What happens when two plant-based visionaries go from serving their local Atlanta community to cooking backstage for New Edition on tour? 🎤🍽️ In this inspiring episode, Heather Zeitzwolfe sits down with Danielle from Sometimeatarian, a powerhouse vegan food trailer that’s flipping the script on what plant-based food can be. 🌱💥
✨ From humble beginnings rooted in family health struggles to scaling their business through catering, creativity, and community, Danielle Booker shares what it really takes to succeed in the food trailer world and what they've learned with their partner in life and business, Chef Chanee Key.
We talk about:
🚛 Their decision to purchase a trailer instead of a traditional food truck
👉 The Super Bowl moment that sparked their hustle
🍲 How they’re making plant-based food accessible in food deserts
📝 Lessons learned from bad contracts and event disasters
⚡The brutal truth about permits, commissaries, and zoning in Atlanta
🎉 Serving celebs (like Bobby Brown & New Edition!) and still staying community-focused
💡 The creation of their Vendor Toolkit to help other food entrepreneurs streamline & scale
🏗️ Their next big dream: a takeout-focused brick-and-mortar location (and the GoFundMe behind it)
Push play and listen if you’re passionate about plant-based food, food justice, or building a mission-driven business. ✨
🔗 Grab the Vendor Toolkit: https://www.sometimeatarianatl.com/resources-and-pre-orders
📱 Follow them: @sometimeatarian
🎙️ Subscribe for more vegan business insights!
Follow Savvy Frugal Vegan:
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Check out the website for upcoming workshops, events, coaching, and more
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Heather (00:00):
Hey, this is Heather Zeitzwolfe, welcome to the Vegan
Food Truck Business podcast.
Today's episode is packed withlessons We're talking about
turning a side hustle into afull-time gig, building a food
brand from scratch, and the realchallenges of running a mobile
food business My guest isDanielle from Sometimeatarian an
(00:21):
Atlanta-based food truck that'sflipping the script on
plant-based eating.
Their motto, plant-based food isso good.
Even meat eaters want in.
They fed everyone from EverydayFolks to Bobby Brown and New
Edition on tour.
You're going to hear all the insand outs, so let's get into it.
(00:41):
Here's Danielle sharing how itall started with a family health
crisis which made their familyrethink what was on their
plates.
Danielle (00:51):
Chanee is the brainiac behind Sometimetarian initially.
We got into the vegan lifestylebecause we had a lot of family
members who were sick.
the only thing we couldcorrelate that everyone had in
common was what we were alleating in the kitchen.
We were all essentially havingthe same diet and we were living
at different places, food wasthe one thing that linked
everybody else, you know?
We collectively went plant-basedChanee struggled with missing
(01:14):
flavors that.
Reminded her of home there wasno beyond meats If you wanted
something, you had to make itfrom scratch.
Chanee she has several years ofculinary experience before she
branched off and started her ownthing.
fortunately with that culinarybackground, she was like a mad
scientist I was painting fulltime as an artist we Blended the
two.
Anytime I had an event, shewould cater that turned into
meal prep.
(01:34):
it just kind of grew from therepeople were like, wow, you
should really do this.
Heather (01:38):
Next.
Danielle talks about a SuperBowl opportunity.
And the food truck hustle
Danielle (01:45):
when the Super Bowl came to Atlanta, we were trying
to think of what is the best waythat we can monetize all of
these people coming to the city.
There's so much money that's outthere to be made.
we were already doing meal prepin some capacity, so
collectively the two of us andtwo others at the time, we all
went in and got the properlicensing so we could vend
during the Super Bowl and thatweekend.
Was very eyeopening of how muchof a need and void there was for
(02:09):
plant-based food in the city.
it just went crazy from thereand we haven't looked back.
Heather (02:13):
the Super Bowl opportunity in your own life.
Keep in mind things that stickout that are different, perhaps
you can tap into for a businessjust like Danielle did.
Next.
Danielle talks about the lessonslearned from a bad contract and
how they now set a minimumguarantee you've taken a unique
(02:35):
approach to your food truck, notto just go out on the streets
but you decided to do it ascatering to order was the
decisions behind that?
Danielle (02:43):
kind of The need.
when we started our business wegot the truck in 2020 when large
events were no longer a thing.
Catering and outdoor smallgatherings were all you could
really do.
So we found a niche that workedfor us.
since then we've grown We dofestivals and things, but we're
very selective because we areable to stay so busy with
catering and small events thebiggest thing that had us lead
(03:05):
in that direction was necessity.
