Who’s not in the mood to cook this holiday season? Well, you’re in luck, there’s an app for that.
New York-based couple and entrepreneurs, Anthony and Janique Edwards, creators of the EatOkra, a user friendly app that connects users to Black-owned restaurants, wants to help ease the holiday stress.
Not only will the app help get us through cooking challenges, it’s also a great avenue for supporting Black businesses. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, nearly half of Black-owned businesses have shuttered during the pandemic, making EatOkra’s mission to help businesses survive and thrive more important than ever.
Founded in 2016, by Anthony Edwards and his wife Janique, as an easier way to discover Black-owned restaurants in Brooklyn, EatOkra has now connected over 150,000 users to more than 2,600 Black-owned restaurants, bakeries, cafes, food trucks, bars and wineries across the country.
In an interview on BlackEnterprise.com, Anthony, a Fordham University graduate who previously served in the U.S. Army shared that he started the app when he was hungry one day and couldn’t fine a single source to locate black-owned restaurants.
“Food made sense to us, because everyone needs to eat, and it has cultural significance. Gathering and food play a key role in defining our sense of community, and EatOkra provides users with a tool that gives them an opportunity to locate these communities and support them in some way.”
EatOkra , currently available on the Apple App Store, is a guide to Black-owned restaurants. The restaurants are divided into four categories—Caribbean cuisine, breakfast & brunch, soul food, and the catch-all category “local eats.”
