JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With only a burner and one fryer, the KraVegan food truck is cooking up food customers are willing to wait for.
“I will literally find them wherever they are in Jacksonville, whether they’re in Orange Park, the Southside, I have to find them,” said customer Latasha Jackson.
The idea for KravVegan started in 2018. Two years later, owner Katasha Kaiser has grown her business from a catering company to a food truck, and on February 2021, it will open doors to its first store in Orange Park.
“It is my soul, it is, I feed myself, I feed my family, I feed my people,” said Kaiser.
Kaiser realized the odds are stacked against her. She’s a Black woman who opened a small business making vegan food.
In an announcement, Facebook said it’s launching its new #BuyBlack Friday initiative. It said Black-owned businesses have closed their doors at twice the rate of other small businesses during the pandemic.
But since March, more than 3.5 million people on Facebook across the country have joined new groups created to support Black-owned businesses.
Facebook’s campaign runs from Oct. 30 through Nov. 27. The #BuyBlack Friday initiative includes tool kits and other resources for Black-owned businesses. The new Facebook app has features encouraging people to share posts supporting these businesses, as well as a weekly Friday show featuring owners, entertainers and musical artists.
Initiatives that are meant to support Black-owned businesses like Kaiser’s.
“I do what I do, because I love what I do," she said.