Nestled in the suburban heart of Raleigh, NC, Rachael and Tom Sullivan prepare a meal for a hundred people. This isn’t out of the ordinary for the couple, who host a meal for about a hundred college students once a month. The students come in droves and their cars line the neighborhood as their eager faces greet Rachael, Tom, their three-month-old daughter, Sutton, and their husky, Odin. The Sullivans try to welcome each student by name, Rachael’s slight Chicago accent ringing throughout the house while Tom’s wide grin meets them in the kitchen. 

Large serving trays sit upon their dining room table, each one filled to the brim with food. There are vegan, vegetarian, dairy-free, and gluten-free options of every dish, and Rachael carefully labels each one. Reusable and disposable plates and cutlery sit on an adjoined table for those who wish to dine in the backyard or take the food to-go. Pinterest-perfect pictures are taken of the food and TikToks are made showcasing the students (with their consent) with their food as they smile and wave to the camera. At the end of the day, students leave the couple's house with at least one tangible thing: a home-cooked meal.

Rachael and Tom Sullivan have fed thousands of college kids in their home since July 2021, a practice that was born from the couple making food for a local college student and has since become a boon to many more students across North Carolina.  

Their journey began when Tom cultivated his cooking ability. He was 22 and took a job in Chicago. Tom didn’t know anyone in the area and needed a hobby to pass the time, so he started learning how to cook. 

A few months later, Rachael and Tom met. Rachael was a junior at Appalachian State University, and the pair immediately clicked during their first date in 2013. 

Shortly after Rachael and Tom’s engagement in 2016, the couple decided that they were going to partake in the Whole30 diet to get ready for their wedding. The program instructed them to remove dairy and gluten products from their plate, and Tom was able to challenge himself in the kitchen. He experimented with different recipes, learned more about different foods and flavors, and built elaborate meals. Whole30 allowed him to get creative with food and inadvertently prepared him for the future.

In September of 2020, Rachael was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome. PCOS is when a woman’s hormones are imbalanced, sometimes resulting in missed periods and lack of ovulation. The Sullivans wanted to have a child, but recognized that Rachael’s PCOS was preventing her from getting pregnant. There is no cure for PCOS, so they did some research and turned to holistic medicine through food. Tom worked diligently to make meals around different phases of Rachael’s menstrual cycle and incorporated more fresh ingredients into their diet. 

“I feel like [cooking for her PCOS] taught me a lot,” Tom said. “It was very similar when we did Whole30 because I have to keep it real foods and make things from scratch. I feel like it just challenged me to learn a lot more about food, which gets me excited.”

Three months after changing her diet and exercising, Rachael’s menstrual cycle had stabilized to a 32-day cycle and fourteen months later, Rachael was pregnant with Sutton.

In January of 2021, Tom made an Instagram account, @mealssheeats, to document all of the food he made for Rachael. The account was full of meals and recipes he made to help manage Rachael’s PCOS. A month later, Rachael discovered the account. While she was scrolling on Instagram, she found @mealssheeats in the Suggestions For You section, which gives a user recommendations of other accounts they may be interested in. After first being a little confused that someone had an account with the same name as her husband posting the same foods she ate that week, Rachael encouraged Tom to post more and even started helping him stage the  pictures. 

On TikTok, she shared the story of Tom cooking for her PCOS and the @mealssheeats Instagram, and it went viral, gaining over four million views.