Why Gracias Madre?

Gracias Madre is truly an expression of who we are – it represents our deep love of and reverence for food, our commitment to health and sustainability, our unconditional love for our multicultural family and community, our devotion to the Earth and the divine feminine, and our commitment to raising consciousness on the planet.  It is our intention that the emphasis we place on the sourcing of our food will bring consciousness in the community to the importance of sustainability and of buying and selling locally grown organic food.  

Terces Engelhart has had a lifelong love of Mexican food.  In the late seventies, this love inspired her to turn the Ben Franklin Inn in Pittsburgh where she was a manager into a Mexican restaurant, making it the first Mexican restaurant in the state of Pennsylvania – she created all the recipes, and would even drive to Virginia to purchase fresh corn tortillas!  Terces’ passion has only been enhanced since moving to the Bay Area and, more recently, living on the Be Love Farm, where every day she prepares complete farm-grown vegan Mexican meals for herself, Matthew and the farm family, using her own corn grinder and tortilla press.   Matthew and Terces’ Mission-based Café Gratitude employees also found themselves turning to Mexican food when looking for a hearty meal, but eating at the local taquerias was inconsistent with their commitment to veganism and organics.  It was noticed that, aside from our own kitchens, there was actually nowhere in the Bay Area that you could find organic, vegan, non-GMO Mexican food, and so Matthew and Terces decided to fill this void by creating Gracias Madre.