Okay guys, put your thinking caps on. I may have found a commercial

dawn_mo

dawn_mo

Well-known member
kitchen to work out of. I am hopefully starting up with the FM this spring. I had to find a commercial kitchen to use. They are even more rigid here than they were in S.D. The kitchen I found, thanks to some very nice people that I have met here and a string of coincidences, is in a homeless shelter. It is a one-year-old facility with a gorgeous commercial kitchen. I cannot afford to pay rent and they need money. I am trying to work out something with them where I would contribute a a percentage of my sales directly to the shelter. It would benefit me because I don't expect my sales to be that good in the beginning. I am going to submit a business plan/offer to them and see what happens.

Here is where I need your help. They want to develop a cottage industry, is the term she used, in order to make money for the shelter. It is a homeless shelter for the chronically homeless with disabilities. Someone on the board suggested making ready-to-bake pizzas to sell. I told her that I didn't think that was the best idea because of all the steps involved. I am trying to brainstorm something for them to sell. They are thinking dinner casseroles but I am thinking chips and fresh salsa. Simple, easy to package inexpensively, and popular.

Has anyone ever done something like this before? I want to help them because I think there is a good potential there and these are some of the nicest people I have ever met. Any fundraising out there that you have done for shelters? How did you do it? How did you get the word out there? Etc. Thanks for any help you can offer!

 
There is a shelter here that makes fancy boxed truffles. Actually pretty easy

to make and you can get a pretty good mark-up on a small box if you are not using super-premium expensive chocolate.

 
Some thoughts on your project...is the shelter in a bad or remote neighborhood? Near Downtown?

Would their products be sold at the shelter or marketed off-site? Who will be their customers? We have a shelter near Downtown Mobile, and there is a customer base of all the bankers, lawyers and courthouse employees nearby during the daytime, but no one goes into that neighborhood at night, although they go through it to go home at the end of the week-day workday. What are the traffic patterns for passers-by?

I like the idea of breads, as people love them and they don't last very long. They would be purchased to be consumed, not as gifts, which might be the case with candy.

What about carry-out gourmet box lunches, if you have an office crowd nearby? Or gourmet soups to go? The office crowd might pick up to-go items on their way home during the week. What about on week-ends? Any traffic?

Or how about delivering lunches to the office buildings?

How about catering?

As far as publicity, Public Relations is easy...TV and newspapers love to have you hand them a story. If you are targeting an office crowd, flyers and menus distributed to each office work well.

I would love to work with someone like you to help your business grow, and to help organize the shelter's project. Wish we were closer. I have always wanted to work in the food industry, and have offered to help with local caterers, but the economy is so bad that caterers have no need to hire, have laid off their workers, and will bring them back to work first if things improve.

Whew, you are going to be very busy this Spring! Keep us posted!

 
The soup kitchen fundraiser I attended last weekend sold packets of their soup mix. Not exciting

but, you could work with that concept. Have a big pot of the soup to give out small samples and have the beans/packets/recipe there for purchase with note that part of the proceeds goes to help the shelter. Now, the soup mixes aren't very creative like making bread or jams etc, but it would fit with the project. and lots of those soup packets were getting purchased last weekend.

 
Thank you all for your ideas and thoughts.

Marianne, you just placed on paper all of the thoughts that are racing through my head and were disorganized. I just printed out this message to help me figure something out. It is an okay area, but like you said, not somewhere where you would hang out at night. It is clean compared to some of the areas in St. Joe. It was once a thriving city, but businesses moved out and so did jobs. There are some gorgeous old houses that are condemned and same with the city. Lots of old brick buildings vacant.
I am not sure of the traffic patterns but that would be easy enough to find out. I have been writing a monthly recipe column for a magazine that the newspaper puts out and have a good working relationship with one of the reporters there. She would love to do an article about the shelter and help advertise for them. This is a wonderful opportunity for me and for the shelter. There is a fit here somewhere and I just need to figure it out.
I have contacted a friend who was trying to buy a lot to start up a community garden and see if she would be interested in doing something like that with the property. Everything will depend on what the board thinks, but I get the feeling that they would love to have some people come in and start some projects like these.
I really like the idea of gourmet lunch boxes being delivered.
Thanks so much for this post, it was exactly what I needed to hear.

 
Thanks everyone! I really like all of your ideas. They are looking for ways

for the men to help support the shelter and making soup mixes, breads and such are a good fit for this group. If you have any other ideas, please post them here. What a great bunch of people are on this site! Thanks to all of you!!!

 
First off - wishing you all the best, Dawn

Such a wonderful opportunity for everyone involved!

What about brownies. Everyone seems to love them and are easy to make/bake/make different varieties!

 
Here's what was suggested to moi...

My kids will all be in school full time next year (no more kindergarten).

Someone suggested I do a dinner service whereby I'd cook dinner and deliver it to families that have signed up. It helps to have a neighborhood or two closeby w/ the disposable income but was told that it would be a huge time-saver for some busy families to count on 1 or 2 nights a week.

It would take some time to establish a client base and come up w/ agreeable menu ideas but could work depending on how much $ you need to make. -Tessie

 
Sawn, I wish you much success in your new venture! I am sure you will have a following at your

local FM. You will do GREAT! I am very excited for you!

I really liked the garden idea....

 
Fingers were too quick....Sorry....DAWN!! If you go the garden route, you can even call it

a "salsa garden" Consistent with what you make.... You can have them plant tom, cuc, etc.... They can sell their produce, and have your salsa next to it....

 
I am thinking having them make desserts to be included in the menu with

the 100% of the proceeds going to them. I talked to the health department today finally, and he was so helpful and friendly. It's just a matter of knowing what the regulations are, and following them. Thanks Deb.

 
I did something like that in San Diego.

I found a niche with the soccer moms. There was a group of them all involved in soccer and paid me to deliver meals to them on the nights they had soccer. It was fine at first and then it started becoming, can you leave out the red bell peppers because so and so doesn't like them. I made the meals in bulk and divided them up so it wasn't acceptable to me to make each meal individual. I soon found that I did not enjoy doing this, and that is when I started doing craft shows and Farmer's Markets. It was quite lucrative because of cooking from scratch, but it just wasn't much fun. Thanks though, and there is a market for professional chefs. Let us know what you decide to do. Let me know if you need some help because I did develop some strategies that helped make it run smoothly.

 
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