In 2016, Anthony and Janique Edwards wanted to find black-owned restaurants in New York that they could support.

1. EatOkra: The App Changing
the Game for Black-Owned
Businesses
In 2016, Anthony and Janique Edwards wanted to find black-owned restaurants in
New York that they could support. They kept getting directed to the same trendy,
popular locations but had difficulty discovering smaller, lesser-known restaurants
like the ones that they wanted to support. During their search, they found a lot of
press releases and blogs about these lesser-known locations but nothing that
compiled these restaurants together to give them the attention they deserved.
Anthony and Janique Edwards decided to solve this problem themselves. Thus,
EatOkra was born.
What is EatOkra?
Though it started small because they’re self-funded, the app now spans more
than thirty cities around the U.S. including New York City, D.C. and New Orleans.
They cover eateries big and small, from restaurants to coffee houses to pop-ups
and food trucks. It’s compatible for both Apple and Android and grows primarily
through word-of-mouth; because the couple funds the app with their own
money, they don’t have excess to spend on advertising.
It’s fitting, anyway, since the app communally sources their information: Users
submit their favorite restaurants to the directory, either by choosing “add
business” on the app or messaging the company on their social media. People
can also rate restaurants through one of four emojis and the founders have plans
to add the ability to review restaurants as well.
The app has four categories to help users find what they’re craving: Caribbean
cuisine, breakfast and brunch, soul food and local eats. They even include
directions so that users can easily find their way to new locations they want to try.
They chose to use “okra” in the name as an homage. Okra is a seed snuck over to
the U.S. during the slave trade. It’s now a culturally relevant ingredient in a lot of

2. cuisines and as such is a fitting name for an app that brings black-owned
restaurants into prominence and facilitates a greater sense of community.
Why is it so important to support black-owned
businesses?
Supporting independent small businesses like restaurants is always important.
They operate under extremely thin profit margins so it’s necessary to patronize
them to help them stay in business.
Now the world is in flux. Times are unprecedented; the COVID-19 pandemic has
raged in the country since March, when widespread shutdown orders made
people take the virus more seriously. Restaurants have shut down for months and
only got licence to reopen their dine-in services within the past few weeks, some
early as May and others late as June. After only having takeout and delivery
services open for months, if they didn’t close down completely, they can still only
seat a limited amount of dine-in customers. Thus many of these restaurants still
aren’t turning a significant amount of profit, and small businesses continue to
suffer.
Just as states started to reopen nonessential services all over the country, the
death of George Floyd in police custody sparked Black Lives Matter
demonstrations all around the world which snowballed into a much larger
movement advocating against police brutality and for dismantling systemic
oppression against black people in America. Many people want to show their
support however they can; for a lot of them, that means patronizing black-owned
businesses to show solidarity with, and give funds to, the black community during
this time.
This isn’t an isolated incident: EatOkra has noticed a recurring trend where they
see a sharp spike in users after racially-charged incidents garner national
attention. The recent Black Lives Matter protests led to a 4450% increase in daily
downloads of EatOkra, and they’re not the only directory for black-owned
businesses that experienced newfound popularity—though they did experience
the most. Black Wallet, Black Nation and more all saw a steep increase in
downloads immediately following Black Lives Matter protests.

3. The support isn’t just because people want to find and support the black
community right now, although that is a factor; however EatOkra also provides, as
the founders describe it, a safe gathering place for people of color to “meet and
eat without fear of profiling and harassment.”
To foster a sense of community, EatOkra’s next goal is to connect owners and
chefs with local organizations and community initiatives that combat food
insecurity, helping individuals and families put food on the table.
When Anthony and Janique sought to uplift and support the black community,
they thought that supporting them via food was the best way to bring people
together.
In their own words, the inspiration for EatOkra came from the deep-rooted belief
that this is the best way to support these businesses and help hungry customers
in the process: “Nothing embodies this idea of community more than the act of
feeding someone or coming together to eat or be fed.”