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James Bloodsaw of JustVeggiez

Local Upstarts

(SPONSORED CONTENT) Local Upstarts is a new, quarterly digital column that celebrates local entrepreneurs who have participated in the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation's UpStart program, a free entrepreneurship program for women and people of color.

Oftentimes, profound personal change is inspired by profound personal loss. For those struck by tragic inspiration, healing is often about finding balance between looking back and reaching forward. For James Bloodsaw Jr., a conversation with his ailing father was the vital spark that would ignite his passion to take his skills and career in a new direction.

“Don’t end up like me,” was the message his father gave him, and yet in everything James does he is inspired by his father’s memory and legacy.

“That conversation with my father pretty much brought everything together,” James says. Already a veteran chef who had given up meat two years prior, watching his father suffer from heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes made James realize that he needed to make an even bigger change. After his father passed away in 2012, James embraced the health benefits of veganism.

That path wasn’t always easy, and like many new vegans, James faced a lot of initial frustration at the lack of good quality, convenient dining options. “I couldn’t just eat grass!” he laughs, adding that he quickly grew tired of “plain pasta with marinara sauce,” too. However, James had something many new vegans don’t have: thirty years experience as a chef. And so he began crafting food – from snacks to full meals – that were not only ‘good enough’ but that actually satisfied cravings for the dishes he grew up with.

This passion project soon outgrew his home kitchen and in 2018 James attended the UpStart entrepreneurship program. By gathering all of the technical information about starting a business into one place, James feels that UpStart provided him with a very practical foundation to support all of his passion and skill, as well as the affirmation that a values-based business model could not only survive but thrive. When James launched JustVeggiez, he did so with a commitment to honoring his roots by sharing his love for food and healthy living with his community.

JustVeggiez is a 100% Black- and family-owned vegan restaurant, catering and vendor service on a mission to provide healthier versions of your favorite comfort foods without sacrificing flavor. Eating together, sharing meals and passing on recipes is a vital ingredient for community, and by providing meals that vegans and non-vegans can enjoy together, he aims to nourish that community.


Family and community is at the heart of everything James does, and he has shaped his business around those values. Working in the food industry, he says, keeps you busy during times other people count on to spend with their families. With the passing of his father, “the whole picture just started to come clear,” including the need to prioritize wellbeing and treasure every moment with his family. Now he calls his girls “chefs-in-training,” and JustVeggiez is a venture embraced by his whole family as a way they spend time together.

The decisions inspired by his father have shaped the course of James’ life with many remarkable milestones along the way: this year, JustVeggiez was named Wisconsin Emerging Business of the Year by the Small Business Administration. What started as a single booth at vegan-specific food festivals, and shifted to catering and meal delivery with the onset of the pandemic, has been so enthusiastically received that on May 31st 2023 they will cut the ribbon on a sit-down restaurant in the heart of downtown Madison.

You are warmly invited to visit JustVeggiez in their new home at 540 State Street in June. Learn more about JustVeggiez on their website, on Facebook and Instagram.


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