La Cocina VA

Our Small Business Incubator (SBI) provides a comprehensive approach to reduce structural barriers to entrepreneurship faced by low-income people of color in starting or expanding small food businesses.  There are 3 aspects of the SBI.  The SBI Signature Program is a 9-week training program taught by a Small Business Counselor with 6 distinct modules.  Services include: 1) Capacity-Building Training – how to write a business plan, budgeting, formalizing a business etc.. 2) Access to Infrastructure - ability to rent commercial kitchen space and equipment at subsidized rates 3) Assistance with micro-lending through Community Development Financial Institutions and local faith-based groups. 4) Exposure to distribution outlets through partnerships with retailers and displaying products in our Community Café.  5) One-on-One counseling 6) Mentorship with volunteers with business expertise. We also offer an SBI Express Program for low-income entrepreneurs who already have a business to formalize their business, take specific modules and access our services. In addition, our SBI Shared Kitchen offers membership packages to qualified members of the community who own or operate food businesses to use our commercial kitchens.  Discounted rates are available to low income verified applicants.

In our Culinary Training Program many of our students said they wanted to start their own food business but needed assistance. During 2018 we launched a pilot program in partnership with Latino Economic Development Center to begin supporting our students interested in opening food businesses. That experience and the feedback provided by our clients helped us build the foundation of our Small Business Incubator.   

The need we are trying to address is a lack of practical and comprehensive services to reduce the barriers that low-income, immigrants, women and other people of color face in trying to gain employment, establish a steady income, and achieve financial security to lift themselves and their families out of a cycle of poverty.  Low-income, people of color, lack affordable training opportunities, and lack access to entrepreneurial opportunities.  Potential minority small food business owners particularly face barriers to entry such as knowledge of how to write a business plan, how to formalize and run a business in the United States, financing, kitchen space and distribution outlets.  From the Opportunity Index of Northern Virginia, Black and Hispanic households in Northern Virginia have incomes 25 to 40 percent below Asian and White households in the region.  Women are especially likely to be poor in part because of women’s lower earning capacity, unaffordable childcare, etc...  Minority groups, particularly women, are consistently underrepresented in the entrepreneurial economy. Many low-income people in the Washington, D.C. area have business concepts and the will to start or expand small food-related businesses, but they need assistance to make these businesses a reality.

These systemic problems have only been magnified since the pandemic.  Low-income communities of color, have been devastated by the COVID-19 crisis and have the will and desire to start their own businesses and create their own destinies.

The solution we have designed most closely address the following dimensions: 

1.Advocating for and shaping policy that supports small business owners including increased access to resources, removal of structural barriers, and access to infrastructure.   We provide a 9-week capacity building training,  which includes business concept development, how to write a business plan,  financing, marketing, finances, business formalization and set-Up. business launch and operations.  Entrepreneurs receive one-on-one counseling with a small business counselor and assistance with obtaining an EIN, applying for an LLC., applying for financing.  Each entrepreneur is unique.  There is product development testing with our staff.  There are guest speakers from businesses in the training classes and students can be paired up with mentors.

2.Supporting and fostering growth to scale through comprehensive and relevant technical support assistance such as legal aid, fiscal management for sustainability, marketing, and procurement.   As part of the SBI Program entrepreneurs can receive help with marketing their products through volunteers that can help with setting up a webpage or advertising.  In addition, some entrepreneurs enter our SBI Shared Kitchen (at a reduced rate) and can sell their products out of our Community Cafe.  We have also started a Pilot Program with Capital One who is paying the shared kitchen membership for 3 entrepreneurs for 6 months, which we hope to expand to other corporate partners. This funding is helping with a crucial barrier to entry.

The entrepreneurs in our SBI Signature Program are low-income people of color, immigrants (a majority Hispanic), African-Americans, including women.

Our entrepreneurs are low-income individuals who are Hispanic, from other immigrant ethnicities, African-Americans, and veterans.  Many of our clients are women, including single-mothers and heads of households.  They are low-income, some living at or below the poverty level.  Some clients receive TANF, SNAP, or other public assistance.  Most are unemployed or working part-time. They generally have a high school education and some have attended some college.  Our entrepreneurs come from Northern Virginia , Washington, D.C.,  and nearby counties in Maryland. 

