As a teenager, Keira Rashe's first job was at McDonald's. There she began developing her unhealthy eating habits. She regularly ate menu items from fast food chains, which wasn't unusual since many of her friends and family did the same. But it wasn't until she observed what was happening to them that she realized a change was needed.
“People in the community I grew up with had illnesses like diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. I kept thinking, 'I don't want that for me or my family.'” she told ESSENCE. . “I needed to make a change.”
At just 16 years old, she decided to combine her love of dance with changing her diet and establishing a regular fitness routine, helping others do the same in the process.Over time, she online fitness and nutrition platform And it changed the lives of thousands of people. Her husband, Kevin “KP” Price, has likewise shared her love of health education for most of her life.
“I played professional basketball, so in a way I had a cheat code, but it wasn't until my father passed away that I really developed an appreciation for health,” Price told ESSENCE. “Unfortunately, heart attacks are prevalent in our community and many people have died over the years. From there, I told myself, 'I have to protect my heart.' We didn't have kids yet, but we wanted kids. Now he has three of us so I needed to make sure I was here for them. And in the back of my mind, I always tell my wife that I want to live until I'm 61, the age when my father passed away. That really got me motivated. ”
The couple worked together to create a comprehensive online environment dance fitness brand They sought to expand into providing supplements, but faced challenges along the way.
“As you can see on our YouTube channel, about nine years ago I was talking about getting our own protein, but at the time we couldn't afford it. ,” Keira Rashe told ESSENCE. “But since then, we've been trying so many different proteins and it's been really unpleasant. Especially vegan protein. It just doesn't taste good. It's powdery. It tastes like garbage. . So we thought, “We have to be able to create something.” We couldn't afford it at the time, but we knew what we wanted to do. And when the pandemic happened, I remember the night we talked about this, we were like, “You know what?” Let's try this. Let's see if we can put everything in place to do this. Because being able to do something like this means so much to our community. ”
After thorough research, the couple launched just move supplementa vegan protein brand that celebrates Black food culture.
“I wanted to recreate the taste of protein powder, so I asked my family to share their baked goods recipes,” shared Keira Rashe, noting our unique taste: mama's sweet potato pie and Grandma's Lemon Pound Cake. After perfecting the recipe, they worked with a local manufacturer to produce their product, but soon learned that it was best to take the process into their own hands. At the moment, the company is one of the only black manufacturers of vegan protein in the country. And they're just getting started.
“We are open to working with investors,” Price said. “The most important thing for us is that if we take on investors, they need to understand what we are trying to do. We are here to get every dollar. We're not here to change the formula or lower prices to make more money. We're not just here to make more money, we're here to help people. I am here for this purpose. In this country, there are many things that we are allowed to consume but are not allowed to consume. I want to provide good products even if it costs a little more money. And in order to make this happen, We have to sacrifice a little bit of our profit margins. We want to do what's best for the community one step at a time.”
