We recently connected with Monique Hines and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Monique , thanks for joining us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

Usaually when we are trying to name something it seems to be a difficult decision. Believe it or not it was easy for me to decide on Food Vibez. I felt that it displayed what my business was. We are a food based business with some amazing Vibez from cooking classes, to pop up events, to small catering events, and even Community outreach. In 2021 I added another word to the business name. My business is now name Food Vibez Way because It’s the Food Vibez Way. We do things our way in our community that we are building.

Monique , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Monique Hines I am the owner and head chef of Food Vibez Way. I started Food Vibez Way March 7th 2020. I created Food Vibez Way because I saw a need for something different for our youth and our friends with disabilities. I want to create a place for all to come and learn how to cook and have fun and just be free. For the past 7 years I have been working with individuals with disabilities and I noticed there aren’t enough places/ activities that they can participate in around here. I felt like cooking would be something that they would be interesting in learning. We all love food so why not learn how to cook. Cooking is an essential skill that enhances your social skills and life skills. My kids cooking classes are amazing we start at ages 2 and work all the way up. Food Vibez is building a community for all. Everyone is welcome to come join us. Cooking has always been so much fun for me. As a young child my mom and grandma brought me in the kitchen with them. Years of watching them and being the lil heper has now turned cooking into a passion for me. I have a 9 year old son and he is currently learning how to cook just like I did. I believe everyone should atleast know the basics when it comes to cooking. Food Vibez Way also wants to teach you how to grow your own Fruits and veggies. We are super excited that we have a master gardener on our Food Vibez way team who happens to be my mom. My mom inherited her green thumb from her mom and now we plan to use our knowledge to help the community. My vision for Food Vibez Way is to have a Food Vibez house. The house will have a commercial Kitchen that accommodates all my classes. We hope have a break room in the house for those that need space if they become over stimulated. We want to build a small/ medium size graden to grow our own fruits and veggies and house chickens. I want the Food Vibez house to be a place that all can come to for cooking classes and events. Even host family Fun days during the summer. We would love to start an afterschool program for our youth. Education means alot to us and we want to help your kids succeed through out the school year. We will be on the lookout for investors in the near future to help bring our vision to life. I believe that Food Vibez has the ability to be a house hold name we host classes all over. We do day care/preschool, middle/ elementary/high Schools and even go to senior citizen centers. Food Vibez is definitely on the move to building something amazing.

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

Growing my business on social media has been a task for me. I had to find the right audience for my posts because not everyone is going to look at/ benefit from what your posting. I learned that you have to be consistent on posting on social media. You can define consistent the way you see it but for me, my goal is to consistently post 2 times a day on all platforms. You can create 2 posts/ videos and load those same 2 on every platform. I will say this even with me being consistent there are days I may get 100 likes then next day I may get only 2. It can be discouraging but I know I have to keep going. Those 2 likes could potentially be 2 new students. I promise you even if people aren’t liking and sharing your stuff they are still seeing it. I notice that people love to hear stories on social so I tend to allow my videos to tell a story/ display an experience.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

To be honest it took me about 2 years to really gain more than 2 students. In the past year I have noticed that word of mouth has been helping my business grow. My students parents have been spreading the word around town about Food Vibez which I think is amazing. I also wear my business shirts about 5 Days out of the week so I am definitely a walking billboard. I even have 2 big magents on my car that advertises my business. People have stopped me in traffic about my business, I see people taking pictures of my car it’s such a great feeling to see new people interested in what we have going on.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.foodvibezway.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_foodvibezway
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FoodVibez2020Way?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/WAtr7vaNwZ8