“I make $500 a month selling food pun T-shirts!”
For Lisa Andrews, sharing fun pun shirts and gifts is the perfect side gig to complement her work as a nutritionist!
‘‘ As
a dietitian, I get a kick out of wearing food-themed clothing. While in a popular clothing store, I saw a T-shirt that said ‘breakfast, lunch, dinner’ with a donut, taco and slice of pizza. My thought was, I wouldn’t wear that! But what would I wear? I was inspired to start making puns that promote healthy food in a fun way!
“A friend of mine is a graphic designer, so I asked him if he could do a few simple mock-ups of my food puns. My husband also volunteered to design a few. Once I had some fun designs, I got the T-shirts printed at a local print shop called DIY to sell at the farmers market and other events. I named my business Lettuce Beet Hunger, and added a Shopify store to my professional website (Soundbitesnutrition.com/ shop) so I could start selling my creations online too.
“I spend about 5 to 10 hours per week designing new ideas, adding them to my web shop and promoting them on social media. I also enjoy collaborating with other dietitians on designs and have expanded my shop to include cards, tote bags, onesies, mugs and more.
“On average, Lettuce Beet Hunger brings in about $500 per month. It’s not a ton of money, but the process brings me a lot of joy. Part of the proceeds goes to food insecurity programs in Cincinnati, and the rest of the money is spent getting things printed or used as giveaways for conferences or for marketing purposes.
“I love to see people wearing my food pun items. I’ve gone to nutrition conferences where my colleagues were wearing them. I also love giving back to people in need and helping to take a bite out of food insecurity.”