We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Queenie VESEY . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Queenie below.

Queenie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I was hungry. That is my reason why I became a chef. I grew up poor surviving off of pantry donations. The food was old and very nasty. I was on a mission to feed my siblings due to my mother being out all night and day to prostitute to support her crack addiction. My first creation was making Mac and cheese with old noodles and a small piece of cheese from the faded white box. I panic I did not have enough cheese. I decided we had peanut butter and used it. The best Mac and cheese to this day!! I cook because I was hungry port eating out the trash. I work on a farm where I run a full canning kitchen. Because I was hungry!!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Queenie, executive Chef of NeeuqsEat. I consider myself a unicorn because I am just that damn magical.

I grew up in Iowa to a mother who had a crack addiction. People ask why I cook will I was poor and I was Hungary! I turned pantry items into meals for my siblings and often wowed my mother when she would come in from the hoe stroll as I remember the older kids calling it. I am a healer through food. I now cook straight from the garden! And enjoy educating children on how to grow and cook healthy food. I went from 370 to 181 with the help of surgery and changing my diet. I am also a survivor of being ganged raped in 2004 and being blessed with a beautiful daughter who just turned 18. I am a freestyle poet and motivational speaker! I enjoy walking Ian’s
Breathing in my new found free…being Queenie….

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

I grew up named after my mother Queenie. For all her wrongs and flaws I had to wear it the majority of my life. Your gonna be crack head just like your mother. I grew up thinking just like my cousins and aunts I will become a stripper and be on crack it was the only future I thought I had. For that I hated my name Queenie. I realized one day I did not have to be her, and would not be her. I no longer feared being called my name. I looked up my name in the 7th grade and found every Queen I could find. It was at the moment I realized I am a true Queen and my name is only defined by me. I did not fully crown myself until I was 38, I am now 39. I had to learn that being one of Queenie’s kids was not a negative, a flaw….it was my truth, our truth….surviving being Queenie’s kids is a badge of honor. Grew up poor it eating dinners, wearing dirty and smelly clothes, being touched on my her johns when they would return without her!! Walking the hoe stroll to find her….resilient but not by choice

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that I wasn’t capable of being a mother due to not having one. When I found out after being gang raped I had a child. I was scared as hell!! I can’t raise her, I have no education., money and was living with the women who adopted me when I was 13. I read every book, went to every nursing and nurses for newborn classes, called every agency to assist with items. Went to every appointment and learned how to ask questions. Then she came and all the books, classes nothing prepared me for the soft big eyes looking back at me. It was at this moment I was already giving my daughter what I thought I could never give. A loving mother. I can brag about making the best French onion soup, or the meanest pot of gumbo, I can brag about doing an entire impromptu play with two Characters from the top of my brain. With a plot twist! However my biggest flex Is being a mother. I am a mother me, a Queenie and well I like to think I did a hell of job. My daughter has already been accepted into colleges, she speaks French and can’t wait to become a lawyer to fight for education rights and to change education laws. Sitting here writing this because she is my only child… the next part of my life starts just as her will. They call us the VESEY girls…..

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Neeuqseat
• Facebook: Neeuqseat
• Linkedin: NeeuQ’s eat