Flavors, Prince George’s County's first culinary incubator, received $497,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to expand its programming to BIPOC growers, farmers, and food business enterprises over the next two years.
The grant, via the Local Food Promotion Program, will be used to build out and deliver a formalized technical incubator and develop a Flavors web and app-based virtual education platform. The goal is to bring more people of color into the culinary business space through an easily accessible online curriculum and attract local farmers so that when culinary entrepreneurs source food the dollars circulate longer and further in the community.
“We'd like to see more Black and brown food and beverage brands,” Samia Bingham, Flavors' founder, and CEO, said. “More profitable Black and brown food and beverage brands throughout the DMV region where they are able to open up their own brick and mortars, they're able to go into e-commerce. They are able to be on retail shows. That is our goal. That is our mission."
The grant requires a match of $132,276, bringing the total project amount to $629,676.
Flavors, which opened in November 2021, is located in 3,000 square feet at 6504 America Blvd. in Hyattsville, within University Town Center. It was negotiating for a space in Landover when Covid struck, but the deal fell through amid the pandemic.
“During that time we started the technical incubator program virtually,” Bingham said. “So I was doing classes with our members to get them certified" as women-owned small businesses, minority and disadvantaged business enterprises with the Maryland Department of Transportation. "We were just heavy on the administrative, business, development side and so we knew that that grant would really take us to the next level.”
With the grant money, Flavors will host three cohorts in a hybrid 12-week culinary business technical training incubator starting in April, with Flavors members receiving priority. The courses will delve into how to scale a profitable agriculture and culinary businesses through workshops with subject-matter experts in accounting, legal, hospitality management, human resources, staffing, marketing and branding. Bingham herself will bring her expertise as a former contract specialist for the Department of Defense to help navigate government certifications and bureaucracy.
Since its opening last November, Flavors has secured 34 members and currently has space for 16 more. Membership is in three tiers ranging from $500 to $1,400 a month. The memberships provide access to Flavors' commercial kitchen and onsite dining rooms for private events and pop-up restaurants. The company, which has retained its government contracting business, expects to generate about $350,000 in 2022 revenue.
Flavors is actively looking for a second location, Bingham said.
The USDA's Local Food Promotion Program recently announced 94 fiscal year 2022 awards totaling just shy of $31.9 million.
