Harvest & Revel Catering

Harvest & Revel is a full service private event catering company focused on creating food and full sensory experiences for our guests that both taste and feel good. Our menus are elevated, approachable, indulgent and health-conscious. And with every detail- we curate creative culinary experiences to help facilitate refreshingly positive, artful, and satisfying events for all occasions. We cater everything from intimate engagements to corporate galas and bring our dedication to quality, sustainability, and local & seasonal sourcing to every event, no matter the size. Through our work with larger companies such as Facebook and Squarespace, we are able to support local artists, schools and nonprofits in our mission to address and correct health inquity, improving the world through healthy eating, one person at a time. As a women led, minority owned business we strive to support underrepresented communities (POC, LGBTQIA+, low income) and businesses, both with employment opportunities as well as creating and participating in food justice programs that assist in providing food equity to all. Our most recent partnerships with CEO and CASES, both local NYC community organizations that work to provide job training and placement to recently incarcerated populations, we are working to ensure our communities are connecting with lasting employment opportunities as well as gaining exposure to food options. With grant assistance, we can keep our doors open now and be able to continue passionately providing the services that are much needed for communities that are considered the most vulnerable. 

The food industry is typically a "white boys club" but as a queer, black woman who grew up primarily around other cis, white, heterosexual people, I've been used to being the outlier. However, knowing that the food services & hospitality industry is typically super exclusive and that most new businesses fail within 5 years, I didn't let that stop me and I'm glad I didn't! We're now 7 years into creating Harvest & Revel (and I use the word "creating" because I believe a business takes active dedication and creative energy to continue to transform and grow it all of the time) and continuing to expand.

The sheer creation of Harvest & Revel in an industry that is not for us is evident of how we push boundaries. As we continue to open doors, we prioritize hiring POC women, LGBTQIA+ & gender non conforming people, and individuals with incarceration history. We're opening up the food & hospitality services industry to have more representation and be more inclusive, both in who we hire and also who we work with. We believe that everyone deserves access to healthful food and celebratory, beautiful moments. So we use the resources we get from higher paying clients to then provide the same services and access to clients who can't necessarily afford the level of service we provide.

I also participate in workshops, discussions and panels with other POC chefs and women who are interested in starting their own companies and speak on panels about entrepreneurship. With my background in marketing and finance, I have come to run Harvest & Revel as an incubator of sorts. Connecting with excited, hungry chefs out of cooking school and talented home chefs looking for an opportunity to expand, I provide hands on experience in menu development, event production, marketing, client management, etc that has allowed chefs who have entered our company to leave with the foundational skills to build their own food service company. To date, Harvest & Revel has helped talented, femme identified food-inspired creatives to start personal catering companies (3 companies!), a marketable bread/baking program for restaurants, and develop a food justice consulting business. We didn't get to this place only to continue to make it exclusive, we believe firmly in sharing the wealth and resources.

The health and sustainability of our communities is an imperative in every aspect of the work we do and we will continue to push whatever boundaries as necessary to ensure we are contributing to the thriving survival of our folx.