Since its inception over three years ago, ShareKitchen has been a business incubator to food entrepreneurs.
What does a business incubator do?
Most simply, a business incubator helps existing and start-up businesses to become financially viable and successful firms that can ‘graduate’ from our shared space.
ShareKitchen has worked with a variety of food entrepreneurs. Food entrepreneurs can be someone who is making a specific product for resale, a caterer, a farmer, a chef wanting to test a restaurant concept or even a roving supper club! We do this from our facility in Cathedral City based in what used to be Buddy Greco’s Supper Club. ShareKitchen has the only facility of its kind in Riverside County.
Besides providing the location for people to try or build their entrepreneurial endeavors, ShareKitchen has a team of professionals who are available to help when it comes to product design, marketing, recipe development, best business practices, financial management and industry connections. All of these things are done at costs that are drastically less than what one would pay if trying to do this on their own.
The positive results of this program are demonstrated in the dozens of people and businesses that we have assisted over the last three years.
As we look at the future, ShareKitchen is focused on building a larger facility that will help a wider cross-section of small and medium-sized food enterprises. As one example, we are working on making sure that food grown in the Valley is processed locally instead of being shipped to somewhere else before being reshipped to the Valley for sale. By processing locally, we can reduce food miles, create jobs and reduce the cost of food to everyone. While the new facility is a big project, we have received the enthusiastic support of the USDA, Clinton Foundation, the City of Coachella and many others.
