Energizing the streets with her food

When Fauzia Abdur-Rahman was 20 years-old, she came to New York City on summer vacation. When she told her aunt how much she was enjoying the city, her aunt asked her "Then why are you coming home? You are 20 now. Time to start your life." And that is exactly what Fauzia did.

After working for social services for 8 years, Fauzia grew tired of the inflexibility it provided her. Once her second child was born, Fauzia decided she needed to find a way to provide for her family that also offered a degree of flexibility so she turned to something that she was already doing every night for her family - cooking.

For 16 years, Fauzia has operated a food cart on 161st Street close to the Yankees Stadium where she cooks multicultural, healthy, and organic meals. "I get all kinds of people who come for my food - people who are health conscious, people who are trying to be health conscious, and people who don't care at all," says Fauzia as she laughs. "I have these 2 ladies who are dieting and come just to have one good meal a day."

Although Fauzia loves being her own boss, the work is still challenging, "for 10 years I've would wake up at 6:30 am to take care of my children, start cooking at 830, serve my food until well into the afternoon, and will not arrive home to sit down until late at night," says Fauzia.

6 years ago, Fauzia decided she needed to upgrade. She needed a nicer, more comfortable cart to spend her long days on. She went looking for a loan to finance her new food cart, but the loan that she was looking for was too small for many banks to consider. Luckily, a friend of Fauzia's who works for a bank referred Fauzia to someone at ACCION USA. "It was very easy and my loan consultant Yan was so nice and friendly!" said Fauzia. Happy and with a $16,000 loan in hand from ACCION USA, she was finally able to buy a new her new food cart.

Today, Fauzia's cart is more popular than ever, she was even featured in the New York newspaper, Daily News, and was nominated by New Yorkers to the Vendy Awards (an award program for the best street vendors). "When you've been standing on the corner for 16 years, you start to get to know people. I would often have the school children come talk to me and tell me their grades. I promised one young man whose mother had just passed away to give him $10 every time he got an "A" on his report card. He is in college now and he still comes back to say hi."

Starting May 30 Fauzia can also be found serving her delicious food on the weekends on Governor's Island, a spot she got, by invitation of the City of New York.

As for the future, Fauzia is more than happy where she is right now, she will be able to put her oldest son through college starting this fall and her daughter next year; something she would have never been able to do in the past. Also, Fauzia was back at ACCION USA this year looking to expand her business and received a $6,000 loan that allowed her to buy a new cart and hire two new employees to run it.

When asked about the success of her business, Fauzia says: "It's not just all about the food. It is all about relationships."