Welcome to The Happy Lentil. We are a husband and wife owned vegan pop-up restaurant, catering company and private food label. We specialize in soulful plant-based comfort food with global appeal. Our mission is to make plant-based cuisine more desirable and accessible within underserved communities and among people of color in metro Atlanta.
We conduct a pop-up for our community twice per month, serving an array of selections from our global soul cuisine. Our catering services are employed for a variety of occasions including corporate meetings, TV studio cast luncheons, birthday parties, anniversaries, family reunions and other events. We also produce a line of vegan dips and spreads currently sold in two local stores under The Happy Lentil brand.
With the funds raised through our crowd-funding campaign, we plan to open our own dedicated space where the community can gain access to our healthy cuisine daily, and where we can host community workshops and plant-based cooking classes.
Photos from our popup and our line of wholesale vegan dips and spreads.
Selections from our menu.
Fulfilling a Dire Need
We created The Happy Lentil to share the many benefits of plant-based cooking and eating with our beloved community.
Following are a few statistics conveying the need for and benefits of a plant-based diet in America:
- Only 1 in 10 American adults gets enough fruits and vegetables in their daily diets. The recommendation is 1.5 to 2 cups of fruit and 2 to 3 cups of vegetables per day. (Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
- A plant-based diet lowers the risk of all causes of mortality by 25 percent. (Source: The Journal of the American Heart Association)
Additionally, following are statistics underscoring a specific need to make fresh, plant-based food more desirable and accessible in urban communities and among people of color in Atlanta:
- While almost equal percentages of Atlanta’s poorest and wealthiest areas have greater than average access to fast food, 86% of very high-income areas have greater than average access to fresh food. (Source: Atlanta Regional Commission)
- Metro Atlanta’s fast food restaurants are disproportionately located in communities with many people of color. (Source: Atlanta Regional Commission)
- Just 8% of African Americans live in census tracts with supermarkets, compared with 31 percent of their white counterparts. (Source: Atlanta Regional Commission)
Finally, following are figures supporting the need for and benefits of a plant-based diet in the state of Georgia:
- Only 29.9% of adults reported having consumed fruits at the recommended level of 2 or more times per day and just 29.5% of adults reported having consumed vegetables at the recommended level of 3 or more times per day. (Source: CDC’s Division of Nutrition and Physical, and Obesity)
Having personally experienced decreased blood pressure, weight loss and improved mental clarity, we want everyone to experience the joys of a plant-based lifestyle. Money should not be a barrier. It's about making the right choices with the resources you do have. For instance, buying fresh vs. canned, using a steamed food preparation vs. fried or perhaps learning to plant fruits and vegetables in whatever space you have. In fact, one of our greatest joys is the container garden we maintain in the back of our home. We grow our own fresh vegetables and herbs and often use them in preparing food for customers.
Our container garden of vegetables and herbs we use in preparing our food.
We need Your Help
Currently, it is just the two of us dedicated to The Happy Lentil full time. We also enlist individuals part time to help us carry out our mission. However, we operate from a shared commercial kitchen, which limits us to just catering and holding pop-up events at other facilities. If we could lease a home for The Happy Lentil, we could hire a team and offer healthy, delicious food to our community on a daily basis. We would prepare our wholesale dips and spreads on one side of the kitchen and our daily menu on the opposite side. We would also offer free health workshops to further educate the public on how to select wholesome foods, grow their own fruits and vegetables and prepare healthy meals.
Why Crowdfunding?
When fundraising, women of color and black-owned businesses continue to face significant disparities. This is a key reason we decided to crowdfund.
According to the annual State of Women-Owned Businesses Report commissioned by American Express, in 2019, women of color accounted for 50% of all women-owned businesses, employed nearly 2.4 million people and generated $422.5 billion in revenue for the economy. However, of the $85 billion in venture capital funding, women of color received less than 1%.
Research also reveals challenges Black Americans with small businesses face in obtaining credit. Despite applying for funding at a rate 10 percent higher than their nonminority counterparts, the Federal Reserve reported in April 2021, Black-owned businesses were less than half as likely as white-owned firms to be fully approved for loan applications over the past year.
And in 2020, 41 percent of Black-owned businesses were forced to permanently close their doors, compared to less than 20 percent of white-owned businesses. Statistics show Black-owned businesses are more likely to be in the sectors of the economy hurt most by the global health crises, such as the food, retail or accommodation industries.
We Appreciate Your Support!
We want to thank you in advance for supporting our mission to make plant-based cuisine more desirable and accessible among underserved communities and people of color in Atlanta. With your help, we can secure a home for our business, conduct a buildout and obtain the necessary equipment to fulfill our menu. We would then hire a team and provide delicious, global soul cuisine to our local community on a daily basis.
No amount is too small. Whatever amount you can give will bring us one step closer to achieving our mission.
Again, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Words cannot express how grateful we are for your support!
