HCC Culinary Incubator helps new businesses develop

Alane Rogers is owner of Garden Bounty Vegan Cuisine. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Written by PEPPER VAN TASSELL

On school holidays in Sheffield, Jamaica, some years ago, Alane Rogers could be found at her aunt’s bakery, helping to make beef patties alongside her grandmother.

Now, Rogers is owner of Garden Bounty Vegan Cuisine and can be found making similar patties in the commercial kitchen space of Mama’s Biscuits Culinary Incubator, a Hagerstown Community College program that helps would-be proprietors plan and launch a culinary business in Washington County.

Since the pilot program began in February, six people have developed businesses in catering and consumer packaged goods. A second batch of nine hopeful proprietors began their incubation in August.

Lesley Riley – aka “Mama” of Mama’s Biscuits – heads the culinary incubator program. Her experience running a company that sells gourmet biscuits online and in stores across the country helps guide the program’s inductees. With her corporate headquarters at the college, Riley can meet weekly with the entrepreneurs to advise them and has an opendoor policy so they can ask questions or discuss issues that arise.

“When they get overwhelmed, I have them stop and take a step back. There are businesses that have come to me that have hit a brick wall and are overwhelmed, and I focus them back where they started,” she said.

Malika Chambers is owner of Urban Delightz LLC, a vegan catering and meal-prep service.

SUBMITTED PHOTOS From left, Malika Chambers, Carolyn Crosby, Alane Rogers, Leslie Riley, Ferial Jane and Naz Motia were in the culinary incubator’s first cohort. Riley leads the program.

Starting out

Rogers joined the incubator in April, a couple of months after she started her catering business after testing recipes on friends. Her first three months in the program were devoted to planning her business and attaining certifications to safely use a commercial kitchen and operate in the food industry.

Justina Shaw, director of the college’s David W. Fletcher Incubator and Labs, said entrepreneurs must have an approved business plan before being granted access to the incubator’s shared commercial kitchen space, which is open 24 hours in the college’s former cafeteria.

She said her incubator, which guides entrepreneurs primarily in the technology industry, is separate from the culinary program, but she does mentor its members.

Malika Chambers, owner of vegan catering and meal-prep service Urban Delightz LLC, said access to the commercial kitchen helped her meet high demand for catering and meal-prep services. She posts videos from the kitchen on her company Facebook page of herself cooking food for the health-conscious.

In the months since Rogers gained access to the kitchen, her catering business has evolved, too.

Riley said the six businesses all got a boost from the incubator’s May event at the college highlighting the group and their wares. The latest batch of businesses will have a holiday showcase, she said.

Rogers cooks an array of dishes, many of which are vegan. The New York native who spent much of her childhood in Jamaica is working on a plan to sell her specialty vegan Jamaican beef patties to local businesses – a homework assignment she received from Riley.

Riley said the entrepreneurs set up meetings with her, and she gives them action items to complete before their next meeting.

“That allows me to see that they’re moving – they’re not just standing still,” Riley said. “Whatever challenges they have, we talk about that.”

Chambers said Riley helped her explore the idea of a breakfast and brunch restaurant to fill a need in the community. She has also learned to merchandise products for special diets and call out on social media when an item advertised is vegan or gluten-free.

Chambers, who has been catering since 2018, found out about the incubator program at the Historic City Farmer’s Market in Hagerstown, where she was a vendor. She continues to stay busy with special events and will have a booth at the final yard sale at Fairgrounds Park.

Chambers plans to go to culinary school to get a degree in plant-based cuisine and is eyeing a few properties to buy for her dream restaurant.

“I’m not rushing it,” she said. “I just want to put a little heat under my seat.”

Rogers, a former health care professional, shifted her focus over the last few months to creating marketing strategies, planning menus, learning accounting and earning certifications in food safety. She has learned to set small and large goals for her business. Her next big goal is to open a storefront in early 2023.

“The amount of support that HCC provides for us is just phenomenal for each benchmark,” she said. “They really do whatever it takes to make sure that we are able to get these trainings and come to these meetings, where they offer support.”

“I underestimated the barriers that people in the kitchen experience. That was the area of growth for us to understand that kitchen people need more structure than someone who’s launching a tech company.”

– Justina Shaw, director

Striving for success

Shaw said entrepreneurs in the program aren’t considered graduates until they establish an official business in Washington County. Members are evaluated every six months.

“It could take a year, or it could take three,” Shaw said.

Riley said entrepreneurship can be hard, and not everyone will find success quickly. Some will not stick with it. ”I’ve been an entrepreneur for seven – almost eight – years now,” Riley said. “I didn’t gain all that knowledge in three months in an accelerator program, and I don’t expect them to.”

Shaw said she has learned a lot about the culinary industry through the pilot program.

“I think we have a lot of opportunity for growth,” she said. “I underestimated the barriers that people in the kitchen experience. That was the area of growth for us to understand that kitchen people need more structure than someone who’s launching a tech company.”

The culinary program is unique because it does not take a percentage of the entrepreneurs’ companies, Riley said.

In addition to Shaw and Riley, incubator participants meet with Herb Melrath at the Maryland Small Business Development Center, who helps them plan their business.

Shaw works closely with the Washington County Department of Business Development and Hagerstown Community and Economic Development to align the incubator’s goals with those of the county and city. Staff from both groups have met with the entrepreneurs.

Shaw said the second group of culinary incubator members is primarily in the business of consumer-packaged goods like Riley.

Susan Grimes, director of the Washington County Department of Business Development, said the county has space for all sizes of businesses, and she is interested to see how the culinary incubator fits into the framework.

“In the coming years, we are going to continue to move toward continuing to diversify our markets and our economic base through different types of hospitality industries like this,” Grimes said. “We will try and support them as best we can to keep them here in the county.”

Malika Chambers of Urban Delightz LLC serves a customer during the Culinary Incubator’s grand opening. SUBMITTED PHOTOS

Ferial Jane and Naz Motia, owners of Sufi, participate in the Culinary Incubator opening in May.