Mobile Munchies

Where do I start... other than with my love for food. My earliest memory is when I was 5 or 6 years old grocery shopping with my Mom. I used to love the fruit & veg section because of all the bright colours and how fresh everything looked. The wierd part is the 1 thing I used used to go for was the radishes they were so pretty so I had to taste them. At each shop expecting a different result, but never getting it haha. When we got home then the real fun began,,, seperating the meat into family portions. I loved the feel of the meat, where most people can't stand it. And that is where my story begun..... my interest in food never dwindling.

Now 41 years later, I am still trying to follow that dream. I never chose the path of a Chef or a career in Hospitality. I chose the easy way out, I went into office work and many other office jobs thereafter. i became a wife, then a Mother and settled for the fact that my family loved my cooking, and that was enough. In 2006 when my second child was 2 years old, I became a stay at home Mom, and I'd say more due to boredom my love for cooking reawakened. I opened a small business run from home supplying home cooked meals to families whose lives were too busy to do it themselves. Due to numerous reasons, one being financial this only lasted about 6 months. I've tried a few times over the years to get my food out there, but have never quite succeeded. I have come to realise nothing can be done without some form of startup Capital, so due to many obstacles nothing ever came of it.

These last 4 years of my life have been an eye opener. I've been through divorce, relocation many many times, and a very tragic death of someone who I thought was my future but in a heartbeat became a very painful memory I have to live with for the rest of my life. Due to all of this, it has practically destroyed the person I once was. It has made me lose my passion for life. It has broken me down, that there were days on end that I would spend in bed with no will to carry on.The stress levels have been astronomical. But yet I would go into the kitchen and cook or bake something small and it would make me just a bit happier. Food is my happy place. I don't have much else left but I have always held onto my love for food.

I am at a point where I have no career, I moved out of my comfort zone into a complete strange place because an opportunity had arisen to run a kitchen on my own. I called it my last hope..I had been here 3 months, but it didn't work out.I survived again on this false hope and ended up with nothing. I am now back to square one, boarding in someones house with no transport and no place to call my own. I don't see a way forward relying on anyone. What i do see is still FOOD IS MY FUTURE!!! I am good at it, people love my food, I have never had negative feedback. I was raised in a "vleis, reis en aartapples" home. I used to watch my ouma make fresh farm bread and vetkoeks and help her knead the dough, I married into a Portuguese family, and absorbed every recipe I learnt. I make the meanest homemade hamburger patties, and creamy chicken livers that I have been told "are the best on the North and South Coast"....and these small things give me hope that maybe I can create a future, a positive one. it is the only thing I can still speak passionately about. Food brings me joy! I work hard when I am in the kitchen and put my heart and soul into all my cooking.

I have sat and researched ways to still follow my dream, and decided I want to start a mobile food truck and call it Mobile Munchies. It will have a different menu with tastes from my past. Everything I know people already love.I want to start in Upper Highway Area, then move around Durban, the around the whole of KZN and eventually I want to travel Africa in this same truck. Stopping for a few weeks at a time in different towns and sharing my love of food, in my dishes around Africa.at the same time learning more about new and interesting dishes. I then also want to start a blog of my travels and my success story. Because I will NOT fail! This dream of mine is a long term goal.... I don't know how long it will take to get there. I can't start this on my own as I have no way of getting funding, I have looked into different options and am so tired of reading "We are Sorry but you have been declined". I have made many mistakes in my past, And due to this it has ruined my future. I have made this an ongoing fundraiser as I know it is going to take a long time to even get the basics. I just need help and this is the only option I have left.

Call it a Pipe Dream but I NEED YOUR HELP to make it a real dream. No matter how small a donation, it will be more than I have now to follow this passion for food. I just want to be happy again. And food makes me happy and my food makes other people happy.... It seems simple enough.... If only!!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Much Love