The Project
In the summer of 2020, The Black Food Experience was a brilliant and burgeoning idea but when eclectic entrepreneur Wanda Rogers shared her idea with community leader Dan Mueller, a movement was born.
Dreaming of uplifting and promoting San Diego’s vibrant culinary and agricultural communities, Wanda and Dan gathered other community members and developed a plan to form a comprehensive and collaborative network for Black-led food initiatives throughout the region. A mutual love of food and deep desire to see black food businesses succeed despite COVID-19 gave birth to the Black Food Collaborative. With a generous fiscal sponsorship from Slow Food Urban San Diego and partnership with TakeIn, they were well on their way to creating a hub for celebrating the depth and richness of the Black culinary community in San Diego.
The Black Food experience invites food lovers and explorers to “come along on a fantastic food voyage” via social media for an historic Black History Month in February of 2021. Feed your mind, body and soul and stay tuned for the official launch of the Black Food Collaborative & business incubator.
The People
Dan Mueller
For Dan, food isn’t just a source of nourishment and pleasure, it’s also a vessel for connecting with others and our beautiful planet Earth. Dan is a community organizer and nonprofit development professional with a passion for fostering collaboration and celebrating the simple things in life. When she’s not organizing, she can be found with her plants and getting down to disco.
Janell Davis
Janell Davis is a project and business management professional with a passion for empowering the community to thrive beyond the innate proclivity of poverty. She is driven by unique experiences, wanderlust and culinary exploration. If she’s not working, she’s cooking, if she not cooking, she working.
Taylor Steele
Taylor Steele is a passionate clean tech professional who believes that breaking bread together has power to unite, strengthen, and heal our communities. She is deeply committed to community empowerment and equitable access for all. When she’s not busy with clean tech at Tesla or community development, Taylor enjoys exploring the great outdoors.
Wanda Rogers
Wanda Rogers is known for saying “I love to eat” and when she’s not indulging in french fries and chocolate malts, she dedicates her time to creating jobs and economic opportunity in her community. Active in philanthropy, Wanda serves on numerous nonprofit boards. If she’s not working in the community, she’s spending time with her three beloved grandchildren.
Our Partners
The Black Food Experience is proud to partner with TakeIn, a San Diego based marketplace for healthy local food.
You get better local food experiences on TakeIn! TakeIn empowers local producers of all types to deliver new culinary adventure, real authenticity, better dietary control and customization, greater economy, and more convenience.
TakeIn locals range from culinary professionals, local restaurants, and market vendors to food trucks, farmers, fishers, and licensed home chefs. All share a passion for delicious local food. You'll find what you're looking for, and much more, on TakeIn.
TakeIn is open to all segments of local food, not just restaurants. This allows all food entrepreneurs to provide app/online ordering and delivery, at no cost to them. This bridges together different types of Black Food Experience restaurants/vendors utilizing different types of point of sale systems or platforms.
On the TakeIn app, you’ll find a unique carousel highlighting Black Food Experience participants. You can check it out here, making it easy for our community to find and support these businesses directly!
While a small app, for now, TakeIn customers understand that how they purchase local food matters, and use TakeIn because they know businesses get the whole total, tips, and tax (just like a phone order).
A special thank you to everyone who has dedicated their time and talents to manifesting this idea into reality.
The Purpose
The Black Food Collaborative reaches across foodways to include growers, cottage-food producers, food trucks, pop-up shops, caterers, private chefs, meal prep services and more.
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The Black Food Experience aims to bring together our vibrant culinary and agricultural communities to uplift and celebrate Black Food culture in the Greater San Diego Area.
Join us on a fantastic food voyage!