Chef Dayo Edwards began her catering career in 2005, initially serving just a few Seattle friends and family, and eventually bigger events and clients, like Amazon, the City of Seattle, and the University of Washington. Her main principles (and main ingredients) are joy and excellence, which find their way into every everything she does, including DayoSense’s two main properties – their Black Love Seasoning line and the Kwanzaa Campus. The latter is both the headquarters of DayoSense and an event/meeting space for entrepreneurs, creatives, and community members.

Based in Tacoma, Washington, Intentions was born from a simple provocation – What happens when you become more intentional about how you nourish yourself? These days, the goal is to create a casual and welcoming environment to grow healthily together. They specialize in fresh pressed juices, smoothie bowls, sandwiches, and more.

Boasting a menu of family recipes – ones that belonged to chef/owner Todd Minor’s great-grandmother, for whom he affectionately named his restaurant – Nana’s Southern Kitchen is about more than just her legendary recipes for pork chops, catfish, candied yams, and collard greens; it’s also about Nana’s vision for strengthening and inspiring community, the restaurant’s North Star since they first opened.

Seattle’s Simply Soulful Café is the city’s premier location for authentic southern cooking. Inspired by the traditional cuisine and recipes from their family’s matriarch, Simply Soulful first opened in 2014.

Trotter’s is a family-run restaurant serving classic home-cooked cuisine for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Located in Auburn, Washington, it’s been a jewel of the community for over 50 years. The Braxtons took over in 2017, with Michael Braxton having worked there since 2004, starting out as dishwasher.