I first met Sharif Rasheed, owner, and founder of PowerBites!, over coffee at Espresso A Mano last summer. We chatted about PowerBites!, his vision in creating them, where he’s been, and where he’s going. If I glanced to the right, on the shelves of local goods being sold in the coffee shop, PowerBites! were front and center.
Fast forward just one year, and Sharif’s work and inventory are looking extremely different. I peeked into his shared kitchen space, where the magic happens you could say, and watched part of the process of creating a bite and seeing the prep and waiting time that is needed to make just a few squares.
What’s more, PowerBites!, which comes in two flavors (more to come), is now featured in select Market District and Whole Foods locations, and a few bigger moves to be made sometime soon. With a local appeal and fan-base, due to the pandemic, the bites have found themselves less on the shelves of local shops and more in wholesales across the country.
For Sharif, what matters to him is that local shop owners that once carried his product and may not be able to anymore due to impacted business just find their way to survive; no hard feelings of not being able to have PowerBites! inventory. He knows a thing or two (or many things) about owning a business and seeing it fail, so with a tunnel-vision to only move full-steam ahead, he wants to see the businesses he knows and love to be able to keep it moving.
With new sales locations also comes new packaging, pictured throughout this article. Though this has been quite the year that no one was expecting, it was comforting and inspiring to chat with Sharif about the growth of his business, the creative changes he has been able to make, and the big goals and dreams he is constantly working on day in and day out… with a smile on his face.
Keep a look-out for where PowerBites! is going, and be sure to hop on the Snacktivism train as the small but powerful company continues to expand and grow.
