Certified Green La Cocina
Nonprofit assists low-income food entrepreneurs

Mar 10 | archive | subscribe

Walking along Folsom street South of Market the landscape changes from industrial to residential as you travel towards Cesar Chavez, the streets are dotted with corner stores and neighborhood markets.  The streets are quite and the few people walking the streets are mostly Latino.  Deep in this mission neighborhood stands a two story modern building accented with stainless steal as shiny as the hood on an industrial oven.  Above the door the sign reads La Cocina, which translates to “the Kitchen” in Spanish, and behind its doors you will find the dream of an anonymous donor, a bustling community kitchen producing everything from handmade empanadas to shortbread cookies slathered in caramel and chocolate.

In 1999, a donor at The Woman’s Foundation of California recognized that there was a need to create a community kitchen business incubator that could be used by women in San Francisco’s Mission District neighborhood.   She had noticed that the dot com era left Latino businesses behind; there was neither space nor technical assistance available to assist potential upstart food businesses to economic self-sufficiency.  The development of a communal commercial kitchen fell in line with the Women’s Foundation of California’s belief that micro-enterprise programs are a way to create economic security for women and contribute to the economic stability of the communities in which these women live.  An advisory board was created comprised of chefs, entrepreneurs and culinary scholars.  The program model conceived was to foster opportunities for cooperative exchange and an informal networks for these women to create business plans and takes steps towards economic self-sufficiency.   By merging this environment with formalized, professional training and bi-lingual staff who are experts in workforce development, diversity mediation and culinary experience La Cocina was ready to accept applications for its first round of tenants.

Interestingly, initially the program was a hard sell; it seemed like it women would have been jumping at the opportunity to access a commercial kitchen in which to grow the capacity of their emerging food businesses.  Many of the people approached “had a mental barrier to moving to a paid to space to cook,” proposed Executive Director, Valeria Perez Ferreiro. That was a little over two years ago; today approximately 300 people are show up at their monthly orientations to find out how to get involved in the program. “It is amazing how fast it took off,” said Ferreiro.  For Caleb Zigas, la Cocina’s program coordinator, it is the transition for these women to go from ”an informal economy to a formal economy.”  Many of the individuals that he meets through the program have small catering companies running out of their apartment kitchens and have no idea that they can grow their business.  A major ingredient in the successfulness of La Cocina is the access to over 20 industry mentors for direct counseling and in workshops on topics such as restaurant business development, costing and inventory practices for professional kitchens and packaging and labeling, etc. Zigas has developed the curriculum and organizes the speakers for the educational component of the program.

Ferreiro explains that the key to the success of their incubator program is being able to assess these individuals for their “entrepreneurial readiness,” which takes into consideration their openness to learning new skills and ability to make the necessary changes for their business to succeed, their ability to work collaboratively in a busy environment, and most importantly the viability of the product. Therefore La Cocina partners with many different organizations whose expertise is just that.  The application and selection process for tenancy is strict and select.  The building has the resources to house close to 15 businesses each with 1 – 6 employees per business.  The business owner’s household income must be low or very low by HUD standards (under $39,600 for a single person).  To Ferreiro La Cocina is “a platform to equalize the playing field—that happens to have great food. It is filled with talented cooks and dedicated entrepreneurs.  La Cocina is their empowerment!”

And empowerment is the secret ingredient for business owners like Guisell Osorio, who was making pork empanadas on the day I visited La Cocina.  When asked what the program has done for her she turned to a specialized piece of industrial kitchen equipment, hugged it while she explained, “without La Cocina I would still be at home rolling my dough.”  Osorio has been involved with the program for two years.  She has now has had to hire additional employees to meet the demands of her catering orders and for her stall at the Saturday Alamany Farmer’s Market where she sells organic coffees and her wares. Many of the business owners use the local farmers markets as a resource for selling their products; there is less overhead than restaurants and minimal packaging need for their goods.  Ferreiro jokes with the business owners stating that she can still hear the voices of the many of the participants stating, “Me…I’m not a business owner.” 

This year three business owners will “graduate” from the program, meaning that their business has outgrown the needs of the building.  Ferreiro was proud to announce that these businesses are “ready to operate outside,” although they can still benefit from the planning and mentoring available at La Cocina.  Zigas works with each of the business to match them with the right mentors to move the business towards graduation.  Mentors are volunteers with industry specific expertise who provide specialized technical assistance.  Often Zigas is matching up program participants with marketing mentors, food scientists, and people who specialize in packaging.  Yet there are other ways to support La Cocina, support these young businesses as they enter your community.  La Cocina depends on local and corporate funding and rents the commercial kitchen out to non-tentant businesses at roughly $40 per hour per workstation.  Tenants also pay for kitchen use but at a pro-rated cost, the same workstation costs a tenant $8 per hour.

The 14 business in the program have created 16 additional jobs for community members.  The graduating business owners will also serve as mentors to future incumbents to the program.  Those who are not accepted in the program are provided information and referral sources to get the help that they need to move towards entrepreneurial readiness and are encouraged to reapply to the program in the future.  “La Cocina is benefiting those who would not necessarily have a chance... It is amazing to seeing this from plan to inception to the impact on the [business] owners who have met their dreams,” said Ferreiro as she fondly looks back at the kitchen. lacocinasf.org