WARREN – More than a year after breaking ground, the Hope & Main food business incubator announced it inaugural class of more than 30 food business entrepreneurs.
An adaptive reuse of the 1915 Main Street elementary school in Warren, Hope & Main is designed to offer those wanting to grow a food business the space, facilities and support needed to get a venture off the ground.
“We took the risk so entrepreneurs don’t have to,” said Lisa Raiola, founder and president of Hope & Main, told Providence Business News previously. “You can’t legally cook commercially out of your own house, so unless you could find a church or restaurant kitchen that was underused, it’s difficult to start. In this environment where it’s difficult to find investment, this can lower that bar to entry.”
The building includes more than 6,000 square feet of kitchen production space, cold and dry storage, a demonstration kitchen and a 2,000-square-foot community room. The majority of financing for the estimated $3.2 million cost of the incubator project came from a $3 million federal Department of Agriculture Rural Development Community Facilities program loan.
Raiola said that the USDA required specific jobs projections for the loan. “Our jobs model, required for the USDA Community Facilities Loan, predicts that over a three-year period Hope & Main will generate 99 direct jobs and 236 indirect jobs. This is the multiplier effect of the food-processing business. If a farmer in South County grows tomatoes, and a business at Hope & Main makes pasta sauce, and a grocer in Portsmouth sells the product on her shelves, a dollar just changed hands three times in Rhode Island.”
Hope & Main plans to hold a grand opening and ribbon-cutting event on Oct. 3, at which the inaugural cohort will be formally introduced to the public.
Hope & Main “has given these fledgling entrepreneurs the opportunity to think big even as they start small,” said Raiola in a statement announcing the first class of the incubator. “It is their promise and enthusiasm that has brought us to this milestone.”
The members of the first class of the Hope & Main food business incubator are:
- Acacia Food Truck & Kitchen, Dawn Brooks-Rapp
- Agraria Edibles, Barbara Link
- Allie’s Genuine Goodness, Elizabeth Alvarez
- Anavila Bakehouse, Margie Aitkenhead
- The Backyard Food Company, Matthew McClelland and Loubnen Sukkar
- Bella Piccolina, Daniela Mansella
- Biggest Little Popcorn Company, Roselette W. DeWitt
- The CupCake Contessas, Marylee Dixon and Karianne Polak
- Dough, Helena Sheusi
- Essentially Coconut, Sophia Gartland
- Fox Point Pickling Company, Ziggy Goldfarb
- Great Gaines Foods, Judy Venter-Gaines
- Griffith Gardens, Bryan Sirois
- Halsey & Bowen Peanut Sauce, Morgan Hollenbeck
- Hollister Tamales, Charles and Kaari Groscup
- Laughing Gull Chocolates, Lindsay Tarnoff
- Lori’s Primo Granola, Lori Vartanian
- Matt’s Magic Brownies, Matt D’Alessio
- Mima’s Gluten-Free & Nut-Free, Lois Mahoney and Betsy Shealy
- My Lil’ Chefs, Jack Achenbach and Casey Paige
- New England Syrup & Tonic, Candace and Chris Clavin
- New Urban Farmers, Bleu Grijalva and Emily Jodka
- Nutritionally Sound, Meg O’Rourke
- Ocean State Smoked Fish Company, Jeffrey Powell
- Pies by Moira, Moira Walker
- Spicy Penguin, David Peligian
- Tito’s Cantina, Richard Reavis
- Uncle Truscott’s Classic American Confections, Peter Kelly