Vegan Cheese Ownder

©Eat UNRestricted

Food & Beverage

Eat UNRestricted: A Black-Owned Cheese Maker Expanding the Dairy-Free Market

When Dianna King entered college to study electrical engineering, she promised herself she would one day start a plant-based food business. After graduating the Georgia Institute of Technology, King worked hard to do just that, eventually launching Eat UNRestricted -a plant-based cheese company on a mission to make healthy and delicious vegan food more accessible, reports Black Enterprise.  Eat UNRestricted offers a range of products it describes as “Vegan cheese with Southern soul.” The company’s products include Better Cheddar, a cheese sauce made from carrots, potatoes, aquafaba (chickpea brine), spices, and seasonings. Sold in 9 oz and 12 oz jars, Better Cheddar is available in Original, Garlic and Chipotle varieties, and is meant to be used for cooking, spreading, dipping and snacking. The company also …

more

Edenesque Grow-NY Competition

©Edenesque

Startups, Accelerators & Incubators

Edenesque Dairy-Free Milk Selected as $1M Finalist in Grow-NY’s Startup Competition

Edenesque, a plant-based milk startup based in Kingston, NY, has been selected as a finalist for a $1M grand prize in the Grow-NY competition, a global food innovation and agriculture tech challenge. Worldwide competition Overseen by the Empire State Development and Cornell University’s Center for Regional Economic Advancement, 2022 marks the fourth year of the challenge, with this year’s competition drawing a significantly higher number of applications than 2021, reports WRRV.  Though based in New York, the competition attracts entrepreneurs from across the world. From the US, 25 states were represented, with 38% having female founders and 75% a founder from an underrepresented minority group. Twenty finalists, including Edenesque, are now vying for seven cash prizes: a $1 million grand prize, two $500,000 prizes and four …

more

Afro Vegan Society Veguary

©Afro Vegan Society

Society

Afro-Vegan Society Launches Online Vegan Education Program “Veguary” for February

Afro-Vegan Society (AVS), a national nonprofit organization promoting vegan living to black communities, will celebrate black history with month-long online vegan education program Veguary. As with most crises, the global pandemic evolved into another historic event in which black and brown communities were disproportionately affected. However, some members of the black community have found success in both health and business through plant-based living, with one of the hottest brands in vegan fast food, Slutty Vegan, being a black female-owned business. Support for Black Communities and businesses The disproportionate challenges faced by black communities and black-owned businesses have been increasingly addressed by big players in the plant-based industry in recent years. For instance, plant meat giant Beyond Meat has invested in The Social Change Fund to …

more

Everything Legendary Juicy Burgers

© Everything Legendary

Food & Beverage

Shark Tank’s Everything Legendary Selling Out in Restaurants, Now in Over 800 Stores

Everything Legendary, a plant-based meat producer which found fame and success through Mark Cuban on Shark Tank, announces that its products will be available at 310 Target locations in addition to 500 existing grocery stores including Safeway, Giant and Acme and Stop & Shop. The young brand reports that Q1 sales indicate that it is now one of the Top 3 plant-based meats distributed to buyers.

more

Denise Woodward Partake

©Partake Foods

Company News

Rihanna Invests in Jay-Z’s Favorite Vegan Cookie Producer Partake Foods

Following successful investments from Jay-Z and Grammy-award winning singer H.E.R, the allergy-free brand Partake Foods has raised $4.8 million in a new funding round. Interesting to note is CEO and founder Denise Woodard is the first woman of color to raise $1 million for a food startup. New investors include pop star Rihanna.

more