Urban food manufacturing as a driver of economic mobility

Leveraging the power of food to drive inclusive entrepreneurship and economic mobility, and build a just, equitable, resilient food economy.

CommonWealth Kitchen operates Greater Boston's food business incubator and food manufacturing social enterprise.  We're on a mission to break down the barriers for low-income women, immigrants and people of color to build viable food-based businesses as a means to generate assets and wealth, create jobs, and build a just, equitable regional food economy. 

We take a vertically integrated, systems-based approach to business development on the theory that building viable food businesses- particularly for people with limited resources and industry networks- requires more than access to a shared kitchen.  We provide wrap-around business and technical training. We make connections to retailers, wholesalers, and distributors, and help entrepreneurs secure financing. We also offer outsourced manufacturing to help emerging companies scale. 

On average, our kitchen provides space to 50+ food companies annually—over 75% owned by women and/or people of color, employing 150+ in one of Boston’s lowest-income neighborhoods. Since 2009, we’ve “graduated” over 55 companies that are still in business today, creating over 500 new jobs!

In addition to our shared kitchen, we also run a food manufacturing operation.  We help emerging member companies cross the chasm from ideation to proof of concept by providing outsourced processing services.  This approach gives established businesses more time to focus on sales, while we aggregate multiple part-time and seasonal jobs into full-time manufacturing positions on our staff.  

When not manufacturing for member companies, we provide processing services to other food businesses to generate earned income and strengthen industry networks.  We provide processing for local farms, diverting surplus produce into products like pickles and tomato sauce. We provide contract services to anchor institutions looking to increase local and diverse sourcing-- like Harvard University, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Boston Public Schools. 

Since 2014, our unique social enterprise has experienced exponential growth, increasing by nearly 700% and creating 20 new jobs. For 2018, over 40% of our $2.35m budget-- or nearly $1m- will come from earned income from kitchen rental and manufacturing, putting us squarely on a path to break-even within 5 years. 

Our integrated approach is rapidly gaining attention for its impact on multiple fronts-- inclusive entrepreneurship, sustainable job creation, middle-skill manufacturing job development, food waste diversion, improved access to minimally processed foods, and collaboration with retailers and anchor institutions. 

We are building a model with enormous potential for replication.  We look to collaborate with MIT SOLVE to document our model and develop tools and a road map so that other communities can learn, borrow, adapt, and incorporate our experience into their efforts to build an equitable food economy.  We also look to MIT SOLVE to assist in identifying opportunities for broader impact- such as use of alternative packaging, development/modification of equipment scaled for regional food manufacturing, optimizing logistics, integration of robotics and software to improve production efficiency and manage inventory, etc. The goal is build a scalable, replicable regional food manufacturing operation that creates quality middle skill jobs, builds assets and wealth, improves food access, and creates a just, equitable, resilient regional food economy. 

CWK's process innovation takes a comprehensive, systems-based approach to the challenge of scaling a food business. CWK's continuum of services addresses the human, social, and financial capital development challenges, and builds connections up and down the supply chain.  

We combine this wrap-around business and technical support with outsourced manufacturing services to fill a critical industry gap.  Not only are we able to help emerging member companies efficiently scale production, we also provide custom small-batch processing to farms, restaurants, wholesalers, retailers, and institutions. Through this approach, we are able to generate earned income to support creation of middle-skill food manufacturing jobs. 

We know that technology is critical as we look to scale and replicate, including: food processing and packaging equipment designed and sized for small-scale/distributed manufacturing; food safety testing equipment; environmentally friendly packaging; new/unique ingredients and product formulations to meet changing consumer demands; inventory control systems; web-based sales, marketing and billing platforms; logistics management across the supply chain; and data management systems to manage lot codes, production records and recall plans. 

Over the next year, we will continue to scale our manufacturing operation, purchasing additional production equipment, and working to secure larger, more consistent contracts.  We will also focus on scaling our regional produce processing, turning surplus destined for the landfill or compost into simple, value-added products for the institutional market. We will migrate data management to a CRM system to more accurately document and assess impact.  We will update our website to better convey our business model and create an online sales portal. We will update financial forecasts to understand the scaling needed to reach break-even solely from earned income.