That was all that we had anoption if we wanted to stay
afloat.
We had to figure out how to feedthe people and pay the bills at
the same time.
catering was exactly that.
Heather (03:14):
it's more of a predictable model you know
exactly how much food you needto order.
Exactly.
You're not driving around tryingto find a parking spot and then
getting kicked out.
It's like you have more controlover your business
Danielle (03:25):
we've gotten burned a couple of times lesson learned
and you're like, okay, we needanother contract.
We work really closely with acontract attorney that makes
sure that we have all of Ourpaperwork in line to where when
we're sending different bids inwe're covered, we're protected.
But again, it took a lot oflessons
Heather (03:40):
I'm glad to hear that you are working with an attorney
it's so important as businessowners, we have to know what's
expected from us, so that theclient is happy.
But we also have to preserve ourown business to make sure that
we are doing things in a safemanner if you don't mind
sharing, what was the lesson youlearned that put you in that
situation?
Danielle (03:57):
it was a contract gone wrong Sometimes you get on site
and They say the event is overat this time.
they're expecting you to go overat events it's not what they
promised They're saying there's20,000 people are gonna come and
maybe there's a hundred.
from that lesson, we learnedthat we needed to have a
guaranteed minimum if we don'tmake a certain amount, the event
host or coordinator isresponsible for paying the
difference.
in the food industry, there's somuch overhead Whether or not you
(04:18):
have a good day or a bad day,there's still room for loss.
And if we're doing certain typeof events, we just wanna make
sure that we're protected fromhaving to be the ones
responsible for that.
Heather (04:28):
Get it in writing.
Danielle and Chef Shana, learnthe hard way that not having a
solid contract can cost you bigtime.
If you're catering an event, youhave to set a minimum guarantee.
otherwise you might show up, doall the work, and not make
enough to cover your costs.
Ugh, Protect your time, protectyour resources, protect your
(04:52):
profit.
and remember to have a contract.
Alright, next is one of thebiggest headaches in the food
truck world Permits.
Hmm.
Danielle and Chef Shanae theylearned this the hard way.
You know, there's a lot of redtape permits, commissary
requirements, zoning rules, itcan feel like a full-time job
(05:12):
just keeping up with all ofthese things.
What has been one of the biggestsurprises around running a
business like this?
I
Danielle (05:20):
think the biggest surprise was how many
regulations there are aboutwhere you can actually park your
truck.
Atlanta and Georgia there's alot of rules and regulations
that limit where you canactually vend.
all of the prerequisites to evenbe able to be legal to vend in
the first place.
when we bought our truck, Ihonestly can't ever remember.
how long it took us to actuallyget a commissary, in the Metro
(05:42):
Atlanta area there's only onecompany that is deemed legal and
they only have so manylocations.
essentially somebody's has toclose their business and leave
for there to be an opening.
the waiting list is.
Absurd If you go to food truckowners in the state of Georgia,
that'll probably be the biggestthing that they say.
Held them up, was trying to findthe commissary space.
once you get that, trying tofind a place where you can park
(06:04):
is harder.
Which may also be why we catermore because we used to have a
food truck park like mostmetropolitan cities, it's now a
high rise.
There's no longer a food truckpark there.
And that took away anopportunity for.
Vendors the woman who owned thatspace was very conscious and she
converted it over.
She had it for 10 plus years inI think like the last five or
(06:25):
six years of her operating was ahundred percent vegan.
So she turned it into a veganfood truck park and it was
awesome.
But when that property sold, allof these businesses were
scrambling to figure out what todo and to this day are still
trying to figure it out.
that was some years ago there'snot a.
Location anymore that you canjust readily go without it being
sometimes predatory because thelocation just knows that you
(06:46):
need a place they're like$300 aday and you're like, what are
you doing for me?
Absolutely nothing.
that probably was the biggestsurprise when we first started
how many hoops you really haveto jump to even become legal.
And then once you are legal, youreally can't start until you
figure out where you canposition.
Your actual food truck
Heather (07:01):
being that you are more on the catering side, what about
having like inspections, foodinspections and fire
inspections, are you still underthe same type of rules in
Atlanta?
Danielle (07:13):
Absolutely.
So it's still Department ofHealth.
we actually have moreinspections because we have the
truck and the commissary.
you get a license for both ofthose spaces.
You get double dipped, you haveto have double of everything.
Two sandy buckets, one forinside, one for outside.
it's even more work and moremoney because you're paying for
more,
Heather (07:31):
We just heard about Danielle's struggles with
permits, finding a commissarykitchen, losing a food truck
park for vegans, and thechallenges of finding legal
vending spots.
