Upper Marlboro resident & Pace University student opens Acai business to address lack of healthy food options

When Upper Marlboro resident and Pace University student Jonah White-Wilson arrived home from school last spring, he saw an opportunity.

“There aren’t a whole lot of healthy options in my neighborhood,” said White-Wilson. “It is a lot of fast food. I wanted a healthy alternative.”

To that end, White-Wilson went to work, knocking on doors and asking people what they like to eat and what their snacking habits were like. The opportunity he saw was to start a small business, making Acai bowls from a small cart on wheels, going door-to-door in his neighborhood. His customers were hesitant in the beginning, so he offered to make the frozen sorbet for free right on their doorstep.

By the end of the summer, he had created a following and his business, Acai on Wheels. White-Wilson’s Acai bowls consist of granola, mashed up frozen Acai berries and a variety of toppings that can include anything fresh fruit, to Nutella to cheesecake bites. The business is on hold for now while he finishes up the spring semester at Pace, but later this summer, he is booked for birthday parties, office parties and throughout his neighborhood.