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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie
The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Marketing Division along with Southern Foods in Greensboro, North Carolina hosted “Food Marketing in the Real World; a workshop for food entrepreneurs in March of this year. The workshop showcased food innovators from around the state sharing their stories, hopes, dreams and the many ups and downs experienced as they seek to create unique food finds. The goal was to show food entrepreneurs how to grow their business and move their products from the home kitchen to the open market.
The solution is not difficult, however it may involve a bit of investigation and collaboration. Everyone is aware that the economy is going down the tubes at roller blade speeds and more and more folks are being “right-sized, down-sized, and resourced out of jobs.” Fortunately, there are still creative minded souls who are taking it upon themselves to create jobs that are not only “out-the-box” but supremely delicious. Food entrepreneurs are popping up everywhere, particularly since here in North Carolina your can prepare low risk products in your home and sell them directly to the public.
Let’s say you would like to start a small catering business; where would you start? The main issue is locating a commercial kitchen since a home kitchen would be an issue due to health regulations requirements that do not allow catered food preparation from home-based kitchens. Many vendors will not rent or lease their kitchen to you for liability reasons so what is a new food processor to do? Locate an incubator kitchen.
Where are these kitchens? This is where it gets a bit tricky. You can first check the local or state extension center, technical community colleges or incubator business centers that have culinary/food programs or commercial kitchens like Blue Ridge Food Ventures, Candler, NC; the Rockingham Community Kitchen in Madison, NC, and Stecoah Valley Center, in Robbinsonville, NC. At this time there are no incubator kitchens in the immediate Raleigh/Durham area.
An incubator kitchen allows home food processors the opportunity to test market their products before going the brick and mortar route; and although the location of the incubator kitchen may not fit everyone’s needs it may be worth traveling to the site because a food processor can make 30 to 40 cheesecakes in an hour or two along with having tons of space for dry food storage and equipment, a shared office and access to a computer and fax machine.
All kitchen tenants will need to be approved by a selection committee composed of members of the incubator center; and the tenants will need to pay an amount that covers the expenses, upkeep and maintenance of the facility.
Potential tenants may be required to submit business, financial and marketing plans giving the tenant a road map of how to get from point A to point B. There are many other variables that will need to be addressed and the average tenant will have a limited time to participate, perhaps 24-30 months, providing tenants enough time to move their business from the incubator stage to a full fledge brick and mortar.
This may sound a bit far fetched but for a restaurant owner or business owner with a commercial kitchen facility on the verge of closing, creating an incubator kitchen for home food processors may be just the thing to not only keep you in business but help someone else on the road to entrepreneurial success. If you would like to learn more about how to start an incubator kitchen center contact Mike Finnerty of NxLeveL®; he has created a complete "how-to" Shared-Use Commercial Kitchen Manual (on CD) that is a must read for any group or individual contemplating starting a community resource kitchen.
Check out these other great articles by Detra Denay Davis:
The Cottage Law brings us back to the basics
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