Next, we're gonna talk about themission.
it's not just about sellingfood, but they're creating
access to healthy plant-basedfood.
So communitarian is steppinginto fill that gap, and they're
(07:55):
doing it in a way that honorsthe culture, the flavors and
their community.
if you've ever lived in a fooddesert, you know how tough it is
to find anything fresh, letalone plant-based options Can
you describe to me what youthink of when you think of a
food desert and how you wouldlike to impact that in your
community
Danielle (08:16):
both myself and Shanae grew up in areas where we were
seeing the lack of grocerystores, restaurants, and if
those were available that theyweren't having.
Fresh produce?
We're not gonna find a vegan orplant-based friendly restaurant.
it's really important for usthat with the truck, when we do
pop up, that we're in areas thatare underserved that doesn't
(08:37):
have access to being able tofind something, plant-based
friendly atlanta doesn't havethe best transit.
So we always try to make surethat we're in areas that are
easy to get to, whether or notyou're Ubering or using Marta,
that you can walk closely to thetrain station for us it's really
important to make sure thatwe're in areas where people
wouldn't Even get theopportunity to be exposed to
this type of food.
because we are connected tothose types of communities, we
(08:59):
know once they taste our food,that it'll be relatable to that
palate.
it's really important to be ableto show our community how you
can implement healthy eating andnot lose sight to your culture,
your flavors.
Memories,'cause that'sdefinitely part of the journey
that's really important for bothof us.
Heather (09:15):
I was in Dallas a few years ago and I was staying in
downtown surprisingly, that wasa food desert I was like,
there's apartments here.
Where are people shopping?
There was just like A-C-C-V-Swith some junk food terrible.
you just heard about fooddeserts, social justice and
their mission to helpunderserved areas Think about
how you could do this in yourown community.
(09:36):
Where can you fill that gap?
Next we're gonna hear fromDanielle, about working smarter,
not harder.
I heard that you have a toolkit.
what is this vendor toolkit
Danielle (09:47):
My background is all over the place, but I work in
implementation, so onboardingpeople to new systems is what I
do, a lot of what we were doingfor some time was asking the
same questions, sending the samedocuments, and I was like, there
has to be a faster way.
We've gotta automate this.
I need templates.
I can't keep typing all of thisstuff initially it started out
of a need for us because I can'talways answer it.
(10:07):
And then once our team grew,they needed to know what to
actually send.
it started out of necessity forour business.
I wanted to streamline some ofour processes so we could
shorten our response times.
people in the food truckcommunity, would ask how do you
do this?
Or, what do you do for that?
And I'm like, oh, I have atemplate.
And I was just giving them away.
Because I already made it.
I'm not always dollar focused.
then back to the attorney,they're like, What do you mean?
(10:28):
You're just giving all of thesethings away?
Like you could actually packagethis, create a bundle and,
present that when somebody asksyou, if you wanna have a coupon
code can get it for a discountor for free.
you should offer this to thepublic because everyone needs to
automate their business.
it was created out of necessity,and then it grew from there.
I started offering consultingservices where I could help
(10:48):
people.
now you have the tools and somepeople are like how do I create
it to be a template to where Ican have it just automatically
shoot out?
we now offer that as a serviceto where if other food truckers
wanna.
Streamline their business, wecan help them with that too.
Heather (11:01):
Danielle created a toolkit because she saw a need
and instead of giving away herknowledge for free, she turned
it into a revenue stream.
that's how you build asustainable business.
You look for other streams ofrevenue, and if you're curious,
the toolkit includes clientquestionnaires, event vetting,
checklists, email templates,invoices and more.
(11:23):
you've designed all these thingsfor your business and now a PDF
that people can download?
what does it go into exactly?
Danielle (11:30):
So it's more or less like how.
To respond to customers how toget more leads.
So in the packet you get thingsabout, here's your questionnaire
for whenever you get a cateringlead, somebody sends you a
request.
These are the things you needfor your first conversation.
You need to answer thesequestions.
I have another one that'sspecifically for vendors, so you
can ask, how many other foodtrucks are gonna be there?
Do you offer power?
(11:52):
Do you know things that can helpyou decide?
Whether or not this is a goodfit for your business?
I like to vet every event thatcomes through us to make sure
it's going to be beneficial tous.
response templates.
Invoice templates Anything theyneeded to know the beginning, if
you just wanna cook.
These are the things that youcan send because you wouldn't
think to put them together inthe first place.
(12:12):
'cause you primarily are in thekitchen.
