Findlay Kitchen offers scholarships to food businesses

Findlay Kitchen is accepting applications for a pair of scholarships designed to support small food-oriented businesses looking to grow or up-scale operations.

The available scholarships are The Hubert Family Foundation Mobile Pop Up Scholarship ($8,000) and the Bakery Scholarship ($7,500). Recipients will receive access to the Findlay Kitchen space and professional support as well as financial assistance for necessary licensing, startup costs and other expenses entrepreneurs face when starting a business.

Each scholarship also caters to the unique needs of the business types it supports. The Mobile Pop Up Scholarship, for instance, offers participants use of the Findlay Kitchen mobile license prior to purchasing their own. They also get access to a variety of equipment and supplies used by mobile food businesses.

Marketing and branding assistance are available as well.

Applications are due by Aug. 11. Visit FindlayKitchen.org/Scholarships to view application requirements and apply.

“We wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have the scholarship,” said Ebony Williams, owner of Flavors of the Isle, a past recipient of a Findlay Kitchen Scholarship.

Supporting local food entrepeneurs

Findlay Kitchen is a nonprofit food business incubator, located across from the market in Over-the-Rhine. The organization supports food entrepreneurs looking to start, grow and scale their business. It places special emphasis on cultivating women, immigrant, and minority-owned businesses, which currently comprise 90% of the member community.

The Findlay Kitchen Scholarship program aims to take those efforts to the next level.

Through her scholarship experience, Williams received in-house mentorship and hands-on training in addition to the financial support and free kitchen hours. She credits the program with enabling her to open her own storefront on Elm Street just across from Findlay Market.

The Findlay Market Scholarship Fund is the result of support from the Edelweiss Foundation; Dionysia Savas and Martin Wilz; the Ed and Joann Hubert Family Foundation; and Suki Skidmore and Tim Kane. 

Findlay Kitchen plans to release scholarships quarterly moving forward.

“It helped our business tremendously,” Williams said of the scholarship.