We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jarrell McKinney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jarrell, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about serving the underserved.

Every year on thanksgiving we cook a whole dinner for the underserved and provide coats, socks, etc. There are a lot more resources needed for the underserved such as shelters and more food banks for them with cold foods instead of hot. More than likely they can not reheat hot foods. I help the underserved because I had a rough upbringing and I know how it feels so I will always help.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a former Professional football player and with me getting cut from the Houston Texans I had to change my path for my future. I started D-1’s Kitchen in 2016 when my tv stopped working and I was bored and sold everything I could cook in my fridge and sold out first day. I have always been able to cook so I tried it out selling food and it went so well I never looked back. I also played football and lived in Europe (Denmark) for a year and learned how to make spices from scratch. I always make sure I take care of my customers because they are what keeps me going and keeps me open.

I think what sets me apart from everyone is my discipline, work ethic, and consistency.

One of my biggest accomplishments was creating my own sauce called seafood splash fir seafood boils. I ship and sell the sauce all over the country but mainly down south. I also learned how to make my signature sauce seafood splash is North Carolina.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My social media presence was already built from me being a known athlete so transitioning wasn’t that hard but people also did not expect a big football player to be as skilled as I am. A lot of friends and people who knew me was skeptical at first until they tried my food or bought my product seafood splash.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My sauce was taken off shelves 2 years ago due to not having a expiration date on one of my bottles of seafood splash. I was in 12 stores in Michigan and made 40k in 6 months. Even after it was taken off shelves I have still been able to maintain selling my sauce consistently shipping with increased sales due to the demand.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://seafoodsplash.square.site/product/seafood-splash/180?fbclid=PAAaZdvu4d6-0R8zJsNJ1HfVcO6IY8GQxIMdtjbDuzspebwn9G2irZ2zASxU4
• Instagram: Chef_relld1K
• Facebook: Jarrell McKinney