This couple started a vegan food movement in Wichita. Now, they’re ready to move on.
Their work here is done, and now Rochelle Collins and Shea West — who opened Wichita’s first vegan food truck six years ago — are preparing to move on from the food business.
But they’re sticking around for one more food truck season.
The couple, who are owners of Kind Kravings, announced via social media on Monday that this year would mark the final run for their food truck. They’re returning for the season on March 28, when they’ll serve their plant-based comfort food from their custom food trolley at an event planned for the remodeled Naftzger Park.
But when the food truck season ends and the weather cools down again, the couple said, they’ll be giving up their food business. They’ve already found a buyer for their trolley, and they’re now hoping to find a buyer for the Kind Kravings business, too, including the name, the social media sites and all the recipes.
Their goal with the truck was to bring plant-based meals to a market where it wasn’t widely available, Collins wrote in the post. But since they started, other vegan food trucks and businesses have come along. Six years later, vegans have so many more choices.
“Ultimately, we feel our purpose has been served and we believe we are looking towards a future where we must get out of the food side of things,” she wrote.
Since starting Kind Kravings in spring of 2014, the couple has become focused on a couple of other businesses and projects. They own Boom Audio and Visual, which is showcased at their Tribal Roots art collective — a collaborative project based out of a warehouse on South Washington. Those pursuits are taking more and more of their time, Collins said in the post. and they’re finding themselves spread to thin.
But they’re leaving behind lots of memories for their fans, who loved Collins’ cinnamon roll pancakes and roasted cauliflower tacos. Over Kind Kravings’ life span, it’s moved from a graffiti-covered trailer to a double decker food bus with dine-in space upstairs to a converted trolley car that the couple debuted in January 2019.
Though they’re moving on from the food truck business, they hope to in the future organize vegan markets and other events that will showcase the plant-based movement they’re still passionate about.
“This is an extremely emotional thing for me to write as I have poured absolutely every ounce of love into this that I have to give and it is hard to not get attached,” Collins wrote. “But ultimately life is about change and attachment causes suffering so I can only be grateful for the opportunity to have made so many wonderful connections and friends over the years.”
The launch of Kind Kravings’ final season will happen at a Tribal Roots event planned for 2:30 to 10 p.m. March 28 at Naftzger Park, Douglas and St. Francis. The event will include DJs, fire performers and more.
For more information, follow Kind Kravings on Facebook.
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