Isabella Jiménez: Launching a Food App to Inspire Healthy Eating

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Isabella Jiménez is only 16 years old, but she’s already an entrepreneur and app creator.

In fact, she got started when she was 12.

Jiménez began creating her app called MyFunFood in 2018. The app is meant to be a digital cookbook where young people can learn to cook easy, healthy recipes, while also playing trivia games and learning health tips.

After years of planning and development, Jiménez launched MyFunFood in December 2020. It’s available to download for free in the Apple Store.

“The goal now that it’s out is just to try to get it to not only kids, but adults and families as well, and not just the San Antonio area, but hopefully even the across the country,” Jiménez said.

UPDATE: Jiménez received the Silver Innovation Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation and was selected to participate in LOFT (Latinx on Fast Track) Leadership Institute from May to August 2021.

From a Cookbook to an App

MyFunFood has come a long way since its inception.

The app started as a service project for Jiménez when she was a Student Ambassador in the San Antonio Mayor’s Fitness Council, a group that promotes healthy eating and lifestyles throughout the San Antonio community. She wanted to help her classmates eat healthier. In Latino neighborhoods here and across the nation, families are exposed to little healthy food and abundant availability of junk food.

“After thinking about it for a while, I was like, ‘You know what, I think I’m going to do a cookbook,’” Jiménez said.

But she quickly discovered her peers would be more interested in a cooking app than a physical cookbook.

“I went around my old middle school and asked kids, ‘Would you rather want a cookbook? Or would you rather pick up your phone?’ And everybody said, ‘Even though I don’t cook, I’d rather use a cooking app,’” Jiménez said.

The Mayor’s Fitness Council led her to useful resources, and her mom made the connection with an app developer.

“Chris Turner of Turner Logic helped me with the development process of the app. He actually created the backend of the app,” Jiménez said.

The inspiration for the recipes came from Jan Tilley, a dietitian and author of Healthy Meals for Hurried Families.

With the help of Turner and Tilley, Jiménez set to work on creating a pitch for the city.

However, she quickly ran into some challenges with securing the funding for the app.

Challenges with Funding the App

Creating an app is expensive.

Once Jiménez decided to incorporate more games and interactive content into the app, they realized the cost was going to be in the range of $100,000 to $150,000.

It took her two and a half years to raise enough funds.

“The biggest challenge was securing the funding, as well as trying to convince people as to why this app would be beneficial. I went to various organizations all over my community, such as the San Antonio Food Bank. The Mayor’s Fitness Council helped me with setting up a lot of the meetings as well as my mom,” Jiménez said.

Jiménez presented her idea about the app to various San Antonio-based organizations, like the Metropolitan Health District, SA Chef, the Culinary Institute, and Santa Rosa’s Children’s Hospital.

“I went to these organizations knowing that they had the same mindset as me or goal, that I want to help and make a positive impact on the community,” Jiménez said.

Dr. Colleen Bridger of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health District ended up being one of the largest supporters and sponsors, as well as organizations like It’s Time Texas and the Mayor’s Fitness Council.

Turner, the app’s developer, also donated a significant amount of the costs to help Jiménez with her vision.

“We would have never been able to do this app without him,” said Mary Velasquez Jiménez, Isabella’s mom. “It is phenomenal the support that the community has given us.”

With the funding secured, Jiménez and Turner were finally able to develop the app and launch it in December 2020.

How the MyFunFood App Works

Now that MyFunFood is available for download in the Apple Store, anyone in the country can use the app to cook healthy and easy recipes.

In addition to cooking, kids and teenagers can use it for games.

“The app is not only a cookbook, but there are trivia games and food matching games, because the age group for the app is middle school and high school. But obviously, little kids like in lower elementary school can use it too,” Jiménez said.

She hopes the games can help entertain kids while the food is cooking.