We see enormous potential for adaptation and replication of our practical, solutions-based approach to equitable food business development and middle-skill job creation.  In just the past 6 months, we have received inquiries from communities in Detroit, NYC, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, and even Belfast, Ireland, looking for ways to leverage the food economy for sustainable employment, improve food access, and promote inclusive entrepreneurship. 

Over the next few years, our focus is on documenting what we're learning; understanding the scale required to become self-sustaining ; and developing tools and materials that can become the basis for a road map for replication.  

CWK connects with beneficiaries through community-based networks, government agencies, and word of mouth. CWK actively promotes its work through monthly info sessions, food biz start-up classes, and social media. 

CWK plans to develop an open source road map that can be used by other communities interested in learning from and adapting our model.  CWK will disseminate it through funder and government networks, online, and at conferences. CWK already has interest from communities across Massachusetts, as well as Minnesota, Arkansas, New Mexico, Detroit, North Carolina and even Northern Ireland.  

On average, CWK works directly with 400+ primarily low-income women, immigrants, and people of color each year. We provide kitchen space and business support to @ 50 food companies- over 75% owned by women and/or people of color, employing 150 in one of Boston's lowest-income neighborhoods.  We also directly employ 8-12 kitchen staff from this target population. In addition, we provide training through initiatives like our Food Biz Start-Up class, monthly info sessions, and workshops on topics like product development, finance, and marketing.  Since 2009, we've graduated 57 companies that are still in business today, creating over 500 jobs. 

CWK intends to continue to expand its impact by graduating 3-6 companies each year into their own dedicated facilities, as the clearest measure of impact and success.  By graduating companies, CWK can help them continue to scale and add jobs, while making room in the shared kitchen for another 10-15 new company starts. All told, these companies create an additional 15-20 new jobs each year.  Also, by scaling the manufacturing operation through more and larger contracts, CWK projects adding 20+ new permanent staff to its manufacturing team within 3 years. 

As evidenced by CWK’s exponential 700% growth in 4 years, CWK has built a high capacity, entrepreneurial team.  CWK's Executive Director brings strong organizational strategy, finance and fundraising skills. CWK's Director of Finance and Business Operations similarly brings strong business and finance skills, excellent data and systems-building experience, and experience running a food company.  CWK also has three trained chefs on staff, all of whom have product and recipe development experience, and training in food manufacturing and food safety.  This core team is complemented by senior staff with community organizing, food systems and project management capacity. 

CWK currently relies on a mix of grant funding and earned income to cover annual operating costs.  Earned income is generated through a combination of monthly membership fees, hourly kitchen rental, monthly storage and warehousing fees, manufacturing contracts, classes, workshops, and consulting fees.  For 2017, just over 40% of CWK's $2m budget came from earned income ($825,000).  For 2018, earned income is projected to reach $1m. 

As CWK continues to  scale its manufacturing operations (currently running a single shift, 5 days/week), and find other ways to monetize its work-- such as introducing profit-sharing, we are confident that we can become fully self-sustaining from earned income within 5 years.   

We need help!  As a small but mighty, under-capitalized, rapidly growing non-profit social enterprise that is working within the rapidly changing food economy, we are excited for the opportunity to partner and gain expert advice, insight, and support from the SOLVE team!  Specific areas where we see substantive opportunities for SOLVE to advance our work include: developing and implementing strong data management metrics and systems to demonstrate impact and outcomes; identifying market opportunities and strategies for scaling; improving supply chain logistics; finding ways to integrate sustainable packaging, improved manufacturing equipment, inventory control systems, etc. into the operations

Scaling a non-profit social enterprise is enormously challenging. Few funders invest in capacity building and growth.  As such, CWK has struggled to secure the resources needed to keep up with its dramatic growth.  At present, CWK's most pressing challenges involve needing to develop a more robust financial model to understand the size and scale of operations required and model adjustments needed in order to reach break-even solely through earned income. CWK also has to move away from its current tangle of spreadsheets and establish a CRM, data systems and evidence-based rubrik to track and measure impact.