Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rashad & Elayna Mateen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Rashad & Elayna , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
The name of our company is Crumbstruction. We get so many compliments on our name, and here is the story behind how we came up with it. We have been catering for almost 10 years. We have owned and operated our food truck for 2. We cook a wide range of menu items, and did not want to be boxed in to just one type of food or menu item. So we thought food and crumbs. Then our motto is “building your palate one taste at a time… with a forklift” , and it all goes perfect together!
Rashad & Elayna , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
CRUMBSTRUCTION is made up of a husband and wife team who take pride in each and every dish we make. We are originally from Willingboro NJ, but relocated to NC almost 13 years ago. We offer full service catering for all event types and sizes. We own a food truck as well, serving all of your favorite foods, in our delicious eggrolls. We both come from families where our moms, and grandmothers love to cook. Our parents our also entrepreneurs who showed us that you can have a 9-5, a business, or both and be successful.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
We initially started, well though we were starting our food 8 years ago. It started as us working weekends outside of our 9 -5 setting up at local gas stations selling our eggrolls under a tent. From there we purchased a food truck trailer that we had built in Virginia. When we received the trailer it was not up to code for NC and failed the inspection terribly. We would have had to put another $10,000+ worth of upgrades to pass. That wasn’t and option for us at the time and we were upset, but continued to grind and work. From there we sold the trailer to someone who’s county wasn’t as strict and continued to cater. We went full time in our business, and then Covid-19 happened. Catering was pretty much non-existent so we shifted to meal prep. We were meal prepping 100 plus meals each week for customers. During this time we started the process and purchased a food truck. We were told our food truck would take 6 weeks to build. After numerous delays from the builder and an all around bad customer experience are truck was completed 1 year later. When we went to have our truck inspected, due to negligence on the builders part we failed our inspection 3 times. You can only image the heartbreak and hurt we experience. We had put out all of this money, were guaranteed we would pass, and relived the food trailer incident all over. Eventually we too the truck to another build and had to pay for him to fix issues that should have been taken care of previously. We finally passed our inspection and have been rolling ever since. In the last 2 years our food truck was named one of the top 5 black owned food truck by an awesome digital creator @joyeatsworld22. Our food truck was picked to be one of the food vendors at the Dreamville Festival with over 100,000 in attendance. We never gave up on our goal, and we are just getting started.
We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.
My co-founder business partner is my husband. We met 15 years ago in NJ. We both grew up playing sports and watching are parents work and own successful businesses. We have always been extremely goal driven and hard workers. We are the proud parents of 4 children and are trying to create something for our family for years to come!
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.crumbstructionxpress.com
- Instagram: Crumbstruction
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crumbstruction
Image Credits
Helen Hill Photography FemmeFromageNC