Yolunda Harrell said the mission of the New Hill Development Corporation is to build financial resilience in Charlottesville’s Black community. A $150,000 grant recently awarded to organization by the Commonwealth of Virginia will help achieve that.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced earlier this month a total of $4.4 million in small business revitalization grants throughout the state, including the $150,000 to New Hill,
Harrell, New Hill president and chief executive officer, said the organization will use the funds to support the launch of a Black-owned culinary business incubator that will help build up Black-owned startups in the food and beverage business space.
“Our goal is to create training and a space where individuals can start their business in a way that is most cost-effective and ensures they’ve gotten proper training, as well as the wrap around support of accounting and marketing that is needed to ensure their business is sustainable,” she said.
The plan is the first phase of a broader project to support Black entrepreneurs across all industries in Charlottesville. Harrell said the goal is to create a flourishing Black business ecosystem through New Hill’s Black Entrepreneurial Advancement and Community Opportunity Network (BEACON) Incubator Project.
BEACON is vital, she said, because entrepreneurs are “doing it in an environment with people who look like them, something that was curated specifically for the Black community by the Black community.”
“We have a number of folks in our community who want to start food businesses, whether it is catering, or a restaurant, or they have a packaged product that they’d like to take to market,” Harrell said. “That’s what we’re hoping to support with this phase of the incubator.”
Harrell said the incubator’s commercial kitchen is expected to be up and running by mid-2022. The space, she said, will support food-based businesses by reducing startup costs that often serve as a barrier to entry.
“If you have a commercial kitchen that you can utilize, you can rent space and time and you can store things there; now that capital that was once required for you to start before you’ve even proven your concept, that is being removed,” she said. “Yes, there’s going to be a fee, but nowhere near what it would cost just to cover a lease or to pay for equipment. It’s going to be minimal in comparison.”
Additionally, the grant will promote and support Black entrepreneurs through a pop-up restaurant event and a competitive startup grant program.
In total, Harrell said the culinary incubator is expected to assist at least 24 current businesses, create 10 new businesses and at least 12 new jobs, and build organizational capacity for growing the project even further.
“There’s a lot of pain as an entrepreneur that goes into trial and error. Why do we need to continue to let everyone experience those pain points on their own if we can bring some of that knowledge and wisdom that we’ve gathered?” she said.
For now, New Hill is focused on the training piece of the puzzle. A six-week program is scheduled to begin in January.
“We want to ensure that you have this idea, let’s test it,” she said. “Let’s make sure you have policies and procedures; let’s make sure you understand food costs and sourcing of food and all the performance indicators that are necessary.”