Food Plus People Retail Expansion
Donation protected
Hello and Welcome!
First, thank you so much for clicking the link for our Go Fund Me.
This is a huge step for us to venture out in our quest to reclaim food sovereignty for ourselves and our community.
We would love to share a little bit about who we are and how we got here.
Hi, I'm Chef Mavis-Jay Sanders.
I have had the privilege to have cooked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Blue Hill, and Untitled in New York later becoming part-owner of the award-winning food truck Pico House in Los Angeles. I then returned to New York as the Director of Operations at Brooklyn-based Nonprofit Community Culinary Center. And, in 2019, I was honored as Star Chefs’ New York Rising Star Chef - Community. I am also a James Beard Chef’s Boot Camp alum, a Chef’s Collaborative scholar, and is frequently a featured chef of Queer Soup Night's New York Chapter.
The moment that had the greatest impact on the trajectory of my culinary career wasn't in any 20 chef, Michelin star kitchen I worked in. It was spending years of developing technique and being educated on the world's best ingredients, then taking a trip home to cook for my family, and not being able to find lettuces that weren't wilted, root vegetables, that weren't spongey, or meat that didn't smell like chemicals in the local grocery. Realizing that the people I loved most would never have access to nutrient dense whole foods because of systemic oppression forever changed how I would walk though the world.
Hi, I'm Chef Sicily Sierra.
Cooking was a second career for me. I began acting at the age of 7 and became a successful actress as a Power Ranger and on the primetime family comedy, One on One. However, I can trace my family back 7 generations and I come from a long like of cooks. And, that legacy began calling out to me and after graduating from Le Cordon Bleu, I started an double internship at the Los Angeles Times’ Test Kitchen and began freelancing there.
I later had a graduated business from La Cocina SF's incubator program and moved to New York as the Executive Chef for a Culinary Non-Profit Restaurant, that closed in 2020. My desires as a chef is to create a food that fosters a space for the black community to come together to enjoy one another’s company over dishes that are an ode to our ancestry that is an edible piece of culture deeply tied to place and family.
Truly, a lot of our work centers in making sure that Black people can enter into this culinary industry with wonder, excitement, and have a "career" versus a "job". But, the reality of the lack of food access that our teams were facing began to eat away at us. Yes, we supporting their training, providing them a living wage, and opportunities for growth but what good is that if they didn't have the ability to properly nourish themselves and their families in the "right now".
In acknowledging that need, together we started Food Plus People because we believe that quality food is a basic human right. And, the answer isn't as simple as shopping the perimeter of the isle (for fresh produce) at the grocery store, to be very frank, that in itself is a privilege! Because, food deserts are real and not everyone has a perimeter to go to.
So, we challenged ourselves with a simple question : How can we create delicious and nutritious products that live in the center of the aisle, resonates with our community, and that makes them feel nourished no matter where they are in their culinary journey?
And, it all started with a soup mix! Who doesn't love something warm and cozy. After what seemed like months of testing and re-testing, our delicious Sweet Potato and Orzo Curry Soup found it home in the Totes Gay bag for Pride Month and Brooklyn Marches to support Black Lives Matter Movement.
And, with our baby budding successful soup, we followed through with our Hot Sauce trio:
The Original aka The OG - A flavorful deep red base of peppers & onions, where we weaved in fresh herbs - like oregano to round out the flavor that travels down your tongue. Where you are then met with Vinegars and a bright kick of heat.
The Sweet Heat - The crowd favorite - because who doesn't love notes of sweetness from the brown sugar backed with a little salt and spice from fresh peppers and just the right amount of vinegar.
The Seasonal Mild - which has been a joy to learn with because there is no heat present but this hot sauce has been used as a great salad dressing and marinade.
Once we felt like we had found our sweet spot with our hot sauces, we began missing our time in restaurant and gathering as the world shut down. So, we went back to a portion of our original question; what are things that resonate with our community. And, the answer was simple (especially in 'Rona) - Who doesn't love a good cookout? So, we launched Two more Products :
The Fried Chicken Flour Mix : a pre-seasoned flour mix with spices (like paprika and the right amount of salt) but fortified with Flaxseed and Sunflower seed for their health benefits.
