Black-owned business AYO Foods, featuring West African food, expands from Hyde Park to Mariano's shelves

AYO Foods, a Black-owned frozen West African food brand launched from a Hyde Park home on Chicago's South Side, announced in February 2021 that its products would begin appearing on shelves at Mariano's grocery stores across the Chicago area, according to ABC7 Chicago. The name AYO means "joy" in Yoruba, a West African language, and the brand's jollof rice, cassava leaf stew and other frozen meals were already stocked in Whole Foods stores before the Mariano's deal.

The company was founded by married couple Frederick and Perteet Spencer, who launched it from their Hyde Park home in the summer of 2020, according to the Hyde Park Herald. Perteet Spencer is a first-generation Liberian-American; the Hyde Park Herald reported she learned recipes by shadowing family members growing up, saying, "I had the benefit of shadowing my mom growing up. We felt like there had to be a better way to enjoy this food anytime of the week."

Filling a gap on grocery shelves

The Spencers described AYO as an attempt to bring West African cuisine into the mainstream grocery aisle rather than treating it as a niche or specialty item. "We really want to create a platform with AYO that creates an opportunity to celebrate a population that has been overlooked in the mainstream grocery stores," Perteet Spencer told ABC7. She added, of the food itself, "The food I grew up eating and enjoyed was not represented. We saw an opportunity to bring these products to the market," per the Hyde Park Herald.

From idea to retail shelf

Frederick Spencer framed the leap into a food business simply: "I am one of those people, if you have an idea, put it on the paper and go for it," he told ABC7. The Hyde Park Herald quoted him describing the work of building the brand: "It definitely took a lot of work, but as you're in it, you don't realize it's work." Perteet Spencer told ABC7 that authenticity was central to the process — "It was really important for us to do these recipes justice and make sure that we were using authentic ingredients and flavors" — and told the Hyde Park Herald, "We are passionate about bringing this food to the forefront of our food system. It's exciting and rewarding to see that payoff."

Making the case to grocers

Frederick Spencer also described the pitch he and Perteet made to chains weighing whether to stock an unfamiliar cuisine, telling ABC7 that grocers recognize they need diversity on the grocery store shelf. Getting from a home kitchen in Hyde Park to Whole Foods and then Mariano's inside a single year meant convincing buyers twice over: first that West African frozen food belonged in a mainstream freezer aisle at all, and then that a second major regional chain should carry it alongside Whole Foods rather than treating the Whole Foods placement as the ceiling.

What it signals

A Black-owned frozen food brand moving from Whole Foods into a mainstream regional chain like Mariano's within roughly six months of launch is a fast retail expansion by any measure. It reflects both a specific grocer's push to diversify its aisles, as the Spencers described it, and a broader moment — early 2021, amid heightened attention to Black-owned businesses — when regional chains had commercial and cultural reasons to add brands like AYO quickly rather than wait years for a slower, traditional retail rollout.

US In News compiled this archived account from contemporaneous coverage by ABC7 Chicago and the Hyde Park Herald. It restores a story originally published on this site in February 2021; figures are as reported at the time.