THE ISSUE There are many obstacles that prevent entrepreneurs from creating successful and sustainable small businesses. In particular, the food industry has a notoriously high cost of entry which includes fees for licensed and insured commercial kitchen space, start-up costs to open a restaurant, and competition for shelf space at specialty stores and large retailers. Such restrictive barriers to entry often discourage burgeoning food entrepreneurs from launching businesses.

THE MISSION

La Cocina is a ground-breaking business incubator that provides commercial kitchen space and technical assistance to low-income entrepreneurs who are launching, growing, and formalizing food businesses.

The organization provides a platform for motivated entrepreneurs, many who are low-income women of color, to hone their skills and successfully transition into the highly regulated and competitive food industry.

THE PROJECT La Cocina sought Full Circle Fund’s assistance in scaling its existing program and positioning itself as a model incubator for replication.

THE WORK Full Circle Fund team members conducted a strategic analysis of La Cocina’s structure and helped the organization reconsider many fundamental aspects of its programs. The team uncovered ways to strengthen the graduation curriculum and the program overall by addressing barriers and disincentives to success.

Members helped identify innovative microfinance resources to increase entrepreneurs’ access to capital. They also evaluated how La Cocina could further its growth while protecting its unique niche and intellectual property.

The team’s recommendations are helping La Cocina launch more successfully-graduated businesses, enabling them to move through program more quickly and allowing the organization to handle more businesses in the program overall.

The team’s findings have also resulted in better allocation of staff and volunteer resources and ensured that La Cocina will have more reliable partnerships moving forward.

“Through Full Circle Fund’s partnership, we implemented

changes that made our programming better and our

delivery stronger.”

“Full Circle Fund gave us a unique opportunity to brainstorm and

execute in a way that we never had before.

The results were significant, and the changes are evident

in our program today.”

- Caleb Zigas

Executive Director

La Cocina

SNAPSHOT GRANT TERM: 2009-10

LA COCINA HAS 30 BUSINESSES IN THE

PROGRAM AND 82 FORMAL

EMPLOYMENT POSITIONS AT THOSE BUSINESSES

318 LOW-INCOME ENTREPRENEURS HAVE

BENEFITED FROM ORIENTATIONS AND WORKSHOPS

SINCE FULL CIRCLE FUND INVESTED IN 2009, LA COCINA

GREW FROM AN $800K

ORGANIZATION TO $2M

La Cocina CULTIVATING FOOD ENTREPRENEURS CIRCLE: GLOBAL ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY

Full Circle Fund is an engaged philanthropy organization

cultivating the next generation of community leaders and driving lasting social change in the Bay Area. We recruit top leaders from the private, public, and

nonprofit sectors, and empower them to leverage their

experience, connections, and financial resources to benefit

innovative social entrepreneurs and organizations.

www.fullcirclefund.org

GRANT PARTNER IMPACT STORY