21-year old opens vegan restaurant in a bid to make plant-based food accessible to everyone

“The wellness community can be really classist,” Chaney tells ESSENCE. “Our intention [with Sol Sips] is to make organic plant-based beverage and bites available to everyone,” she says.

Francesca “Sol” Chaney’s venture was inspired by her busy lifestyle, as she is a full-time student who worked three jobs and found herself constantly on the hunt for healthy food that she could grab-and-go to keep her going.

“At the time, I had just moved out on my own and began brewing teas and making juices and smoothies. I saw that they were working and I was feeling more energized and lighter,” she says.

Black community 

One of Chaney’s main motivations for opening her own vegan eatery is to help the black community live healthier lives. “In many Black, Indigenous and Eastern communities it’s a tradition to meditate, grow your own food, create medicinal concoctions and facilitating healing rituals, yet many of the same communities have been ostracized for a very long time,” she says.

What #SolSips bite are you most excited about munching on when we open as a #permanent space next month? Our #tamarindjackfruit is a customer #toppick ☝🏾! | #Cocreate our expansion with us by sharing/contributing to to our #gofundme! We thank you for your continued support ♥. #solsipsnyc #vegan #plantbased #bites #beverages #organic #madeinbrooklyn #bushwick #cozycafe 📸: @b_scorsatto

A post shared by Sol Sips™ (@solsipsnyc) on Mar 13, 2018 at 2:25pm PDT

Wellness gap 

To “close the accessibility gap in wellness”, the majority of dishes in the restaurant are made in-house using just four ingredients or less, showing that healthy, nutritious food needn’t be pretentious or costly. The restaurant aims to have dishes to suit different budgets, and currently offers customers a monthly ‘sliding scale’ brunch where diners can choose to have a full meal, including a beverage, for between $7-$15.

Not content with what she’s achieved already, Chaney has set herself some impressive goals for the year ahead. “I look forward to launching our farm-to-table initiative and creating a Sol Sips internship program for Black and brown girls in East NY, Brownsville, Bushwick and Bedstuy,” she says.

Chaney currently has a GoFundMe for Sol Sips, so please do consider donating to this worthy cause to help her achieve the next steps of her plan.

Source: ESSENCE.