We actively listen and talk to our clients, to hear the challenges they face. We conduct surveys with our clients to obtain feedback regarding the learning process, and challenges presented during the course.  The results of those surveys are used to modify programs.   We can make changes quickly since we are a small organization.  Our entrepreneurs have the will to work and ideas for businesses but have not been given the opportunity to pursue these goals.  There is a lack of affordable business training opportunities for this demographic so we are providing this service.  

Since this is the second year of the SBI we have learned alot from the needs of our clients and have adapted quickly.  We have learned that each of our clients and businesses are unique and they have varied needs.  The one-on-one counseling with the Small Business Counselor has been very important.  For example, we learned that some entrepreneurs needed assistance with product development and quality control, so we offered individual sessions with our chef so they could receive feedback and improve their products. Through enrollment in our programs we have seen that there is a definite need for our services in the Washington, D.C metro area.  This confirms that we do have a role in helping the community recover from the pandemic.

Virginia

Also serve residents of Washington, DC and nearby counties in Maryland

La Cocina VA’s mission is to use the power of food as an agent for social and economic change generating workforce and entrepreneurship development, as well as providing healthy food assistance in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. We create careers by offering bilingual, vocational and technical education to underserved people of color, especially women. We serve as a platform to obtain jobs and for low-income entrepreneurs to launch or expand food-related businesses. We are expanding our reach at the Zero Barriers Training and Entrepreneurship Center (TEC), a new innovative social enterprise that will broaden our impact for years to come.

Our overall goal is to increase incomes of underserved people of color and immigrants, especially women, by obtaining higher wages, and retaining jobs that pay family-sustaining salaries and benefits.

We believe that given the opportunity, skills and knowledge, low-income people of color that have faced unemployment and hardships, can improve their financial position and support themselves and their families. Our goal is to contribute to a more economically vibrant economy in the region supporting small businesses among women, people of color and minority groups. Many students in our Culinary Training Program wanted to start their own food business but talked about barriers they face. In 2018 we launched a pilot program in partnership with Latino Economic Development Center to begin supporting our students interested in opening food businesses. That experience and the feedback provided by our clients helped us build the foundation of our Small Business Incubator launch in November, 2020.   Below are our Activities, Outcomes and Output of the SBI Program we have developed which contribute to reducing systemic barriers to entrepreneurship.  

Activities

Training Enrollment- Number of members enrolled in the incubator during each cohort

Social Support- Number and percentage of clients receiving social support from partner or non-partner agencies for transportation, childcare, housing, etc.

Partnerships- Number of partnership agreements created for activities involving client support

Outputs

Training Completion Rate- Number and percentage of Training Members, Pro, and Target, who completed the training satisfactorily

Business Plans- Number and percentage of Training members who complete business plans as a result of our interventions

Business Bank Accounts- Number and percentage of Training members who open new business bank accounts as a result of our interventions

One-on-One Consultations- Rate of trainees receiving individual consultations

Business Launch Rate- Number and percentage of Training members launching businesses in the foodservice/hospitality industry post-incubation

Training to Shared Kitchen Conversion Rate- Number and percentage of Training members who transition into Shared Kitchen Users

Outcomes

Recruitment Success Rate- Percentage of interested individuals converted into customers from community and social media outreach and external sources

New Jobs- Number of jobs created by new enterprises

Enterprise Revenue- Revenue generated by new enterprises each year

Training Member Goals- Target Training Member goals because of training 

Businesses Currently Served: 50 (37 trained to date, 13 Shared kitchen members)

Serving in one year:  50 (SBI Signature 30, SBI Express 10, Shared Kitchen 15)

Serving in 5 Years:  250   total number served over 5 years

Our clients reside in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.  Most of our clients are from Northern Virginia primarily from Arlington and Fairfax counties.  We annually receive small grants from Arlington County and have a larger grant from Virginia Dept. of Social Services.  We have some larger corporate grants, one specifically for the SBI is from Wells Fargo.  We have a strong partnership with the Northern Virginia Family Services who supplies our Small Business Counselor and helps with advertising the program.  Our facility is located on the ground floor of an affordable housing building run by the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing.  We have support from the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization.  We have Shared Kitchen members who are renting our space but have not been part of the training program.  We receive support from Arlington County Board members, and have been visited by Virginia Governor and Senator.

