These Two Black-Woman Owned Vegan Businesses Share Their Mission for Serving Vegan Goods to the Masses
There’s no doubt that getting a special, hand-crafted vegan treat sent to your doorstep is a wonderful feeling. The best part is knowing you are supporting a small, woman-owned, black-owned business that started their companies to help save animals and help people enjoy something sweet.
We had the pleasure of interviewing two women “lady bosses” that have taken the hardships of 2020 to chase after their dreams of owning a business and sharing their favorite vegan treats with the masses.
Jakera of Oat Butter Brand
Imagine all of the best flavors of cinnamon, maple, walnuts, and oats all blended up into one little jar of magic. That is the beauty of Jakera’s Oat Butter that’s made of completely raw and without preservatives. Each jar is made fresh and with extra love!
Jakera was a lifestyle coach before the pandemic and found herself searching for a “pandemic proof” job that she could not only do to sustain herself but one that she was passionate about.
After researching the types of businesses that she could pursue, she found that packaged comfort foods were booming during the pandemic as more and more people were ordering in and seeking nostalgic, comforting treats.
“While I have a big sweet tooth, I wanted it to be healthy. That’s how I created oat butter. I could have created a chocolate bar, but wanted to make something that wasn’t already on the market.
“That’s why I was able to launch the product so well is because most people were intrigued about the product itself, saying things like “I’ve just never tried an oat butter before”!
“I met Cara (of Southern Roots Bakery) and Major of Project Pop through the VeganCuts program and now I am connected to some of the best people in the vegan food space! I love food for connecting people all in one place!
The goal for me is to get it to a couple of retailers. I don’t want to be the next Quaker or anything, but I really just want to teach people how to do what I did to start their own business without a lot of investments.
“I went vegan because my husband was vegetarian and when I made Oat butter, I wanted something that was genuinely healthy and veganism is the pinnacle of that. I also wanted to do it because of the animals. I made Oat butter to have a better relationship with food and my love for animals. At the core and heart of the business, I aim to educate people and make them more aware of how delicious things without dairy can be.
“I believe that education, especially for the Black community is so important on why we need to eat plant based, but also to break the stigma of “it’s too expensive”. I think there’s been a lot of misinformation all around, especially with the black community, we are kind of “stuck in our ways” and its scary sometimes. I want Oat butter to be more than just a product but something used to help educate people on health and our environment and how everything we do helps impact our children’s children after us. I essentially want Oat Butter to be a lifestyle brand. It has certainly been a dramatic change for me since finding Oat butter and I am so thankful”.
Major of Project Pop
Any kind of sweet/salty snack we can enjoy during movie night, count us in! This is really the popcorn you’ve been waiting for that has the sweetness, with a little saltiness, and all vegan!
Major’s Project Pop offers a fresh take on kettle corn using carefully-selected organic ingredients, including a bold virgin coconut oil that you can really taste with every crunch!
“I originally became vegan about 5 years ago and started this company before that. Officially in 2017 but did pop-up event before then. Since then I have progressively changed my eating habits since I was 12 when my mom was dating a Muslim and I stopped eating pork. At age 15, I worked at McDonald’s and could not eat beef after I saw what they did with the burgers. It was tough to give up chicken and seafood, since I had a job traveling the world to work with restaurants. But the more research I did, the more I leaned towards giving up chicken and went pescatarian for awhile.
The more documentaries I watched, the more I learned about dairy and the hardships of seafood as well. I made the conscious decision to love my body more than I loved food and decided to go vegan. That ethos of character stays with me to this day. Before that time, I was already making this popcorn. Though popcorn is very easy to make vegan, I was very conscious of what I was putting into the popcorn as I was very conscious of what I was putting in my own body. I always lived by an organic lifestyle, so I made sure all ingredients. I wanted to ensure it had the least amount of ingredients that could cause any flare ups in kid’s allergies or cause harm to anyone’s bodies.
“For my kettle corn, I picked the best thing I could find, including the sugar to ensure it was vegan. Even before I went vegan, I was using a vegan sugar and feel confident to this day that all of my popcorns are 100% vegan. I use very few ingredients in any recipe we have, as I take pride in using simple and natural ingredients. We don’t use any additives or colors or persertives that you usually find in other popcorns. I have even turned down business for when people want custom orders that want dyes. For me, that is sticking to our brand mission of “People Over Profit”, as I could easily use the worst ingredients out there and make the popcorn still taste good and even sell it for the same price and some people wouldn’t care. But I can’t bring myself to do that with my brand.
“For me, my brand is more than just popcorn. To me, it’s a conduit to reach people that are looking to eat healthier. For example, instead of using canola oil or Crisco, I only use organic extra virgin coconut oil. I know my people in the black community, because of our lineage, didn’t have a lot. People were cooking with lard or a subpar oil, and table salt that didn’t have a lot nutrition, because that’s all they had. I hope to have the black community find new ingredients that they like from my popcorn, like Himalayan pink salt or coconut oil, and be able to go to the grocery store to pick some up to incorporate into their diet”.
Major even created a Celebrate Black Lives bag, available in a 2-pack kettle corn bundle, that shares a portion of proceeds from each sale with Black-led nonprofits that advocate for education and fight against hunger in marginalized communities.
“Last year, as unfortunate as it was with all of the social injustice movement, our brand has seen such a surge in sales and we are so thankful to have the support from the vegan community and those looking to support a black-owned business”.
Keep Up with Jakera and Major
Cara of Southern Roots Bakery, Jakera of Oat Butter, and Major of Project Pop are doing a couple of big things in light of Black History Month. Stay tuned for more information on their instagram pages here:
