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02/10/2021 06:00 AMFermented honey garlic that can be drizzled over pizza or served alongside fried chicken. Savory pastries filled with ground beef. Saffron-spiced basmati rice with chicken, vermicelli, vegetables, golden raisins, and toasted almonds. Shredded phyllo layered with sweet cheese and pistachios, and drizzled with a light rose syrup. Sweet cheese rolls topped with pistachios and orange blossom syrup.
This is the kind of delightful fare made by food entrepreneurs at Sanctuary Kitchen and The Huneebee Project, two New Haven organizations that leverage the genius and hard work of people in underserved populations by helping them find markets for their products.
Both Sanctuary Kitchen and The Huneebee Project will be featured at an event on Thursday, Feb. 25 at 5 p.m., as part of the New Haven food entrepreneur showcase being offered by the CT Food Launchpad at Atticus. During the same event, a New Haven food entrepreneurship map will be released, and there will be updates about resources for food entrepreneurs from the Food Business Accelerator, the City of New Haven, and the New Haven Innovation Collaborative. The CT Food Launchpad also will invite other entrepreneurs to apply for the program.
More information about the program and project is available at www.atticusmarket.com/foodlaunchpad.
Sometime later this month, Atticus, a restaurant and bookstore in New Haven, and Chabaso, a wholesale bakery in New Haven owned by the same family, hope to have the CT Food Launchpad program settled in a new home at a new Atticus Market location, at the former Romeo and Cesare’s Gourmet Shoppe, 771 Orange Street, New Haven.
“Our goal is to have the CT Launchpad program living in the new Atticus Market location in a few weeks. It will be more of a specialty grocery store,” says Reed Immer, the communications director for Chabaso.
The goal of the launchpad program is to help provide a bridge between talented food entrepreneurs in underserved communities and the marketplace, with some of those products to be sold in the new grocery store.
“There will be a lot of grab and go, and prepared meals, but there also will be a focus on seasonal items from Connecticut farms and other producers,” Immer says. “Our culinary director Matt Wick is close with Connecticut farmers, so he’s always on top of a case of cool squash or mushrooms.”
Positive Chaos
In the same spirit, Chabaso is pursuing B-corp certification, which means it will be certified as having the highest standards when it comes to social and environmental performance, along with public transparency, and legal accountability to those values
“The goal is to use the business as a force for the good,” Immer says.
After Chabaso is certified, the goal is to get Atticus certified as well.
Between running two businesses, the incubator program, helping to develop the resource map, getting a new location up and running, and pursuing the B-corp certification, Immer says things have been pretty busy.
“Busy, but fun. Positive chaos. It’s been great,” he says. “It’s all centered around this idea of good food and ethically produced food that is of high quality that people love, that is sourced responsibly, and providing jobs that are livable and respectable. We are not claiming we are accomplishing all of those things now, but the core idea is of significant interest to me, to Charlie, and to the rest of the team.”
Charlie is Charlie Negaro, the son of Chabaso founder Charles Negaro, who named the bread company after his kids, Charlie, Abbie, and Sophia. Charlie Negaro, the Cha in Chabaso, is now the head of operations after his father stepped back about two years ago.
The CT Food Launchpad was developed a few months ago, with the help and support of CTNext, which helps individual entrepreneurs and is endeavoring to build a business innovation ecosystem in the state, and the New Haven Innovation Collaborative, which supports projects that foster innovation.
“We started to look at what was out there and we saw a bunch of great organizations and programs happening that support food entrepreneurship opportunities, and a whole food scene that makes the city so vibrant,” Immer says.
Chabaso, with its wholesale experience and resources, and Atticus, with its retail operation, is able to complement existing programs by helping food entrepreneurs take the next step in their road to success, he says.
Focus on Next Steps
For example, if someone has a great food product, and has been selling it at, say, food events and farmers markets, and is wondering how to get it into grocery stores, “we can help those folks,” Immer says. “We can help them by tweaking the recipes, helping them by producing it on our equipment, and introduce them to our network of grocery buyers throughout Connecticut.”
And it is an impressive network of grocery buyers. Chabaso breads are sold at Big Y, Stop & Shop, and ShopRite, all along the shoreline and in the Connecticut River valley, and Adams Hometown Market in Deep River as well, among many other stores in Connecticut.
