Meet Hajar Mitchell of Healthy Soul in Metro Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hajar Mitchell.

Hajar, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I come from a creative family. I was born in Burbank, CA, but my Mom is from Pittsburgh and my Dad is from Barbados. I’ve lived in Cali, Barbados, Pittsburgh and have been in ATL since I was five years old.

As a child, I took a liking to food, art and writing. Both my Mom and Dad are great cooks and we had a family restaurant in Barbados. We shifted to catering when we all moved back to the United States. It was a means to support my parents’ fulltime jobs by helping bring in extra money.

During my K-12 education, I excelled at my studies, especially writing, and decided I wanted to focus on Marketing and Business during college. While in college,I would cook for my friends and freestyle which kept my mind sharp. I landed an internship at one of the largest advertising companies in the world during my senior year and spent the summer of 2009 in Manhattan learning the ins and outs of advertising.

The highlight of the internship was a summer rooftop party where the Global CEO of the company put me on the spot to make a toast during a company celebration for a newly promoted executive. I gave an amazing toast, which made a good impression with the Global CEO, which led him to recommending me to work in the Atlanta office.

During my time at the Atlanta office, I gained a deep knowledge of advertising and digital marketing. This was the same year I decided to start recording my raps and released my first mixtape, The Trevolution. I continued to work in advertising, record music, and eventually started performing at events throughout Atlanta. Eventually, I decided to focus on email marketing and shifted to another company.

During this time to take on and off-breaks from recording, but started to ponder how I could create a food business focused on flavor and health. I decided to take a sabbatical in November 2018 to focus on my health, wellness, creativity and building the food business.

During my sabbatical, I took a trip to Thailand that changed my life. I immersed myself in the culture and learned a ton of their recipes. When I came back to the US, I trained in Sampoorna Yoga in Miramar, FL, which helped me become a more well-rounded person. This period of Rejuvenation helped me conceive the family food business I had always wanted to create. it also re-sparked my music recording. The name Healthy Soul came to me, and I decided we’d start participating in festivals throughout Atlanta to share our version of fresh and healthy plant-based food.

Our family is currently building out a food trailer that’ll hit the streets of Atlanta late 2019/early 2020. And I’m currently recording the best music I’ve ever put together.

Food will make my family wealthy.

Music will keep me creative and will uplift the consciousness of whoever listens. My music is streaming on all platforms – search: Hajar the Healer.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There were tons of struggles along the way.

Relationships.
Dealing with corporate politics.
The inability to find a consistent studio to record in.
Raising capital.

But my sabbatical helped me create the breathing room needed to refocus and realign.

Healthy Soul – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Healthy Soul specializes in International Vegan Cuisine.

It is heavily rooted in Caribbean, Asian and Modern American cuisine.

No SOY. No GMO.

What sets us apart is our decision not to use SOY and GMO products. Soy and fake meats are easy crutches for recreating meat dishes, but we like to focus on making dishes out of real vegetables.

I’m most proud that we will not be frying any food and everything we do has an emphasis on health.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment so far was the great response we received at the Juneteenth Festival in Atlanta.

My family and friends all came together to share great food with ATLiens.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: FOOD = @ilovehealthysoul MUSIC = @hajarthehealer

Image Credit:
DeMoine Lovelace

Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.