PROVIDENCE – Vice President Kamala Harris and Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo visited Social Enterprise Greenhouse on Wednesday and attended a “Shark Tank” style business pitch event. The event featured four entrepreneurs, each with two-minute business pitches, taking questions from judges, including Harris.
The pitches were given by:
- Philip Trevvett, founder of Urban Greens, who started by talking about his co-op that thrived and helped feed the community during COVID “creating real community wealth on a national scale.
- Eugenio Fernandez, founder of Asthenis, a public health organization with a pharmacy. He said he is the son of Cuban refugees who came during the Mariel Boatlift in 1980. His organization has vaccinated 20,000 people so far.
- Sterling Clinton, founder of Incred-A-bowl Food Co., a food truck she started with her husband. They own two trucks that serve “healthy and delicious multicultural” bowls. She said they lost 320 events for 2020 during the pandemic but “were determined to make it work.” They “were able to push through” and want to open a restaurant by the end of the year. They want to expand even further around the county and employ people “deemed unemployable.”
- Sandra Enos, founder of Giving Beyond the Box. She is a retired sociology professor and started her business in 2019 after turning 70. They make gift boxes “full of products that do good in the world” by partnering with small and minority-owned business with social purpose. “We really see our boxes as bridges.”
“When I think of our small-business leaders, I think not only of business leaders but civic leaders, community leaders. It is you who are involved and engaged in the community, a reflection of the best of the community,” said Harris at the event.
The vice president also attended a women-led small-business roundtable with Raimondo at District Hall Providence.
Raimondo led the discussion, asking participants how they survived the pandemic and what they learned.
Christine Paige, owner of Bliss Medical Hair Replacement, said it helped her take more time to plan the future and that her two sons helped convince her everything would be O.K. when she initially felt hopeless. Cheryl Zimmerman of FarSounder said her businesses selling sonar equipment was hit hard by the pause of cruises and now global supply chain issues are a problem. She said the PPP loans helped. Costs have gone up but they are enthusiastic going forward.
Raimondo asked about access to capital and whether it’s a barrier. Minnie Luong, of Chi Kitchen Foods, said she started in an incubator and needed space after 6 months. Her daughter, now 7, was then 18 months. She put daycare on credit card and cashed out her 401k. Sales have gone up during the pandemic because of more eating at home. The thing that helped her survive is going to work but every day, because of child care, she has a big question mark.
Harris said the American Jobs Plan has been popularly thought of as an infrastructure plan but in Washington, D.C. there is debate over whether child care is infrastructure. She asked the panel to explain to the people of Washington, D.C. why child care is infrastructure.
“For too long child care has been viewed as a women’s issue” but the pandemic made it clear that it’s a societal issue and she would not have employees or a business without it, said Suzanne Wernevi of Luna and Stella Jewelry. Other women spoke about the struggles they had juggling work with sick children and other obstacles.
Harris said it’s a ”false choice” to force women to choose between jobs and children.
The former Rhode Island governor visited General Dynamics Electric Boat’s Groton, Conn. facility on May 4 touting a proposed apprentice job-training funding increase as part of President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal.
(ADDS paragraphs 9-14 with details from District Hall Providence meeting. Compiled from press pool reports. Corrects: The business roundtable was held at District Hall Providence.)
