I'm Alvaro Ansbach, one of the founders of Roots Natural Kitchen
Founded it together with Alberto Namnum, Joseph Linzon, and Jung Kim
All graduates of UVA
Two of the things that I hear about eating healthy is, one
it's inconvenient, it's very expensive, so those are the two things we try to address
You see really cool and capable people every day doing amazing things
Being able to empower humans to kind of do whatever they want is sort of
the goal of Roots Natural Kitchen and the way that we do that is through food
Nearly all of the food we serve is very close to it's natural form it grew up in nature in
Those individual ingredients come together to make delicious grain bowls and salads
Although we've only been open since June 1st, it's been incredibly overwhelming
Some of the customers are here almost every day
It kind of shows us that what we're doing isn't just meaningless or just for us
It shows that we're making a positive impact on other people
We are from very different parts of the world, we're all international students
UVA was essential to bringing us all together, it really gave us a community that fosters innovation
It's the people that you meet, the connections that you're able to make
Having those relationships carry through, even passed college, it definitely helped a lot
People have ideas, just keep going with them, right, because if it's something that you're
generally excited about, keep going until it doesn't work