{"id":5176,"date":"2023-10-16T19:59:18","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T19:59:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=5176"},"modified":"2025-02-10T13:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T18:32:16","slug":"from-dreamer-to-restaurateur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2023\/10\/16\/from-dreamer-to-restaurateur\/","title":{"rendered":"From Dreamer to Restaurateur"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column5176_973d25-e0 dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\">\n<p>\u201cI knew that I needed an education if I was going to realize my dream,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was a tall order for the Kent County woman, who already was working full time and raising a family. Then she discovered Wilmington University, which offered her the opportunity to take classes online, as well as in person at WilmU\u2019s Dover Campus and Dover Air Force Base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWilmington University worked hand in glove with me. The flexibility made it easy for me to say yes,\u201d Crawford says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2018, she earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in Organizational Leadership from the College of Business. Crawford says her college experience provided her with the skills and knowledge to grow her fledging side gig as a vendor at a farmer\u2019s market to Tomeka\u2019s Homestyle Eatery, a brick-and-mortar soul food restaurant and catering business on East Lebanon Road in Dover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI learned how to organize, plan, and define a business. Accounting class taught me how to create a balance sheet,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cWilmington University worked hand in glove with me. The flexibility made it easy for me to say yes.\u201d <em>\u2014 Tomeka Crawford<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Today, Tomeka\u2019s Homestyle Eatery is thriving. Crawford says the organizational skills she learned at WilmU helped her enhance the flow from the front of the house to the back of the house. To adhere to COVID-19 social-distancing mandates, she refined her business plan to serving cafeteria-style, a format she decided to retain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI originally planned to offer table service, but cafeteria-style works much better for us,\u201d she says.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She defined her brand with an emphasis on serving food with love and cooking with fresh ingredients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe cut up our own yams. It\u2019s all fresh, not processed food,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She\u2019s living her dream as an entrepreneur and is sharing the message that a good education helps dreams come true.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAs my children see me rise up, it\u2019s inspiration for them,\u201d she says. \u201cI would not be as successful as I am without my Wilmington University education.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2014 <em>Eileen Smith Dallabrida<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cI knew that I needed an education if I was going to realize my dream,\u201d she recalls. That was a tall order for the Kent&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":5178,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[145,135],"tags":[71,498,513,14],"class_list":["post-5176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-news","category-magazine","tag-college-of-business","tag-magazine-fall-2023","tag-tomekas-homestyle-eatery","tag-wilmington-university"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":145,"label":"ALUMNI NEWS"},{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"}],"post_tag":[{"value":71,"label":"College of Business"},{"value":498,"label":"Magazine Fall 2023"},{"value":513,"label":"Tomeka\u2019s Homestyle Eatery"},{"value":14,"label":"Wilmington University"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Tomeka-fall-2023-mag-feature-480x480.jpg",480,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Mckayla Imperatrice","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/mckayla\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":145,"name":"ALUMNI NEWS","slug":"alumni-news","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":702,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":113,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":145,"category_count":113,"category_description":"","cat_name":"ALUMNI NEWS","category_nicename":"alumni-news","category_parent":0},{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":71,"name":"College of Business","slug":"college-of-business","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":628,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":92,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":498,"name":"Magazine Fall 2023","slug":"magazine-fall-2023","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1055,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":27,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":513,"name":"Tomeka\u2019s Homestyle Eatery","slug":"tomekas-homestyle-eatery","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1070,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":14,"name":"Wilmington University","slug":"wilmington-university","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":571,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":357,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15590,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5176\/revisions\/15590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}