Businesses host ribbon cuttings all the time. It's not often that participants have to take extra care that the clipped ends of the ribbon don't accidentally dip into the vegan biscuits and gravy.
County Executive David Crowley and County Board Supervisor Shawn Rolland could be seen sampling those biscuits and gravy Jan. 27 before the ribbon cutting at 6108 W. Blue Mound Road in Wauwatosa. Serving containers were arranged on the counter of Plant Joy Deli, next to the vegan mac & cheese and the vegan potato chowder.
Other county officials mingled with reporters, deli employees and supporters of the new business, said to be the first vegan deli in Milwaukee County and possibly in all Wisconsin. Owner Amberlea Childs was beaming.
"The past two years has been steadily building, working toward our deli, our concept of being able to make plant-based food accessible to people." Childs said, as a brief news conference kicked off behind her deli counter. "We really want to make healthy foods accessible to people on a daily basis. We want to have it at a good price point. But we also want people to understand what they're eating and why they're eating it."
Plant Joy Deli will officially open to the public on Jan. 29, from 7 p.m. to 3 p.m., and starting next week it will be open Tuesdays through Saturdays. The opening was made possible in part by the assistance of a $10,000 small business grant through Milwaukee County's Building Bridges Program, which is focused on activating commercial corridors in the county.
"The fact that you have been able to now open up and provide healthier food for our entire community ... is helping us reach our goal of becoming a healthier county and state," Crowley added.
And Rolland emphasized the excitement around this business opening on the busy Blue Mound Road in Wauwatosa's southeast corner, "another great option in a great neighborhood."
Since 2019, with the help of eight part-time employees, Childs and her staff have used a shared commercial kitchen in Brown Deer to prepare the vegan meals that they deliver to customers across the region. They also sell their meals at various pop-up events.
With a new dedicated commercial kitchen at the Blue Mound Road location, Childs hopes to bolster “our plant-based food movement” with a vegan kitchen and marketplace selling a range of items for eat in, take out or delivery. The business will feature fresh and frozen “heat and eat” meals, homemade vegan meats and cheeses, daily specials and catering.
Childs has said previously that she "learned a lot about food, my body and survival" as a breast cancer survivor, and now Plant Joy Deli is her way of sharing what she has learned about food’s effect on the body.
