| On Saturday, June 24, graduates of the inaugural Kitchen Connects GSO entrepreneurial incubator program for local food businesses will make their debut at the Greensboro Curb Farmers Market, 501 Yanceyville St. The market is open from 7 am to noon. The graduates will offer their products at a specially designated kiosk.
Kitchen Connect GSO brings together Greensboro’s first shared-use kitchens with food safety and small business training classes to create a unique local food incubator program. The program’s goal is to provide opportunities for new value-added product startups to begin or expand their operations and increase the public’s access to consumption of locally produced foods. “This program (Kitchen Connects GSO) is an innovative new approach to building the local foods business sector and offers a taste of what’s being made in our community,” said Lee Mortensen, executive director and market manager of the Greensboro Farmers Market, Inc. “We’re leading the way for prepared food entrepreneurs to succeed here as a viable business and develop a base so that they may grow their business to a variety of distribution channels.” Kitchen Connects GSO will introduce new product varieties to the marketplace, including gourmet sauces, kombucha, fruit sauces, salsa, “Sunday dinner” cakes, fermented foods, elderberry syrup, blended herbs, gourmet pimento cheese, vegetable broth, hops-based barbecue sauce, hummus, zucchini bread, and paleo granola. These new products use locally-sourced ingredients. “We have 3,000 customers coming through on an average Saturday market and these entrepreneurs gain valuable market research and data in real time feedback from customers, along with the classroom knowledge of experts and best practices,” Mortensen added. The first group of Kitchen Connects GSO, which started on May 10, is made up of 15 participants. As part of the program, they attended three business classes, received Safe Plates food safety certification, had access to certified kitchens and on June 24 will have a pilot selling opportunity at the farmers market. Classes they have attended were facilitated by the farmers market and focused on marketing, merchandising and Business Basics 101, which was led by East Greensboro NOW. Kitchen Connects GSO is made possible by a USDA Local Food Promotion Program Grant and a partnership of the Greensboro Farmers Curb Market, Out of the Garden Project, Guilford County Cooperative Extension, and the City of Greensboro. |
Kitchen Connects GSO First Class Graduates to Begin Guest Vending at the Market – June 24, 2017
*press release from City of Greensboro, 6/12/2017
Posted Date:6/12/2017 2:30 PM