Heather (12:13):
and this could be for a vegan food truck or a non-vegan
food truck.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
This is gold for anyone tryingto streamline a service business
Whether you're running a foodtruck.
or consulting food truck ownerswith their business.
Just look in the show notes forthe links.
you can get this toolkit fromDanielle.
So what's next for Danielle andChef Shanae?
(12:36):
Like a lot of foodentrepreneurs, they're dreaming
bigger beyond the truck, beyondthe trailer.
They're looking to open up ago-to style, brick and mortar
location, not a full restaurant,just a space where they can
prep, cook, and serve peoplemore efficiently, they're
running a GoFundMe to make ithappen.
you been into a brick andmortar, and you have a GoFundMe.
(13:00):
What is that about?
Danielle (13:01):
ideally, we'd like to operate a to go location.
Not a full dine-in restaurant,People can come and pick up
directly from us.
The commissary space, they'revery small.
we've completely outgrown thatspace.
We need something larger but arenot necessarily wanting a full
on restaurant.
Unless somebody is down toinvest, until then.
we're operating at max capacityright now we're looking to get a
(13:24):
space that's larger to where wecan feed more people more
regularly and operate moreefficient.
'cause we've completely outgrownthe space that we're in now.
Heather (13:31):
how big are some of these events that you're
catering?
Danielle (13:33):
Oh, we have an event on Saturday for 500.
It really just depends.
We really don't have a maxnumber So whatever comes our
way, we figure it out.
But we would love to be in aspace where we could have a
larger team and do multipleevents on the same day
Heather (13:47):
what about for your marketing?
are you relying mostly on wordof mouth?
Are you doing social media howdo you get the word out about
your business?
Danielle (13:54):
Word of mouth has been our best friend because we are
terrible at marketing.
probably because we are ahundred percent self-funded.
So when it comes to trying todecide where we need Divvy up
all of the funds.
Being in a food business, it'svery difficult to allocate large
lump sums to be able to run bigcampaigns like larger brands
can.
fortunately here in Atlanta,there's not a large vegan
(14:16):
community.
It's definitely growing, butwhen it comes to food trucks and
things like that, we are far fewbetween.
if you're vegan, nine times outof 10, you've heard about one.
And then.
You hear about the others.
we've done really well with wordof mouth for now and could
definitely improve in the worldof marketing.
Heather (14:30):
We just heard Danielle talk about the brick and mortar
plan, her GoFundMe, catering,event size and marketing, in
Atlanta Next.
Danielle talks about finallessons for a food truck owner.
is there anything else that youwanna share from your journey
that people can learn from?
Danielle (14:48):
I definitely say if you're looking to get into the
food truck business.
That hands down, just do yourresearch about what your county
requirements are.
Each county has different rules,each city has different rules.
It's really easy to go out andask on public forums, like, how
do I do this?
the biggest thing I learned isonce you meet a health
inspector.
Get their name, try to ask fortheir personal contact, if
(15:08):
they'll give it to you and hangonto'em, become a leach a lot of
these government agencies allwanna help you, but they're also
equally as uninformed as thenext guy.
sometimes you'll get conflictinginformation.
if you stick with the sameperson, whoever told you could
do it this way, if you continueto talk to them, they'll never
tell you you can't, unless therule changes But there were
plenty of times where we wouldtalk to somebody and they'd say,
(15:30):
You need to get this license.
So you say, okay, you go pay forit.
And then when it's time to getthe big license, they're like,
oh, you didn't need those.
And you're like can I get mymoney back?
And they're like, no.
So you'll constantly spend moremoney than you have to if you
don't just go directly to thesource.
Like anytime you have an issue,always try to find the expert.
talk to your peers and find outwhat they're doing.
But a lot of the times whatyou'll find out is people are
(15:52):
not doing things the right way.
when I find out that there's aright way to do something, I
have a very difficult time doingit the wrong way.
Sometimes when you talk to otherpeople they'll be quick to help
you find loopholes, to get yourbusiness off of the ground my
biggest advice would be toresearch before spending any
money.
Don't buy the truck without thecommissary.
Get on the waiting list first,then buy it.
Be picky about who you buy yourtruck from.
I hear tons of horror storieswhere people buy trucks and
(16:14):
everything's falling apart.
The walls, it's leaking.
This is broken.
We've been really blessed inthat area we got a wonderful
vehicle.
We actually have a trailer.
We don't have a full truck witha motor.
that was part of a discussionthat we had too.
We didn't necessarily wanna getsomething that had a motor, so
if, the actual driving part ofthe vehicle was down the
business.
