Eva and Miranda Stafne working in their newly renovated food truck “Roxy’s Waffles”
Eva and Miranda Stafne create food truck business, Roxy’s Waffles
The sweet, syrupy aroma fills the air in the little RV. It is the smell of success! Over the summer senior Eva Stafne and freshman Miranda Stafne have built a new food truck business out of an old RV.
Many students have hobbies that fuel dreams. Miranda decided to follow her dream this summer, when her sister, Eva and her bought a little RV. Her inspiration for Roxy’s Waffles came from a childhood dream of starting a bakery with her family.
Miranda loved to bake; she was always making things like waffles everyday for breakfast and even dinner. She always knew she wanted to start a food truck business. They looked at what all the food trucks in Stillwater had to offer and didn’t see one that made waffles, making Roxy’s Waffles the only waffle truck in town.
From an early age Miranda has “wanted to make a family bakery, and I was always really excited about that,” so when the opportunity came up, she took it.
The process of creating “Roxy’s Waffles” began with the purchase of the RV and the renovation. The renovation lasted about four months and was full of many investments. Plumbing and electrical was a job the sisters took on by themselves. They had to learn how to do that, as well as take a course on becoming a certified Food Protection Manager. This course along with an inspection was required for the sisters to get their license, which allows the sister’s business to be legal in both Minnesota and Wisconsin.
“I found that renovating the truck was a lot. And plumbing and electrical was a lot more difficult than I thought. I definitely developed a lot more respect for the people that work in those professions,” Eva said.
Just feeling connected to the community, it really helps us find new events and for people to find us.
— Eva Stafne
Having a sibling can sometimes be hard. When you mix this element with creating a business, of course things are bound to get tricky. Although, a big component of creating a successful business is the amount and quality of support they are getting. With sisters Eva and Miranda, their relationship is only growing stronger through their business. They might have off days, but ultimately one of their favorite things about their business is the time they get to spend with each other.
When asked about the experience of working with her sister, Eva said she likes working with her sister because being a sibling can be difficult at times. She said it gives them an opportunity to “kind of overcome our differences and our qualms about each other.”
The start of Roxy’s Waffles has been a success. Booking events worried the sisters in the beginning, but they are proud to say that this factor of the business is indeed not a challenge. With a little help from social media, finding events was way easier than they initially thought. Eva and Miranda’s perseverance has made the journey worth it. They could have given up when the road got tough, like when their pipes in the RV burst or when things kept going downhill. Sticking out through the challenges of starting a business has given them stuff to look forward to, such as future events.
“We are booked through October, which is super exciting. We were just finishing up some math on the business side of things,” Eva said, “like how much ingredients to buy and whatnot.”
With a success like Roxy’s Waffles one can only imagine that they have a future plan; the business has a five-year expedition ahead of itself. This summer was the renovation and legalization stage, and from here on out they only hope to gain more customers and serve larger events. The sisters are hoping to push for graduation parties for next spring as well. Since Eva is a senior, her future in college is not far, Miranda hopes to hire a friends to help her once her sister leaves.
“We have five years planned out so once Eva leaves for college in the fall I’ll probably get a friend to join and help me out in the trailer,” Miranda said. “Then for summer Eva will hopefully be home, so we’ll do a lot of sites.”
Eva said, “Just feeling connected to the community, it really helps us find new events and for people to find us.”
