{"id":8545,"date":"2016-05-15T18:00:52","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T00:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/?p=8545"},"modified":"2016-05-16T09:35:22","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T15:35:22","slug":"growth-through-commercial-kitchen-incubators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/articles\/general-business-advice\/growth-through-commercial-kitchen-incubators\/","title":{"rendered":"Rural Communities See Growth Through Commercial Kitchen Incubators"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Mixing Bowl; photo courtesy Rio Grande Cuisine<\/p><\/div>\n

By Finance New Mexico<\/p>\n

Creativity is simmering at commercial-kitchen incubators in New Mexico, and leaders in the food-based-business movement want to turn the heat up under this promising economic-development sector.<\/p>\n

Chris Madrid, director of economic development for Rio Arriba County, sees food-based entrepreneurism as a way to reverse population loss and economic decline in the state\u2019s rural areas \u2014 and to offset \u201cleakage\u201d of money to other states that produce more than 90 percent of the food consumed in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgriculture and value-added agriculture could play an important role in reviving rural areas,\u201d Madrid said. \u201cWhen we get to produce our own food, we offset the leakage of buying out of state.\u00a0 And if you produce something that you\u2019re exporting out of state, you\u2019re importing dollars to New Mexico. That\u2019s the strategic impetus for our efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

To make it more affordable for entrepreneurs to get their distinctive culinary creations to market, economic development leaders have encouraged communities to open commercial kitchens where startups can begin producing without having to invest precious capital building a commercial facility. Many churches, schools, hospitals, defunct restaurants and vacant government buildings have unused \u2014 or underused \u2014 kitchens that can be upgraded to produce distinctive products for commercial sale.<\/p>\n

Community kitchens exist in Silver City, Gallup, Albuquerque\u2019s South Valley and Taos, and others are planned in Santa Fe, Las Cruces, Las Vegas, Anton Chico, El Morro and Espa\u00f1ola.<\/p>\n

Evolving Business Model<\/strong><\/p>\n

Albuquerque\u2019s Mixing Bowl, launched in 2005 in the South Valley Economic Development Center, is the state\u2019s largest community kitchen at 3,500 square feet. Besides a commercial-grade space, tenants share knowledge with peers and experts in marketing, networking and basic business principles, enabling them to bring a concept to market in as little as six months.<\/p>\n

A joint project of Bernalillo County and the Rio Grande Community Development Corporation, the Mixing Bowl gets 64 percent of its funding from kitchen rental and other fees, longtime director Ernie Rivera said. The rest comes from grants.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll commercial kitchens are struggling to find the operational funds to keep the lights on,\u201d Rivera said. \u201cKitchens are coming together to find creative ways to share costs and expertise and to promote and coach clients.\u201d Rivera is part of that effort: He\u2019ll be leaving the Mixing Bowl to become a consultant for community kitchens that want his operational support, training and expertise.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s part of a general shift toward a business model that can help shared kitchens become a self-sustaining place to help startups grow into businesses that create economic-base jobs.<\/p>\n

Ideas Boiling Over<\/strong><\/p>\n

Community kitchens can turn to resources like the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Rural Development program for capital funding; the greater challenge is generating operational funds to supplement what kitchen users contribute.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one has figured out how to make (kitchens) self-supporting,\u201d Madrid said, but he and others are working on it.<\/p>\n

Rivera envisions community collaboratives that cooperate to develop products that don\u2019t compete but instead diversify the local economy.<\/p>\n

One option being weighed for the soon-to-open community kitchen at Northern New Mexico College in Espa\u00f1ola is for startups to give the kitchen a share of their eventual revenue rather than having them pay a user fee. And the kitchen might eventually be able to contract with growing companies to handle production so they can focus on sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re being entrepreneurial in this process,\u201d Madrid said. \u201cWe can\u2019t operate in isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n

To find commercial kitchens in New Mexico, visit http:\/\/www.deliciousnm.org\/commercial-kitchens\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download 450_Rural Communities See Growth Through Commercial Kitchen Incubators<\/a> PDF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Finance New Mexico Creativity is simmering at commercial-kitchen incubators in New Mexico, and leaders in the food-based-business movement want to turn the heat up under this promising economic-development sector. Chris Madrid, director of economic development for Rio Arriba County, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8545"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8553,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8545\/revisions\/8553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/financenewmexico.org\/sandbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}