Would be down too.
Which is very unfortunate whenour peers have that issue where
(16:35):
It can be something as simple astheir brakes and they can't come
to an event.
Whereas with a trailer, ifsomething is wrong with the
towing vehicle, then you canrent a U-Haul truck and still
come and go and do what you needto do.
fortunately we haven't had anymobility problems So my top two
things decision on what type ofvehicle in research.
Heather (16:53):
great advice.
Final takeaways.
Research your local rules.
A good rule of thumb is stop.
Don't buy the truck yet untilyou have secured a commissary.
Stick with the same inspectorand think bigger than just food,
think services, community, andyour overall impact.
This has been HeatherZeitzwolfe, the savvy, frugal
(17:15):
vegan.
Hey, this is Heather Zeitzwolfe, welcome to the Vegan
Food Truck Business podcast.
Today's episode is packed withlessons We're talking about
turning a side hustle into afull-time gig, building a food
brand from scratch, and the realchallenges of running a mobile
food business My guest isDanielle from Sometimeatarian an
(00:21):
Atlanta-based food truck that'sflipping the script on
plant-based eating.
Their motto, plant-based food isso good.
Even meat eaters want in.
They fed everyone from EverydayFolks to Bobby Brown and New
Edition on tour.
You're going to hear all the insand outs, so let's get into it.
(00:41):
Here's Danielle sharing how itall started with a family health
crisis which made their familyrethink what was on their
plates.
Danielle (00:51):
Chanee is the brainiac behind Sometimetarian initially.
We got into the vegan lifestylebecause we had a lot of family
members who were sick.
the only thing we couldcorrelate that everyone had in
common was what we were alleating in the kitchen.
We were all essentially havingthe same diet and we were living
at different places, food wasthe one thing that linked
everybody else, you know?
We collectively went plant-basedChanee struggled with missing
(01:14):
flavors that.
Reminded her of home there wasno beyond meats If you wanted
something, you had to make itfrom scratch.
Chanee she has several years ofculinary experience before she
branched off and started her ownthing.
fortunately with that culinarybackground, she was like a mad
scientist I was painting fulltime as an artist we Blended the
two.
Anytime I had an event, shewould cater that turned into
meal prep.
(01:34):
it just kind of grew from therepeople were like, wow, you
should really do this.
Heather (01:38):
Next.
Danielle talks about a SuperBowl opportunity.
And the food truck hustle
Danielle (01:45):
when the Super Bowl came to Atlanta, we were trying
to think of what is the best waythat we can monetize all of
these people coming to the city.
There's so much money that's outthere to be made.
we were already doing meal prepin some capacity, so
collectively the two of us andtwo others at the time, we all
went in and got the properlicensing so we could vend
during the Super Bowl and thatweekend.
Was very eyeopening of how muchof a need and void there was for
(02:09):
plant-based food in the city.
it just went crazy from thereand we haven't looked back.
Heather (02:13):
the Super Bowl opportunity in your own life.
Keep in mind things that stickout that are different, perhaps
you can tap into for a businessjust like Danielle did.
Next.
Danielle talks about the lessonslearned from a bad contract and
how they now set a minimumguarantee you've taken a unique
(02:35):
approach to your food truck, notto just go out on the streets
but you decided to do it ascatering to order was the
decisions behind that?
Danielle (02:43):
kind of The need.
when we started our business wegot the truck in 2020 when large
events were no longer a thing.
Catering and outdoor smallgatherings were all you could
really do.
So we found a niche that workedfor us.
since then we've grown We dofestivals and things, but we're
very selective because we areable to stay so busy with
catering and small events thebiggest thing that had us lead
(03:05):
in that direction was necessity.
That was all that we had anoption if we wanted to stay
afloat.
We had to figure out how to feedthe people and pay the bills at
the same time.
catering was exactly that.
Heather (03:14):
it's more of a predictable model you know
exactly how much food you needto order.
Exactly.
You're not driving around tryingto find a parking spot and then
getting kicked out.
It's like you have more controlover your business
Danielle (03:25):
we've gotten burned a couple of times lesson learned
and you're like, okay, we needanother contract.
We work really closely with acontract attorney that makes
sure that we have all of Ourpaperwork in line to where when
we're sending different bids inwe're covered, we're protected.
But again, it took a lot oflessons
Heather (03:40):
I'm glad to hear that you are working with an attorney
it's so important as businessowners, we have to know what's
expected from us, so that theclient is happy.
