Meet Mo’Bites, the RoHo student who started her own food company on campus

The Royal Holloway Tab spoke to Modupe Reis, a third year English Literature student and the chef behind the campus food business Mo'Bites.

What is Mo'Bites?

Mo’Bites offers freshly home-cooked West-African inspired meals and snacks to Royal Holloway students. I wanted to spread the word about the beauty and absolute deliciousness of West African cuisine in an environment that lacked understanding of it.

Like it says on the Instagram page, Mo’Bites is meals cooked with love.

I don't know about you, but I need some of this chicken in my life

Why did you start the business?

I started it because I love cooking, and I realised that my friends also love my cooking. A few of them encouraged me to start selling my food, but I was still unsure.

My grandma passed away suddenly in November 2017, and her passing really hit me. She was a very well-loved caterer back home in Lagos. The evening I received the news of her death, was when I came up with the name and business plan for Mo’Bites. I was inspired to test launch Mo’Bites in early 2018. The very positive reactions I received from that helped me to realise that it was something I could do.

There’s something about a freshly home-cooked meal that you just don’t get with ordering takeout or buying a meal deal.

Is it going well? How many students are buying your food?

Surprisingly well! I created a business model that suited my hectic final year academic life, as well as my involvement with extracurriculars. I set the demand per week, so I restrict myself to making a maximum number of orders per week. So far, every order week has seen no less than 70 per cent of the maximum number of orders being made.

I donate 15 per cent of the profits to Mind, a mental health charity. For me the indication of it going well is less so about the profit I make and more about how the people react to their meals and the fact that people keep coming back. The feedback has been nothing short of amazing, and that’s what marks my success.

Do you have plans to expand?

With my time at university coming to an end, I haven’t thought to expand my business. I hope the impact I’ve made with Mo’Bites sticks. I know that there is still a gap in the market for home-cooked West African dishes, so maybe I can come back to fill it in the future.

How can people get in touch?

People can get in touch via Instagram DMs, if they follow @mo.bites. I will be happy to answer some questions there.

All enquiries about food, orders and dietary requirements should come to [email protected]. I’m a friendly face on campus so if anyone just wants to chat about Mo’Bites whilst I’m running to my lecture, I would gladly do that too.