The Fried Fish Flour : another pre-seasoned flour mix that is heavy on the corn! Because, that's what we do. With a little paprika and ground mustard. This flour mix hits with nostalgia.
Then, we launched our:
Sweet and Smokey Spice Rub because there is nothing like when Black folks bake a good chicken! With notes of onion, garlic and spices this hits home us of being in the kitchen and watching the adults mix dried spices together. We wanted this to be a legit universal spice rub and shelf staple, so, we added salt and brown sugar.
We wanted it to hit every note and be the "if your could only have one thing" spice.
But, last but not least, we decide to listen to feedback from the folks who frequented our restaurants & pop ups and launched :
The Pancake Mix which are some pretty fluffy and delicious pancakes, if we do say so ourselves. We have done all the heavy lifting with dreaming up the right amount of flour, salt, sugar, milk and eggs.
And, all you need to so is JUST ADD WATER!
It has been so rewarding to witnessing our Hot Sauces, Flour Mixes, Spice Rub, and Pancake Mix become household staples. For us, feeding our communities is an expression of love, caring, and ally-ship.
We believe in the power of community.
We believe in nourishing our community.
And for our next steps; we will need our community.
Here's where your giving goes:
*Our Own Commercial Kitchen Space.
- this space will be dedicated to safely creating and storing our products. And it
will allow us to continue to provide proper training for people we hire, that an hourly kitchen rental couldn’t support.
*Hire Full Time Staff at a Living Wage.
*Licenses, Permits, Packaging and Equipment.
This will allow us to legally produce and certify our products and put them in stores local to you.
Giving:
In this season, we know that giving is a tall order.
So, we are grateful for whatever is in your heart to give!
Our intent is to have 3,834 people giving at least $100 to help us reach our goal for 2021!
First, thank you so much for clicking the link for our Go Fund Me.
This is a huge step for us to venture out in our quest to reclaim food sovereignty for ourselves and our community.
We would love to share a little bit about who we are and how we got here.
Hi, I'm Chef Mavis-Jay Sanders.
I have had the privilege to have cooked at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Blue Hill, and Untitled in New York later becoming part-owner of the award-winning food truck Pico House in Los Angeles. I then returned to New York as the Director of Operations at Brooklyn-based Nonprofit Community Culinary Center. And, in 2019, I was honored as Star Chefs’ New York Rising Star Chef - Community. I am also a James Beard Chef’s Boot Camp alum, a Chef’s Collaborative scholar, and is frequently a featured chef of Queer Soup Night's New York Chapter.
The moment that had the greatest impact on the trajectory of my culinary career wasn't in any 20 chef, Michelin star kitchen I worked in. It was spending years of developing technique and being educated on the world's best ingredients, then taking a trip home to cook for my family, and not being able to find lettuces that weren't wilted, root vegetables, that weren't spongey, or meat that didn't smell like chemicals in the local grocery. Realizing that the people I loved most would never have access to nutrient dense whole foods because of systemic oppression forever changed how I would walk though the world.
Hi, I'm Chef Sicily Sierra.
Cooking was a second career for me. I began acting at the age of 7 and became a successful actress as a Power Ranger and on the primetime family comedy, One on One. However, I can trace my family back 7 generations and I come from a long like of cooks. And, that legacy began calling out to me and after graduating from Le Cordon Bleu, I started an double internship at the Los Angeles Times’ Test Kitchen and began freelancing there.
I later had a graduated business from La Cocina SF's incubator program and moved to New York as the Executive Chef for a Culinary Non-Profit Restaurant, that closed in 2020. My desires as a chef is to create a food that fosters a space for the black community to come together to enjoy one another’s company over dishes that are an ode to our ancestry that is an edible piece of culture deeply tied to place and family.
