Today we’d like to introduce you to The Vegan Hood Chefs LLC, Ronnishia Johnson, and Rheema Calloway.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Ronnishia and Rheema. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
The Vegan Hood Chefs started in 2017. We were deeply involved in organizing in our community and in the process of adapting a plant based diet. We used social media as a platform to spread awareness about community efforts as well as healthy recipes from our journey. We were asked to cater a big event by one of our friends (shout-out to Breezy) after her caterer dropped out at the last minute. We catered our first event for about 150 people and we sold out. We found out that food nutrition was being left out of the conversation in our community, and we wanted to create a business to address the needs. We turned the vegan hood chefs into a business to address lack of access to healthy foods and vegetables in our community. Our neighbourhood has always been known for high rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, and other nutrition related diseases. We found that through our work most of these diseases are linked to lack of education and access rather than heredity. We wanted to create a business that would address these issues but also celebrate our culture and the sacredness around food. Rheema and I were both raised by our grandmothers and we both grew up in the kitchen learning their recipes. Most of our dishes come from our experiences cooking next to our grandmas as well as our love and appreciation for how food is a staple in culture.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There have been many struggles. We both have continued to work our regular 9-5 jobs as well have meeting our obligations to our family. We both take care of our grandmothers who are elderly. We think this is a struggle many women face who often battle with managing home life and work obligations with following their dreams. We have experienced many sleepless nights and long days and missed family gatherings to make our dream happen.
We recognize that this is also a male dominated industry well it is looked at as a male dominated industry. This has also meant that we have to always work three times as hard in order to get seen or even be recognized for opportunities. Our goal is to use our platform to provide opportunities for other young women interested in this field. Our advice would be to stay true to you and to keep integrity in your work. We have been told so many time to drop the “hood” or change our focus from targeting “black and brown” communities to target everyone. Instead of watering ourselves down we have proven that staying true to us has made our business sustainable and unique. Our advice is to continue to push the envelop for your food: meaning to think outside of the box and bring a little bit of yourself on to a plate.
Please tell us about The Vegan Hood Chefs LLC.
We make vegan food with love and soul. Not only do we make vegan food but we provide high quality and organic plant based menus. Most vegan companies are adopting the fast food model. We have learned that just because its vegan doesn’t mean it is healthy for you. We specialize in of course soul food but food of the African diaspora. We love using creole and Cajun flavors as a base. Some of our most popular dishes are our vegan POboy made with oyster mushrooms and our award winning Mac and cheese and vegan wings. In addition to making our food we provide culinary and nutrition classes to our community.
Do you think there are structural or other barriers impeding the emergence of more female leaders?
One of the biggest barrier is being noticed for our craft and our talent and not based on what society wants us to be or how society thinks we should look. We are constantly challenged with the difficulties of navigating a challenging profession as well the stereotypes that come along with being a woman yet black women in leadership. We watch countless shows of master chefs on television allowed to speak in a direct, honest, and challenging way to others, as women who come from the community we come from there often isn’t the same space or sense of safety in our industry to do the same. One of the other biggest challenges is lack of representation of women of color on large culinary platforms. There are a lot of wonderful chefs such as Chef Ahki or Chef Lauren Vanderpool who do not get the recognition they deserve. Lastly I think the third issue is lack of capital for women and especially women of color in the industry. Capital allows for a chef to turn their dreams into a sustainable business and creates the ability for a chef to provide jobs or mentorship opportunities. The lack of access to capital isn’t always readily available for young women who come from disenfranchised communities.
Contact Info:
- Address: 103 Horne ave
SF, CA 94124 - Website: Www.theveganhoodchefs.com
- Phone: 4155748203
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: Www.instagram.com/theveganhoodchefs
- Facebook: Www.facebook.com/theveganhoodchefs
- Twitter: Www.twitter.com/veganhoodchefs
- Other: Www.LinkedIn.com/theveganhoodchefs
Image Credit:
@theveganhoodchefs
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