But we also have to preserve ourown business to make sure that
we are doing things in a safemanner if you don't mind
sharing, what was the lesson youlearned that put you in that
situation?
Danielle (03:57):
it was a contract gone wrong Sometimes you get on site
and They say the event is overat this time.
they're expecting you to go overat events it's not what they
promised They're saying there's20,000 people are gonna come and
maybe there's a hundred.
from that lesson, we learnedthat we needed to have a
guaranteed minimum if we don'tmake a certain amount, the event
host or coordinator isresponsible for paying the
difference.
in the food industry, there's somuch overhead Whether or not you
(04:18):
have a good day or a bad day,there's still room for loss.
And if we're doing certain typeof events, we just wanna make
sure that we're protected fromhaving to be the ones
responsible for that.
Heather (04:28):
Get it in writing.
Danielle and Chef Shana, learnthe hard way that not having a
solid contract can cost you bigtime.
If you're catering an event, youhave to set a minimum guarantee.
otherwise you might show up, doall the work, and not make
enough to cover your costs.
Ugh, Protect your time, protectyour resources, protect your
(04:52):
profit.
and remember to have a contract.
Alright, next is one of thebiggest headaches in the food
truck world Permits.
Hmm.
Danielle and Chef Shanae theylearned this the hard way.
You know, there's a lot of redtape permits, commissary
requirements, zoning rules, itcan feel like a full-time job
(05:12):
just keeping up with all ofthese things.
What has been one of the biggestsurprises around running a
business like this?
I
Danielle (05:20):
think the biggest surprise was how many
regulations there are aboutwhere you can actually park your
truck.
Atlanta and Georgia there's alot of rules and regulations
that limit where you canactually vend.
all of the prerequisites to evenbe able to be legal to vend in
the first place.
when we bought our truck, Ihonestly can't ever remember.
how long it took us to actuallyget a commissary, in the Metro
(05:42):
Atlanta area there's only onecompany that is deemed legal and
they only have so manylocations.
essentially somebody's has toclose their business and leave
for there to be an opening.
the waiting list is.
Absurd If you go to food truckowners in the state of Georgia,
that'll probably be the biggestthing that they say.
Held them up, was trying to findthe commissary space.
once you get that, trying tofind a place where you can park
(06:04):
is harder.
Which may also be why we catermore because we used to have a
food truck park like mostmetropolitan cities, it's now a
high rise.
There's no longer a food truckpark there.
And that took away anopportunity for.
Vendors the woman who owned thatspace was very conscious and she
converted it over.
She had it for 10 plus years inI think like the last five or
(06:25):
six years of her operating was ahundred percent vegan.
So she turned it into a veganfood truck park and it was
awesome.
But when that property sold, allof these businesses were
scrambling to figure out what todo and to this day are still
trying to figure it out.
that was some years ago there'snot a.
Location anymore that you canjust readily go without it being
sometimes predatory because thelocation just knows that you
(06:46):
need a place they're like$300 aday and you're like, what are
you doing for me?
Absolutely nothing.
that probably was the biggestsurprise when we first started
how many hoops you really haveto jump to even become legal.
And then once you are legal, youreally can't start until you
figure out where you canposition.
Your actual food truck
Heather (07:01):
being that you are more on the catering side, what about
having like inspections, foodinspections and fire
inspections, are you still underthe same type of rules in
Atlanta?
Danielle (07:13):
Absolutely.
So it's still Department ofHealth.
we actually have moreinspections because we have the
truck and the commissary.
you get a license for both ofthose spaces.
You get double dipped, you haveto have double of everything.
Two sandy buckets, one forinside, one for outside.
it's even more work and moremoney because you're paying for
more,
Heather (07:31):
We just heard about Danielle's struggles with
permits, finding a commissarykitchen, losing a food truck
park for vegans, and thechallenges of finding legal
vending spots.
Next, we're gonna talk about themission.
it's not just about sellingfood, but they're creating
access to healthy plant-basedfood.
So communitarian is steppinginto fill that gap, and they're
(07:55):
doing it in a way that honorsthe culture, the flavors and
their community.
if you've ever lived in a fooddesert, you know how tough it is
to find anything fresh, letalone plant-based options Can
you describe to me what youthink of when you think of a
food desert and how you wouldlike to impact that in your
community
Danielle (08:16):
both myself and Shanae grew up in areas where we were
seeing the lack of grocerystores, restaurants, and if
those were available that theyweren't having.
Fresh produce?
