In 2016, Falayn Ferrell partnered with Warren Luckett and Derek Robinson to organize Black Restaurant Week in Houston, TX, and now serves as a Managing Partner over Operations for the initiative. The annual national awareness campaign showcases over 1650 black-owned culinary businesses and professionals with 15 regional Black Restaurant Week campaigns across the United States and Canada. Black Restaurant Week garners over 400 million impressions for the black culinary industry annually. The campaign and its participants have been featured in local and national media outlets such as Good Morning America, New York Times, Essence, Bloomberg, and more. In 2021 Black Restaurant Week was awarded a Crystal Award by the American Marketing Association for its remarkable work in special events marketing.
In 2020, Black Restaurant Week established Feed the Soul Foundation to support sustainability and growth amongst minority culinary businesses. Since 2020, Feed the Soul Foundation provided over $1,955,000 in business development and financial support to Black-owned and Latin-owned businesses across the US. The foundation established a National Emergency Relief Fund to aid culinary businesses across the nation and has provided $34,000 to assist businesses with unforeseen and natural disasters and restaurant equipment repair. The foundation has also awarded $75,000 in scholarships to minority hospitality and business students at Dr. Kirk Lewis Career & Technical High School, Careers through Culinary Arts Program, University of Houston, Texas Southern University, Florida A&M University, and Morehouse College.
Falayn continues her passion for serving others through her community efforts by serving on the Dean’s Advisory Board for University of Houston’s Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership. Falayn was recognized for her contributions to the culinary industry last year. In July 2023, Sysco honored her at the Annual Women en Blanc Honors Brunch during the Essence Festival. In September 2023, the US Black Chamber included her in the Power 50 Under 40, celebrating Black business leaders nationwide.