#VoicesOfNutley: Amy & Maya

Dec 3, 2015

Meet Amy & Maya, the founders of Food for the Soul Train, a mobile creative business based in Nutley, NJ.

Amy Tingle: I’m a New Jersey native (after brief stints in Pennsylvania as a young girl and a college student) who has lived in Nutley since 1997. I’ve been a maker since I can remember. My first creative project most likely involved constructing something out of acorns, flower petals, and moss. And my previous career incarnations have included elementary and middle school teacher, bartender, managing editor at Simon & Schuster Children’s Books, freelance writer and editor, mother of two amazing teenage boys, and most recently I’ve returned to teaching and creating art. My Instagram biography encapsulates my life simply – human, mother, artist, lover of words, magic, and kindness.

Maya Stein: I’m a Ninja poet, writing guide, and creative adventuress. Among my latest escapades are a 1,200-mile bicycle journey with a typewriter, a launch of a French crepe stand at a Massachusetts farmers market, a relocation from San Francisco to suburban New Jersey, a collaboration – “Food for the Soul Train” – with Amy Tingle, turning a vintage trailer into a mobile creative workshop space – and, most recently, marriage and step-motherhood. Currently living in Northern New Jersey, I can also be found wandering the backroads by tandem bicycle, writing poetry for strangers on index cards, and online at www.mayastein.com.

Together we are Food for the Soul Train, a mobile creative business based in Nutley. Our vintage caravan, a 1965 Covered Wagon named “MAUDE” (Mobile Art Unit Designed for Everyone), serves as our creative hub and home away from home (when we are not at our studio here in town). With a unique menu of creative offerings for all ages, Food for the Soul Train invites everyone to the table. At the heart of it all, we believe that good communication, honesty, and transparency – and having fun – are the key ingredients to living well.

Visit their website: food4thesoultrain.com