We're not gonna find a vegan orplant-based friendly restaurant.
it's really important for usthat with the truck, when we do
pop up, that we're in areas thatare underserved that doesn't
(08:37):
have access to being able tofind something, plant-based
friendly atlanta doesn't havethe best transit.
So we always try to make surethat we're in areas that are
easy to get to, whether or notyou're Ubering or using Marta,
that you can walk closely to thetrain station for us it's really
important to make sure thatwe're in areas where people
wouldn't Even get theopportunity to be exposed to
this type of food.
because we are connected tothose types of communities, we
(08:59):
know once they taste our food,that it'll be relatable to that
palate.
it's really important to be ableto show our community how you
can implement healthy eating andnot lose sight to your culture,
your flavors.
Memories,'cause that'sdefinitely part of the journey
that's really important for bothof us.
Heather (09:15):
I was in Dallas a few years ago and I was staying in
downtown surprisingly, that wasa food desert I was like,
there's apartments here.
Where are people shopping?
There was just like A-C-C-V-Swith some junk food terrible.
you just heard about fooddeserts, social justice and
their mission to helpunderserved areas Think about
how you could do this in yourown community.
(09:36):
Where can you fill that gap?
Next we're gonna hear fromDanielle, about working smarter,
not harder.
I heard that you have a toolkit.
what is this vendor toolkit
Danielle (09:47):
My background is all over the place, but I work in
implementation, so onboardingpeople to new systems is what I
do, a lot of what we were doingfor some time was asking the
same questions, sending the samedocuments, and I was like, there
has to be a faster way.
We've gotta automate this.
I need templates.
I can't keep typing all of thisstuff initially it started out
of a need for us because I can'talways answer it.
(10:07):
And then once our team grew,they needed to know what to
actually send.
it started out of necessity forour business.
I wanted to streamline some ofour processes so we could
shorten our response times.
people in the food truckcommunity, would ask how do you
do this?
Or, what do you do for that?
And I'm like, oh, I have atemplate.
And I was just giving them away.
Because I already made it.
I'm not always dollar focused.
then back to the attorney,they're like, What do you mean?
(10:28):
You're just giving all of thesethings away?
Like you could actually packagethis, create a bundle and,
present that when somebody asksyou, if you wanna have a coupon
code can get it for a discountor for free.
you should offer this to thepublic because everyone needs to
automate their business.
it was created out of necessity,and then it grew from there.
I started offering consultingservices where I could help
(10:48):
people.
now you have the tools and somepeople are like how do I create
it to be a template to where Ican have it just automatically
shoot out?
we now offer that as a serviceto where if other food truckers
wanna.
Streamline their business, wecan help them with that too.
Heather (11:01):
Danielle created a toolkit because she saw a need
and instead of giving away herknowledge for free, she turned
it into a revenue stream.
that's how you build asustainable business.
You look for other streams ofrevenue, and if you're curious,
the toolkit includes clientquestionnaires, event vetting,
checklists, email templates,invoices and more.
(11:23):
you've designed all these thingsfor your business and now a PDF
that people can download?
what does it go into exactly?
Danielle (11:30):
So it's more or less like how.
To respond to customers how toget more leads.
So in the packet you get thingsabout, here's your questionnaire
for whenever you get a cateringlead, somebody sends you a
request.
These are the things you needfor your first conversation.
You need to answer thesequestions.
I have another one that'sspecifically for vendors, so you
can ask, how many other foodtrucks are gonna be there?
Do you offer power?
(11:52):
Do you know things that can helpyou decide?
Whether or not this is a goodfit for your business?
I like to vet every event thatcomes through us to make sure
it's going to be beneficial tous.
response templates.
Invoice templates Anything theyneeded to know the beginning, if
you just wanna cook.
These are the things that youcan send because you wouldn't
think to put them together inthe first place.
(12:12):
'cause you primarily are in thekitchen.
Heather (12:13):
and this could be for a vegan food truck or a non-vegan
food truck.
Oh yeah, absolutely.
This is gold for anyone tryingto streamline a service business
Whether you're running a foodtruck.
or consulting food truck ownerswith their business.
Just look in the show notes forthe links.
you can get this toolkit fromDanielle.
So what's next for Danielle andChef Shanae?
(12:36):
Like a lot of foodentrepreneurs, they're dreaming
bigger beyond the truck, beyondthe trailer.
They're looking to open up ago-to style, brick and mortar
location, not a full restaurant,just a space where they can
prep, cook, and serve peoplemore efficiently, they're
running a GoFundMe to make ithappen.
you been into a brick andmortar, and you have a GoFundMe.
(13:00):
What is that about?