We have strong relationships with local businesses (restaurants, hotels and catering companies) and chefs in the region.  We have over 40 employer partners in our Culinary Training Program where these businesses place students in jobs.  We can call on these partners to offer expertise, ie. as guest speakers in our Small Business Incubator.  We assist our students creating their LLCs based on the Virginia and local requirements.  Through our Community Cafe we are getting more well known in the community and we have been receiving moral and financial support.  Our CEO is a highly motivated entrepreneur and possesses a remarkable ability to generate partnerships and reach agreements among civic-minded members of the community from a variety of backgrounds.

As we have said, we are working closely with Northern Virginia Family Services which has had an Escala small business training program for years and is recognized in the area.  This partnership has helped us get our program off the ground.  Also since we have been running our Culinary Training and Food Assistance Programs with great success since 2014 we have developed a reputation as a values non-profit.   We advertise the Small Business Incubator through other non-profits that are serving clients with similar demographics.  We are gaining trust within our community as we are having more and more people trained and using our shared kitchens.  Since we are fairly new, this will take more time, but we are getting more well known.

Our annual goals are to train at least 30 low-income people of color in our SBI Signature and SBI Express programs.  We have had great success with this program, and based on our progress we are exceeding this goal. We expect that 100% will create their business plans and at least 30% registered businesses.  We expect those businesses to start generating revenue fairly quickly and possibly to create more jobs.  Our businesses are small 1 to 2 employees initially.  One shared kitchen member has 3 employees. 

Our Indicators of Entrepreneurship:

Number of graduates or otherwise that started a food-related business after our intervention

Occupation: Number of jobs created by the new enterprise

Sustainability: Revenue generated by the new enterprise

In the next 5 years the  Zero Barriers Training and Entrepreneurship Center (TEC) will contribute to a more economically vibrant economy in the region supporting small businesses among women, people of color and minority groups.   We also hope to serve as a model where TEC and the Small Business Incubator could be replicated in other locations in the United States or potentially internationally.  We want to show what can be achieved by giving people who have traditionally faced barriers a chance to create a career for themselves.

Our solution helps small food businesses and our staff has extensive experience in the food industry and connections with employer partners in the restaurants and hotels.  Our Director of Operations and Program is a trained chef who studied Gastronomy and Culinary Arts in Le Cordon Bleu in Lima.  She moved to Washington, DC in 2014 to work at DC Central Kitchen.  The CEO and she developed this program with outside advice.   They are both immigrants from Peru and their life experiences translate to assisting our clients.

Our Small Business Counselor, is an expert in international cooperation, entrepreneurship, education and diplomacy, with a diverse experience in public and private sectors. From 2014 to 2017, she worked for Universidad San Ignacio de Loyola in Peru, concluding her time there as the VP of International Relations. In Peru where she explored in depth the culinary arts and small business development and sustainability in the food sector.  She is fluent in Spanish.

Our Manager of Operations oversees the entrepreneurs in the Shared Kitchens. She graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a degree in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management. She worked for 15 years, in the food industry, but switched to non-profit work as the Director of Kitchen Operations at D.C. Central Kitchen. 

Our Program Coordinator who recruits for the program, interviews and works with entrepreneurs' particular needs.  She is American born but of Hispanic origin as is Bilingual (Spanish/English).

We would benefit greatly from the partnership with Truist Foundation and MIT Solve especially the 5 month tailored support program.  Since our Small Business Incubator only started in November, 2020 it would be beneficial to get a comprehensive needs assessment to determine what resources and support are most appropriate to accelerate our impact.  We would  like access to a network of resource partners, mentors, and coaches across industries and sectors specifically for the food sector but we can also learn from other sectors.  This would help us envision our longer term growth model and plans for scaling. It would also be helpful to look at our monitoring and evaluation to see what other metrics we could be tracking.   We would also like to meet other peer organizations who have similar programs.

Financing options for entrepreneurs

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