We recently connected with Vandor Hill and have shared our conversation below.
Vandor, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
As a way to cope with the grief of family loss my grandmother from cancer in 2017, my mom from cancer in 2018, my mentor in 2019, and my aunt in 2019.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I got back into baking during the height of the pandemic which eventually led to me starting my own business. A friend gave me a recipe to try out and before I knew it I had a lot of donuts in my kitchen and began sharing with friends. This was also a way for me to deal with the grief of losing family & friends back to back from 2017-2019, my grandmother, mom, aunt, and mentor. It was at that point that it was suggested I do something with my donuts which led me to buy some boxes and create a logo. My homegirl from high school let me pop up at her family’s cafe, a DJ Mr.E aka al pastor papi put in a good word for me with a local brewery where I was able to pop up for over a year. The thing I’m most proud of is getting my donuts into Rainbow Grocery five days a week my pop-up collaboration with Malibu Burgers, and getting featured in SF eater, VegOut, and Live in the Bay, all the while fighting eviction by myself.
The Whackdonuts name comes from my nickname/dance name I got from breaking ( breakdancing) for many years winning dance events both locally and overseas. I wanted to use a name that was still tied to my dance as well as something that would stand out. Normally when you say something is whack that means it’s horrible, however just like my dance the donuts are far from whack. When I first started making the donuts, there was no dairy involved but it turns out a lot of my friends and customers were vegan and looking for good desserts. I then spent the next couple of months learning how to bake vegan becoming something of a mad scientist making traditional donut flavors vegan. Most people turn their nose up at the idea of a vegan dessert tasting good, but I hope to continue to change that perspective with my donuts as most times people tell me they didn’t even know it was a vegan donut after their first bite.
In terms of flavors, I have the basics everyone knows but I also have things like: oreo cookies, peach cobbler, thai tea, tres leches, ube, mint chocolate chip, and other interesting donuts made from scratch and with a vegan spin. My goal is to get my donuts into more cafes, and grocery stores in the bay, hire staff and have my own brick & mortar by the end of the year. The ultimate goal is to have a whack donut in the stomachs of every person in the USA
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
As I mentioned in my initial bio I’ve been fighting eviction since I started the business back in 2020. Getting up early in the morning to bake and set up for pop-ups, small events, and selling out only to come home to 3-day notices has left me mentally exhausted. Despite that, I still continue to push through the notices on my door, rent board hearings, and most recently eviction mediation I have managed to get into a grocery store that carries my donuts five days a week and be featured on television as well as various food articles.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
Right from the start I knew I wanted to have some type of slogan to go along with the donuts. So I would ask friends/customers to record themselves eating my donuts and saying with a straight face,” these donuts are whack”. In the beginning, most folks were shy about doing it but got into it more when they saw other folks doing it.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whackdonuts/?hl=en
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/whack-donuts-san-francisco-2