Detroit chef wants to launch food truck to further her mission to feed the needy

A chef, former nurse and a mother to many, Detroiter Harriette Brown has been cooking nutritious food for hungry people in the area for many years. 

It’s all part of what her business does. Brown — who is known as Chef Bee or Mama Bae — and her niece, Ebony Bell, are Sisters on a Roll, a mobile cafe that does pop-ups, catering, meal prep, community outreach and more. The more profit they can make from the paid gigs, the more they can help their hungry neighbors. 

“I come from outreach ministry, so charging for food was weird to me and it took a minute for me to ascertain my worth,” said Brown, who works out of a commissary kitchen in Detroit. “But people in the suburbs and stuff, they can afford the elite veganism that I offer. So we sell it to them, and we feed the people in the city of Detroit, or wherever. We don’t discriminate. If we’re in Birmingham and (there’s) homeless (people), or they’re hungry, we feed them.”