Truly, a lot of our work centers in making sure that Black people can enter into this culinary industry with wonder, excitement, and have a "career" versus a "job". But, the reality of the lack of food access that our teams were facing began to eat away at us. Yes, we supporting their training, providing them a living wage, and opportunities for growth but what good is that if they didn't have the ability to properly nourish themselves and their families in the "right now".
In acknowledging that need, together we started Food Plus People because we believe that quality food is a basic human right. And, the answer isn't as simple as shopping the perimeter of the isle (for fresh produce) at the grocery store, to be very frank, that in itself is a privilege! Because, food deserts are real and not everyone has a perimeter to go to.
So, we challenged ourselves with a simple question : How can we create delicious and nutritious products that live in the center of the aisle, resonates with our community, and that makes them feel nourished no matter where they are in their culinary journey?
And, it all started with a soup mix! Who doesn't love something warm and cozy. After what seemed like months of testing and re-testing, our delicious Sweet Potato and Orzo Curry Soup found it home in the Totes Gay bag for Pride Month and Brooklyn Marches to support Black Lives Matter Movement.
And, with our baby budding successful soup, we followed through with our Hot Sauce trio:
The Original aka The OG - A flavorful deep red base of peppers & onions, where we weaved in fresh herbs - like oregano to round out the flavor that travels down your tongue. Where you are then met with Vinegars and a bright kick of heat.
The Sweet Heat - The crowd favorite - because who doesn't love notes of sweetness from the brown sugar backed with a little salt and spice from fresh peppers and just the right amount of vinegar.
The Seasonal Mild - which has been a joy to learn with because there is no heat present but this hot sauce has been used as a great salad dressing and marinade.
Once we felt like we had found our sweet spot with our hot sauces, we began missing our time in restaurant and gathering as the world shut down. So, we went back to a portion of our original question; what are things that resonate with our community. And, the answer was simple (especially in 'Rona) - Who doesn't love a good cookout? So, we launched Two more Products :
The Fried Chicken Flour Mix : a pre-seasoned flour mix with spices (like paprika and the right amount of salt) but fortified with Flaxseed and Sunflower seed for their health benefits.
The Fried Fish Flour : another pre-seasoned flour mix that is heavy on the corn! Because, that's what we do. With a little paprika and ground mustard. This flour mix hits with nostalgia.
Then, we launched our:
Sweet and Smokey Spice Rub because there is nothing like when Black folks bake a good chicken! With notes of onion, garlic and spices this hits home us of being in the kitchen and watching the adults mix dried spices together. We wanted this to be a legit universal spice rub and shelf staple, so, we added salt and brown sugar.
We wanted it to hit every note and be the "if your could only have one thing" spice.
But, last but not least, we decide to listen to feedback from the folks who frequented our restaurants & pop ups and launched :
The Pancake Mix which are some pretty fluffy and delicious pancakes, if we do say so ourselves. We have done all the heavy lifting with dreaming up the right amount of flour, salt, sugar, milk and eggs.
And, all you need to so is JUST ADD WATER!
It has been so rewarding to witnessing our Hot Sauces, Flour Mixes, Spice Rub, and Pancake Mix become household staples. For us, feeding our communities is an expression of love, caring, and ally-ship.
We believe in the power of community.
We believe in nourishing our community.
And for our next steps; we will need our community.
Here's where your giving goes:
*Our Own Commercial Kitchen Space.
- this space will be dedicated to safely creating and storing our products. And it
will allow us to continue to provide proper training for people we hire, that an hourly kitchen rental couldn’t support.
*Hire Full Time Staff at a Living Wage.
*Licenses, Permits, Packaging and Equipment.
This will allow us to legally produce and certify our products and put them in stores local to you.
Giving:
In this season, we know that giving is a tall order.
So, we are grateful for whatever is in your heart to give!
Our intent is to have 3,834 people giving at least $100 to help us reach our goal for 2021!
Fundraising team (2)
Food Plus People
Organizer
Bronx, NY
Mavis-Jay Sanders
Team member