calls for a $10,000 interior remodel of the 1,800-square-foot space. Spokane-based Indigo Diggs LLC is listed as the architect for the project, and Northern Craftsman Construction, also of Spokane, is listed as the contractor.

*Big Red’s Colbert Trading Co. expanded its menu last month to include most of the items served at the Big Red’s food truck that owner Curtis Bytnar previously operated in Spokane. Now available are dishes like the Chicago Italian beef, the cheesesteak, Chicago classic hotdog, bacon dog, garlic fries, and more. The Colbert restaurant, located at 18711 N. Yale Road, will continue serving the pizzas and calzones it has been dishing up since opening in February.