Jessica H. Lino
Owner/Chef
Being raised homeopathic I understand the value of nature and all the wonderful food it has to offer. After attending a holistic nutrition school I learned even more about the importance in this day and age of eating a well balanced diet with quality ingredients that help our body maintain its health in this ever changing and stressful world. And now even more so that I am a mom. For the next generation we have to give them better food that will help them stay strong and grow up to be the best they can, our world is in need of change and the next generation is the key. Healthy food equals healthy bodies.
For ten years I worked at Men’s Wearhouse and before that it was restaurants from link cook to a prep cook to a host and a server, my first job was even as a dishwasher. After learning all i could at Men’s Wearhouse and not liking their turn towards the corporate way and not a family way i decided to go to nutrition school (i lived in Atlanta at this time) after school i decided to step down at MW and moved home to Charlottesville, but was unhappy stepping down after working so hard to become a visual merchandiser of 17 stores in Atlanta, that I decided to quit. Beer Run was my next stop, I worked there for 7 years. I happened to stumble upon an organization in town called CIC (Community Investment Collaborative) in 2014, they help people start their own business or improve an existing one. They helped me make FARMacy a real thing and not just a dream. I started with a home based superfood smoothie delivery subscription service and years later stumbled upon a food trailer for sale, so I took a leap of faith and bought it. And with my boyfriend, now husband, Gabino and CIC we transformed it and created Farmacy Food truck. We did that part time while we both worked full time in restaurants until covid came and we were furloughed. That forced us to run the food truck full time and see if we could make it work. It certainly was scary but we made it work. I started reaching out to neighborhoods on FB and setting up dates and time for us to come sell at their neighborhoods,since everyone was home cause of covid it really helped us stay afloat and we felt good being able to help the community at the same time. Over the course of two years we serviced over 25 neighborhoods in the greater charlottesville area. Making relationships with neighbors and perfecting our craft. in 2021 we were approached by the people at the CODE building on the downtown mall about joining forces with them and opening up a small take out cafe and we thought it would be the perfect next step in farmacy’s evolution so we accepted. So we opened january 2022 and birthed Farmacy Café. Now our next goal down the line is a full restaurant.
We want people to know that when they eat our food that they are giving their bodies a dose of nutrients.
Story
Welcome to FARMacy!
Bio
Jessica H. Lino
Owner and creator of FARMacy. Also I am a certified Health Coach and a member of the American Drugless Practitioners Association.
Gabino Lino
FARMacy’s Executive Chef and very knowledgeable with Mexican cuisine
We want to give people peace of mind and a place to where they can trust that we will be consistent with our food and our brands standards. We stand for quality not quantity. We choose freshness over price and supporting our local community. We stand for humanely raised animals and by products without hormones and antibiotics. So we choose as much organic and local ingredients as possible.
Gabino Lino
Co-Owner/Executive Chef
I am from a very small town in Mexico where we lived off the land, so we didn't have much food, just what we could grow and raise. When I got older I moved to a big city. that was the first time I was exposed to processed foods and junk food. But it wasn't until I met Jessica that I realized that I was actually raised eating organic. And now I am teaming up with her to help bring my heritage to Charlottesville through our organic Mexican inspired dishes.
I having been cooking professionally for the past 15 years since I came to the US. All my experience has brought me here and I will continue to keep perfecting my craft and bringing delicious and quality food to our customers.
Jessica and I got married in 2021 and have been enjoying co owning and operating Farmacy food truck and cafe together and look forward to many more years of perfecting our craft together and expanding our business in the future.
We provide superfoods that are dense with nutrients and will help people feel better, ingredients people might not even be aware exist. we want people to know we support helping the environment in any way we can with our business and choices we make, like purchasing eco friendly containers, etc...
"let food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food"~hippocrates
