Over the past six years, food business incubator Hope & Main has helped aspiring food entrepreneurs from a variety of means and backgrounds launch and scale their businesses by providing shared-use kitchens and equipment, technical and educational programs, and a community of peers and mentors. KK&P Senior Consultant Ben Kerrick recently spoke with Founder Lisa Raiola about how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting Hope & Main, how her member businesses are adapting, and her hopes for the food system.

Last month, the Town of Unicoi, TN, adopted a new strategic plan for Mountain Harvest Kitchen (MHK), the town’s food business incubator and shared kitchen. The strategy, which will guide the program’s development for the next five years, is the outcome of a planning process led by KK&P.

KK&P recently kicked off a dairy sector marketing assessment for the State of Vermont, working closely with the state’s Agency for Agriculture, Food, and Markets and Agency for Commerce and Community Development.

By Ben Kerrick In late June, I had the pleasure of organizing and moderating panels at two back-to-back convenings: the Cultivating Change Summit, which seeks to elevate the work of LGBTQ agriculturists, and the Health Meets Food Conference, put on by the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine. For both panels, my “assignment” was to create...