“The idea is that we cover all the costs for producing, and then we split the profits with the startups,” Immer says. “It’s been a really exciting way to leverage our resources. We are super, super passionate about this. It’s a pipeline for new products and we see it as a totally win-win for the folks we are working with.”
A Wine and Cheese Night
The Feb. 25 showcase already has two startups being featured—Sanctuary Kitchen and the Huneebee project—and both are already in the process of having their products updated and developed. The virtual event is free, or people can pay a fee for a home sampler kit that must be ordered and picked up in advance.
“We want to turn it into a kind of wine and cheese night,” Immer says. “It could include a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and cheese from the Mystic Cheese Company.”
Sanctuary Kitchen, with its all-star cast of immigrant chefs who have been selling their wildly popular wares through a catering program and farmers markets already, was a natural for the program, Immer says.
“We are such good buddies with them,” he says. “We are so psyched to be working with them.”
The other start-up, the Honeebee project, helps New Haven high school students make a career of honey farming. “They have been producing jars of honey, and picking up great momentum,” says Immer. One option might include creating a line of baked goods that features their honey.
The intention is to provide a bridge between people who have these great culinary skills and ideas, producing some delicious food, with “folks who have generous wallets and who are interested in supporting these causes, but don’t necessarily have easy access to it. People love food and special treats. Can we merge those two things together and further economic opportunity for the underserved while also creating amazing treats that people around the area go crazy for, and feel good about eating?”
That is the goal.
Food entrepreneurs who are interested in participating should fill out an intake form that asks about the product they have been selling. Every six months, the program hopes to introduce two more start ups to the program, with events that will introduce those start ups. At each event, they will invite other food entrepreneurs to participate in the next cohort.
Common Elements of Success
The program is looking for food entrepreneurs who have already created some momentum around their product.
“It could be 50 people. It could be 200, but there should be some demonstration of forward progress,” he says.
And, while there is no secret formula for what makes a successful food entrepreneur, there are some common elements.
“Well, you definitely have to be OK with failing,” Immer says, who has worked at start ups himself. “You have to look forward to that and learn quickly about how you can iterate and do a better version. Food is a really tough industry with a lot of crazy tough jobs...They’re notorious for that. It can be glamorous to look at Food Network and Instagram posts and say ‘I’m going to start up my own waffle business.’ But you have to be able to roll up your sleeves and work hard and not just tap out after a few weeks of ‘this is really hard.’”
Immer says there’s a certain kind of person that actually looks forward to working with the grittiness and craziness.
“It’s a business where everyone is wearing a ton of hats,” he says. “There’s a level of chaotic excitement. And you have to have the ability to pivot and take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.”
An example of that is in late 2019, Chabaso, working with Sanctuary Kitchen, developed holiday bundles.
“We got in touch with Sanctuary. They were into the idea. We didn’t do a crazy amount of production, but what we did do totally sold out,” he says. “We had a great response to that.”
Ability to Pivot, Creativity Required
The current pandemic and unstable economic environment makes the ability to pivot, and recognize and take advantage of opportunities all the more important, he says.
“This is forcing folks to get really creative,” he says. “And with all those great ideas, we will provide some stepping stones so folks can take the next steps.”
The resource map being developed will further support the project by identifying organizations and institutions that can help the food entrepreneurs in their journey to success. Resources might include culinary arts schools, organizations that provide legal advice, commercial kitchens, sources of food and food materials, newspapers that feature food news, sources for loans, and success stories.
All of this fits with the mission of Atticus and Chabaso, which has as its motto: Bakers for a Better World.
“All of this makes sense for Atticus and Chabaso,” Immer says. “We love what companies like Patagonia and Ben & Jerry’s are doing. Being responsible, doing good, and in exchange receiving a ton of enthusiasm, that’s how we want to be doing business,” he says. “We see that that can be the core of the future success of the business.”
Registration for the food showcase event with Sanctuary Kitchen and Huneebee on Thursday, Feb. 25 is at https://nhvfoodshowcase.eventbrite.com/. The virtual event is free to view and the sampler kits, which can be picked up beforehand, are available for purchase starting at $28.