Danielle (13:01):
ideally, we'd like to operate a to go location.
Not a full dine-in restaurant,People can come and pick up
directly from us.
The commissary space, they'revery small.
we've completely outgrown thatspace.
We need something larger but arenot necessarily wanting a full
on restaurant.
Unless somebody is down toinvest, until then.
we're operating at max capacityright now we're looking to get a
(13:24):
space that's larger to where wecan feed more people more
regularly and operate moreefficient.
'cause we've completely outgrownthe space that we're in now.
Heather (13:31):
how big are some of these events that you're
catering?
Danielle (13:33):
Oh, we have an event on Saturday for 500.
It really just depends.
We really don't have a maxnumber So whatever comes our
way, we figure it out.
But we would love to be in aspace where we could have a
larger team and do multipleevents on the same day
Heather (13:47):
what about for your marketing?
are you relying mostly on wordof mouth?
Are you doing social media howdo you get the word out about
your business?
Danielle (13:54):
Word of mouth has been our best friend because we are
terrible at marketing.
probably because we are ahundred percent self-funded.
So when it comes to trying todecide where we need Divvy up
all of the funds.
Being in a food business, it'svery difficult to allocate large
lump sums to be able to run bigcampaigns like larger brands
can.
fortunately here in Atlanta,there's not a large vegan
(14:16):
community.
It's definitely growing, butwhen it comes to food trucks and
things like that, we are far fewbetween.
if you're vegan, nine times outof 10, you've heard about one.
And then.
You hear about the others.
we've done really well with wordof mouth for now and could
definitely improve in the worldof marketing.
Heather (14:30):
We just heard Danielle talk about the brick and mortar
plan, her GoFundMe, catering,event size and marketing, in
Atlanta Next.
Danielle talks about finallessons for a food truck owner.
is there anything else that youwanna share from your journey
that people can learn from?
Danielle (14:48):
I definitely say if you're looking to get into the
food truck business.
That hands down, just do yourresearch about what your county
requirements are.
Each county has different rules,each city has different rules.
It's really easy to go out andask on public forums, like, how
do I do this?
the biggest thing I learned isonce you meet a health
inspector.
Get their name, try to ask fortheir personal contact, if
(15:08):
they'll give it to you and hangonto'em, become a leach a lot of
these government agencies allwanna help you, but they're also
equally as uninformed as thenext guy.
sometimes you'll get conflictinginformation.
if you stick with the sameperson, whoever told you could
do it this way, if you continueto talk to them, they'll never
tell you you can't, unless therule changes But there were
plenty of times where we wouldtalk to somebody and they'd say,
(15:30):
You need to get this license.
So you say, okay, you go pay forit.
And then when it's time to getthe big license, they're like,
oh, you didn't need those.
And you're like can I get mymoney back?
And they're like, no.
So you'll constantly spend moremoney than you have to if you
don't just go directly to thesource.
Like anytime you have an issue,always try to find the expert.
talk to your peers and find outwhat they're doing.
But a lot of the times whatyou'll find out is people are
(15:52):
not doing things the right way.
when I find out that there's aright way to do something, I
have a very difficult time doingit the wrong way.
Sometimes when you talk to otherpeople they'll be quick to help
you find loopholes, to get yourbusiness off of the ground my
biggest advice would be toresearch before spending any
money.
Don't buy the truck without thecommissary.
Get on the waiting list first,then buy it.
Be picky about who you buy yourtruck from.
I hear tons of horror storieswhere people buy trucks and
(16:14):
everything's falling apart.
The walls, it's leaking.
This is broken.
We've been really blessed inthat area we got a wonderful
vehicle.
We actually have a trailer.
We don't have a full truck witha motor.
that was part of a discussionthat we had too.
We didn't necessarily wanna getsomething that had a motor, so
if, the actual driving part ofthe vehicle was down the
business.
Would be down too.
Which is very unfortunate whenour peers have that issue where
(16:35):
It can be something as simple astheir brakes and they can't come
to an event.
Whereas with a trailer, ifsomething is wrong with the
towing vehicle, then you canrent a U-Haul truck and still
come and go and do what you needto do.
fortunately we haven't had anymobility problems So my top two
things decision on what type ofvehicle in research.
Heather (16:53):
great advice.
Final takeaways.
Research your local rules.
A good rule of thumb is stop.
Don't buy the truck yet untilyou have secured a commissary.
Stick with the same inspectorand think bigger than just food,
think services, community, andyour overall impact.
This has been HeatherZeitzwolfe, the savvy, frugal
(17:15):
vegan.
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