A Northern Kentucky nonprofit has awarded grants to five local food entrepreneurs to help them grow their businesses in the region as it gears up to launch a new program that will broaden its own reach.
Newport’s Incubator Kitchen Collective, for the second year, partnered with downtown-based Kroger (NYSE: KR) to provide funds, $38,700 in total, which will be used to cover rent at the Incubator Kitchen for one year.
Five companies were chosen out of more than 30 applicants, Incubator Kitchen Collective founder Rachel DesRochers said. They include:
- Tim Harris, Matunda Juicery & Co.
- Kathleen Borne, Mimi's Macros
- Annie Brown, Laughing Food Brands
- Toni Davis, Epicurean Eggrolls
- MK Hennigan, In The Curious Kitchen
The idea behind the grant program is to ease one of the burdens when it comes to building a business. The winners receive 40 hours of kitchen time each week at the Incubator along with access to all of its professional-grade equipment and storage space.
The Incubator Kitchen also offers mentorship, marketing, networking and business coaching — and a new entrepreneurial education program, which will launch later this year.
DesRochers said the education program will be open to the public — not just food and beverage startups housed at the Incubator Kitchen. Kroger sponsored the Incubator Kitchen’s inaugural fundraising event in December, which afforded it the capital to set the program in motion.
“We’re trying to create something that’s a little more broad for entrepreneurs in our region, where they can get real simple, real-life knowledge,” she told me. “It’s exciting because for so many years, we’ve stayed in our lane — we just have a kitchen and that’s what we do. But I’ve meet so many people who want to be part of our community but who are not kitchen people. This helps broaden our reach. This is for all startups, small business, entrepreneurs.”
DesRochers said the program will launch in March.
Since its founding in 2013, the Incubator Kitchen Collective has played host to more than 160 startups.
Currently, 45 food-related companies work out of its facilities every month, including Grateful Grahams — a handmade vegan graham cracker company DesRochers founded in 2010 — Dinner to Doorbells, CinSoy Foods, Luminosity Coffee, Mattson's BBQ, Moxy Cincinnati, Sweet Ace Cakes and more.
