Partner Spotlight: Exploring New Opportunities for Entrepreneurs at La Cocina’s Conference

By Kelly Baker, Regional Evaluation Associate, AmeriCorps VISTA
 
On the tail end of their wildly successful Street Food Festival, La Cocina hosted their 3rd Annual Food & Entrepreneurship Conference. Through Women's Initiative's partnership with La Cocina as members of the San Francisco Economic Development Alliance, I was lucky enough to attend the second day of the conference free of charge.

The day was packed with thematic panel discussions around food, technology, and entrepreneurship. In the morning I attended “How to Create Spaces for Successful Entrepreneurship.” The panelists included representatives from Bay Area farmers’ market associations, Josh Assink with Urban Village and Lulu Meyer with the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market, as well as Alec W. Bauer of KRBS, Jonny Price of Kiva, and Junette Sheen of CCEDA acted as moderator. During the discussion, panelists and attendees grappled with the issue of barriers to entry: lack of access to affordable kitchen space, discrepancies in health code enforcement, and funding.

For me, one of the most interesting pieces to come out of the discussion was a new program Kiva is launching, Kiva Zip. Earlier in the discussion representatives from the farmers’ markets emphasized the importance of bringing people closer to their food source, the coming together of producer and consumer. Kiva’s new program similarly aims to bridge the gap between lender and borrower. Lenders make small loans of at least $25 to a new venture, ultimately contributing to a loan made at 0% interest to the borrower (at higher risk). Price cited an example in which the borrowers often in turn became part of the customer base for their lenders, stopping by to see how things were progressing and supporting their investment. This program has great potential to foster local enterprise.

After a delicious Nepalese buffet lunch, there was a large panel discussion on Food & Technology, discussing new apps, websites, and social media strategies that food entrepreneurs can take advantage of. Participants then broke out into smaller discussion groups after the panel. I attended the session on “Using Technology to Foster Entrepreneurship in Communities.” In this session led by Joel A. Lacayo of Mission Asset Fund and Amanda Oborne of FoodHub, participants shared challenges and strategies for using technology. Many of us in the room represented nonprofits working to help entrepreneurs, so social media outreach and the digital divide were central issues in the conversation.

All in all, the conference was inspirational and informative. It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with a variety of people, organizations, and entrepreneurs working toward innovative new solutions to problems of economic development and recovery.