Jeneen Rainey-Tatum
Founder of S.H.E. – Southern Hospitality Eats
Baking Joy, Healing Hearts, Building Community
Jeneen Rainey-Tatum is the heart behind S.H.E. (Southern Hospitality Eats), a Sacramento-based baked goods business rooted in Southern tradition, community care, and family love. Specializing in handmade pies, cakes, cookies, and veggie breads, S.H.E. Foods is more than just a bakery. It’s the unfolding story of resilience, legacy, and love through food.
Jeneen’s journey began in Mobile, Alabama, where she was the youngest of six children. From an early age, she found comfort and creativity in the kitchen, watching her siblings cook and baking cakes just for the fun of it. Her family's life took a major turn when her grandfather, a dedicated serviceman, was stationed at a military base in Stockton, California. The move brought them across the country, and it was there that Jeneen spent her teenage years, finishing high school and planting new roots on the West Coast.
Driven and curious, Jeneen went on to study managerial economics at UC Davis, a path that led her to a successful 15-year career at Hewlett-Packard as a Product Line Manager in computer engineering. Though her professional life kept her busy, she never stopped baking. Her kitchen remained a place of joy and tradition, where she could express herself, bring people together, and share something special with others.
It was through her church, Center of Praise Ministries, that she met her husband, Willie Tatum Jr. Together, they built a home in Sacramento and raised six children. As the family grew, so did Jeneen’s love for baking. She brought homemade cakes and treats to work events, church functions, and her children’s extracurricular activities. Over time, the requests multiplied and so did the encouragement from friends and community members to turn her passion into a business.
Baking started as a beloved pastime. But as life’s challenges unfolded, it became much more than that—it became a lifeline, a legacy, and the foundation for what would become S.H.E. Foods.
A Business Baked from Love and Loss
Jeneen’s journey has not been without hardship. Cancer touched her family in devastating ways—taking the lives of her father and her in-laws, and eventually her husband in 2018. Her daughter continues to battle a rare illness, studied regularly by UCSF researchers.
Through it all, Jeneen stayed grounded in faith and love, finding solace in the kitchen.
During the pandemic, the family used baking as a way to reconnect and cope, creating memories while making something sweet. Her three youngest children found peace and purpose through the process, helping them overcome anxiety and gain confidence.
In 2021, Jeneen officially launched S.H.E. Foods, a Black-owned bakery committed to kindness, community, and Southern comfort. With the support of the Alchemist Kitchen Incubator Program, her business began to grow. She used her grant from Les Dames d'Escoffier International to purchase a much-needed range, replacing the oven that broke on Thanksgiving just as the turkey was placed inside. Rather than seeing it as a setback, Jeneen saw it as one more obstacle to overcome.
A Vision for the Future
Today, S.H.E. Foods offers a full menu of small-batch baked goods in Sacramento using locally sourced ingredients, from sweet potato breads and pecan pies to 7UP pound cake and chocolate walnut cookies. Her dream is to open a commercial kitchen in Natomas where other small businesses can thrive and where customers can experience her signature blend of Southern hospitality and homemade comfort firsthand.
At its core, S.H.E. stands for Southern Hospitality Eats, but it also reflects the spirit of the woman who built it: someone who feeds her community with love, one pie at a time.
