Our Story
It Started With My Own Life
My name is Jose Rojas Jr., and Beyond Food Market started with my own journey.
I graduated from DePaul University in 2004 with a degree in Computer Graphics and Animation. After college, I struggled to find steady work in my field. Over the next several years, I gained nearly 90 pounds and eventually reached about 245 pounds.
One day, I was at the park with my daughter when I had a health scare. That moment scared me. I knew something had to change.
I prayed and asked God for help.
Then I started changing the way I ate.
I didn't change everything overnight. I learned little by little. I began removing foods from my diet and paying attention to how food made me feel.
In 2010, I went gluten-free.
Over the next several years, I completely changed my relationship with food. Eventually, I dropped more than 90 pounds.
But somewhere in the middle of that journey, something happened that changed the direction of my life.
The Moment Beyond Food Market Started
If food changed my life, how many other lives could it change?
After I had dropped around 50 pounds, I was watching television and saw a story about food deserts.
They were talking about communities where people didn't have easy access to fresh, nutritious food.
Being from Chicago, I immediately thought about neighborhoods on the South Side, including communities like Englewood.
And I kept thinking:
If food changed my life, how many other lives could it change?
That question became the beginning of Beyond Food Market.
I started thinking about how we could bring healthier food directly into communities instead of waiting for another grocery store to come.
Using my background in design and technology, I began developing an idea for a secure food vending system that could provide healthier food 24 hours a day.
That idea continued to evolve.
Over more than a decade, I created 20+ versions of the concept, learned from mentors, built prototypes and continued refining the idea.
Today, the vision is a network of secure, cashless smart food boxes that can bring affordable, plant-based and allergy-friendly food closer to the people who need it.
Then Life Made the Mission Even More Personal
It became personal.
In 2014, I went through a period when I didn't have stable housing.
For a short time, I relied on food from a food pantry.
Years later, when I decided to go all-in on content creation, money was tight again. I still wanted to eat healthier, so I had to learn how to make good food with whatever I could afford.
That experience became part of what I share online today.
I started showing people that eating healthier doesn't always have to mean buying expensive specialty foods.
You can start with beans, lentils, vegetables, potatoes, fruit and simple ingredients and make something incredible.
What began as my personal journey grew into a community of people following along, cooking with me and learning with me.
Beyond Food
Beyond Food Market isn't just about selling food.
It's about access.
It's about showing people what's possible.
It's about taking everything I've learned — from dropping more than 90 pounds, struggling financially, relying on a food pantry, becoming a content creator, and spending more than a decade developing this idea — and using it to help somebody else.
Because I know what food did for my life.
Now I want to see what it can do for other people's lives.
Beyond Food Market
Kindness Through Food.