ORLANDO, Fla. — Over the past 25 years, the women who founded the Orlando-based nonprofit Hebni Nutrition Consultants have helped thousands of Central Floridians learn how to improve their health through healthy diets, even teaching people how to cook. 

One of the cofounders, Fabiola Demps Gaines, is an Orlando native who has spent her career working as a registered dietitian to make sure that Central Floridians can access and prepare fresh, healthy, delicious foods at home no matter where they live. 

“It was important when I came back to this community that I give back to the community,” said Gaines. 

Ever since her college graduation, Gaines, a registered dietician, wanted to help her community. Together with Roniece Weaver and Ellareetha Carson, the trio established Hebni more than two decades ago to educate the culturally-diverse population in Orlando on eating better.

Through that assistance with their non-profit, they've been able to help people in Orlando manage health conditions, like diabetes and high-blood pressure, without giving southern classics up. 

“That’s all we’re doing to soul food, we’re just giving it a face lift because they’re a part of our tradition and we don’t want you to get rid of the traditional foods, we just don’t want you to have them every week,” Gaines said. 

Well-known for creating the Soul Food Pyramid as a guide to healthy southern eating, Gaines has also written popular, American Diabetes Association-recommended cookbooks with her co-founders on giving soul food a healthy spin. 

She also teaches many of those recipes in-person and virtually too with cooking classes right from Hebni’s kitchens.

“It’s just rewarding to see the expressions on their faces after they get the food prepared and they say, I actually made this! And I’ll say you can actually make it at home,” she said. 

And to make sure people have plenty of fruits and vegetables at home, Hebni started the Fresh Stop Bus as a way to bring fresh produce to Central Floridians living in food deserts. It's an issue for many people living in Orlando without easy access to a grocery store. 

“So you think about having to catch two buses with two or three kids, now you’re going home with bags of groceries. That’s almost impossible. So we’re able to at least give them access to fresh produce,” Gaines said. 

Hebni even added two smaller buses they call Fresh Stop Bus Junior because demand for produce is so high.

“That has been truly one of the golden moments for Hebni, to be able to provide produce to underserved communities,” Gaines said. 

She's proud to see Hebni growing, helping hundreds of families every month, she said, and grateful to have spent these past 25 years educating the community to make sure people in Orlando can live healthy, happy lives. 

“We still have a long way to go but we have seen the difference of being here in this building, at this time, in this community because anyone can come in that door and ask for help,” Gaines said.