Culinary entrepreneurs will be able to tap into assistance from the Enterprise Center Community Development Corporation.
TEC-CDC was recently awarded a $546,722 grant from Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development’s Discovered in PA, Developed in PA to support its Philly Food Innovation program.
Philly Food Innovation is built on a model that comprehensively builds successful food entrepreneurs via a dynamic mix of commercial kitchen lab facilities and capacity-building resources. The initiative will create a self-sustaining engine that enables food entrepreneurs to bring innovative food products from concept, to design, to production to the marketplace.
“We are grateful to Governor Tom Corbett and DECD Secretary for their vision in supporting this important program that will accelerate businesses, create jobs and stimulate innovation in Pennsylvania’s growing food industry,” said TEC President Della Clark.
The food sector is one of the most important, yet underdeveloped sectors at the heart of the Greater Philadelphia region’s economic recovery and resurgence. Philly Food Innovation directly addresses this developmental void by implementing a comprehensive approach to food business incubation.
Philly Food Innovation is built on a model that recruits and encourages food entrepreneurs to conceptualize and develop new food products in commercial kitchen labs within the Center for Culinary Enterprises, a 13,000-square foot, LEED-certified food business incubation center and hub of community health resources in West Philadelphia, now under construction at 310 South 48th Street in West Philadelphia. The project is scheduled for completion in the summer 2012, with a grand opening in September.
The program provides business training and capacity-building resources needed to successfully accelerate their businesses and bring their products to market. TEC will assist entrepreneurs in capacity building, technical assistance, access to capital and access to contract opportunities through its dynamic business acceleration program.
