ALONG COMES MARY

At Expo West, I met so many wonderful, creative people dedicated to helping us all lead a more nutritious life. One of these creators was Dena Mangiamele, founder of Dena’s Fuel for Fitness. Her treats & snacks were seriously some of the best I tried over the weekend & her whole story I find very inspiring, so I asked her to answer a few questions to share with you. Whether you’re looking to go Vegan or simply make better dietary choices, Dena has some wonderful ideas. Thank you so much, Dena, for this great, detailed interview!

How long have you been in business, & what inspired you to start making your ‘fuel’?

Dena: Dena’s Fuel For Fitness started about two and a half years ago.  As I converted from vegetarian to vegan to vegan/raw I continued my competitive fitness level and started sharing some of my homemade snacks and food creations with friends at the gym.  The “sharing” expanded to many friends and health club members so I started a small business where I created a menu of four items that changed weekly that my followers ordered from and learned about vegan snacks.  I soon had over one hundred followers and many of them encouraged me to start a formal vegan food business so since I wanted members of my healthy eating club to recognize the company and it was the Fuel I ate to stay fit, I named it Dena’s Fuel For Fitness.

Second of all – I would suggest dropping dairy products.  Can you name another species that consumes milk after weaning that is produced by a different species?  When you think about it – it just isn’t very natural.  Yes, that includes cheese. If I am Italian and can do it – anyone can do it, and now that I am vegan, the oiliness of cheese just doesn’t seem appetizing anymore.   

I was taken aback at how delicious your food was! What’s the creation process like for your business, & did you do a lot of research for what’s a good diet for athletes like yourself before making these snacks?

Taste and flavor combinations are very important to me – we are known for our unique flavor combinations like Mango Raspberry Crackers with Basil. Our savory crackers for the nutritional boost such as high protein for post-workout or high omega-3’s, and the sweet, soft crackers as a healthy treat or even a post-meal dessert.  I spent a lot of time prior to my business researching vegan diets and implemented many of the concepts that work for me as an athlete.  My favorite book and author on the vegan and raw nutritional level is Brenda Davis, RD and Vesanto Melina, MS, RD – excellent reference.

Can you tell us more about your program to get your fuel into schools, & what we can do to help this cause?

Dena’s Fuel For Schools is one of my company goals – to get no added sugar, preservative-free, and gluten-free snacks into schools from kindergarten through the college level.  As I learned with my own experience getting off of sugar – my concentration and attention level improved and I would expect there would be similar results for kids of all ages if they could reduce their dependence on processed sugar – a win:win situation for the student and the teacher!  Unfortunately, this is a very difficult ceiling to break – elementary through high school level that is not private receives an extremely low amount of governmental funding for snack programs.  As a result we are now working to get our products into college campus food marts and restaurants.  We made some really good connections at Expo with two universities in southern California and will be meeting with them in the next week or so – hopefully I will have good news to report soon. 

Finally, whats your advice for people out there interested in starting their own business/LLC?