“If a kid were to be cooking by themselves and they were waiting for the food, they need to stay there with the food, so the games will help keep them stimulated. And not only that, but all the trivia questions are nutrition facts, like how much water should you drink in a day? How much sleep should you get? How many calories should you consume? How much potassium is in this fruit?” Jiménez said.

As for the recipe section, Jiménez wanted to have many options but keep it simple for users.

“The recipes are categorized into five categories – breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and desserts. And the user is actually able to favorite whatever recipe they want. The ingredients you can find at your local grocery store, you don’t have to go to any specific market that’s across the town. And the directions are very straightforward, just so the user doesn’t get confused,” Jiménez said.

Community members can also submit recipes to Jiménez if they want them featured on the app.

“I recently set up an email a couple weeks ago, for students, families, or anybody to submit recipes. It’s called myfunfood2020@gmail.com. So I’m able to put in the recipes that people submit to that email and they can see it pop up in the app,” Jiménez said.

Many of the recipes come from Tilley, and are labeled as JTA Wellness, her brand, on the app. Others come from H-E-B partners, like Julie Bedingfield. When friends, family, and community members submit recipes, they’re labeled MyFunFood Community.

Jiménez tested each of them to make sure they would work for the app.

“All of the recipes I had to make to see if they were easy to make and if they tasted good, and all of them do. And they’re really simple to make as well,” Jiménez said.

A Personal Connection

Jiménez started MyFunFood to help kids and teens in her community eat healthy.

But she also has a personal connection to the mission.

“My freshman year, I did struggle with my diet actually. Even though I was swimming competitively for two hours in the morning, two hours in the night, every single day, I did not have a good hold on my diet, and it was starting to show and I was gaining weight,” Jiménez said.

Then, her doctor started to worry.

“My pediatrician noticed a diabetic precursor on my neck. And I know that diabetes not only runs in my family, but it’s also one of the most common underlying diseases in not only San Antonio, but in Texas, as well as the whole country,” Jiménez said.

Diabetes affects Latinos disproportionately. Latinos in Texas are nearly twice as likely to die of diabetes compared to white people.

For Jiménez, changing her diet was an important step in preventing diabetes.

“After hearing Jan Tilley speak in 2018, I realized I want her on board with my project. And after trying her recipes, and they’re extremely easy to make, I saw that I needed to change my diet. And I know that with these recipes, I can make a difference in not only myself, but as well as my community,” Jiménez said.

She’s already heard from young people in the community that her app is impactful.

“I presented it to the alumni of the Mayor’s Fitness Council a couple weeks ago. And all of the kids that I presented to loved it. Even one of them actually talked and said, ‘Now that you’re talking about it, it actually motivates me to change the way I eat.’ And that made me really happy because that was the goal of the app. If it could change one kid’s eating habits, then I did my job,” Jiménez said.

The Future of the MyFunFood App

For now, Jiménez and her mom are hoping to spread the word about the app to as many people as possible.

They also hope to develop MyFunFood for Android phones in the future.

“We’d love to get that because we know we’re missing people. Because she’s so motivated now and has, stayed true to this, I hope that it can continue making a difference for our community. So Android would be our next wish list,” Velasquez said.

In March 2021, Jiménez was selected to for a Silver Innovation Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation (HHF).

HHF partnered with Trinity University to form the first annual LOFT (Latinx on Fast Track) Leadership Institute, a summer curriculum for the Latino award winners to help build community, network with industry professionals, and more.

Jiménez herself will be off to college soon, as she finishes her senior year at Johnson High School this spring.

As for now, her college plans include a degree in business and continuing the app.

“I do have an interest in the business side of the medical field. I recently got into the business school at UT Austin, so my goal after high school would hopefully be implementing the app through McCombs [Business School], and not only there, but as well as all the programs on the UT campus. My goal right now is to hopefully earn a degree in business, and then hopefully work for a couple years, and then go back and earn my master’s,” Jiménez said.

You can download the MyFunFood app in the Apple Store today.