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Starting a business is hard.
Findlay Kitchen exists to help food entrepreneurs, with a particular focus on BIPOC, women and immigrant-owned businesses, start, grow and scale. But even with Findlay Kitchen’s wraparound support, mentoring and industry connections, many small businesses struggle to get off the ground because it is so. dang. hard.
- Mobile Pop-Up Businesses require expensive equipment up front. And without getting out there and selling to real customers (another upfront expense), they don’t know if they have a winning concept that people will get excited about, nor the space to tweak recipes and try new things.
- For entrepreneurs creating Consumer Packaged Goods (CPGs), the regulatory red tape before an item can be stocked in stores is costly and time-consuming. Many CPG businesses at Findlay Kitchen sell in the farmers market directly to shoppers, and need additional resources to get onto the shelves at places like Whole Foods, Kroger and Target.
- Bakers must contend with volatile foods that could go bad before they sell out, must be made fresh day after day, and require a growing customer base in order to expand.
- Meal Prep Businesses often rely on expensive websites and e-commerce platforms for order and delivery, a tool beyond the reach of many Kitchen members just starting out.
The obstacles and the costs of starting a food business go on, and on, and on…
Enter the Findlay Kitchen Scholarship Fund.
Toncia and Estevan Chavez, now mainstays at Findlay Market, used to peddle their farm’s local produce at the weekend Farmers Market. They joined Findlay Kitchen to expand their storage and prep space, and started dreaming about becoming a year-round Market merchant. In August 2019, they were granted a scholarship from Findlay Kitchen. “When we started, we had this idea of what ETC Produce + Provisions was going to be, but we didn't know how it was going to come to fruition,” Tonica says. “The scholarship helped us come up with a proof of concept. It let us figure out what we wanted to be and how we wanted to be better for the Market.”
“The first six to nine months [in a full-time stall] were terrible. Without the scholarship, we wouldn’t have been able to hold on for the long haul to see where this was going. In business, it takes a while to get a following. Most of the clientele didn’t know we existed.”
Five years later, ETC is still a one-stop shop for fresh, local produce and an array of local artisan groceries, including products from nearly a dozen fellow Findlay Kitchen members. Just like a Findlay Kitchen scholarship allowed Toncia to gain a foothold in the industry, she is now helping others do the same.
Without a Findlay Kitchen scholarship, ETC might not be at Findlay Market today, contributing to its vibrant ecosystem and supporting other small local businesses. Now think of all of the other amazing, deserving businesses who didn’t get the same chance, and are no longer sharing their food, culture and ideas with Cincinnati.
There are so, so many amazing, deserving businesses who need a boost to succeed, and YOU can be part of their origin story by donating today.
Because starting a business is hard. But choosing to support the brave, innovative people working tirelessly to make a living and bring a bit more flavor to Cincinnati? Now that’s easy.
Check out our current Findlay Kitchen members here: https://findlaykitchen.org/members
