On August 5th, 2013, Econsult Solutions, Inc. published the report “U.S. Kitchen Incubators: An Industry Snapshot.” It reports on who is using kitchen incubators, what they pay, and the type of business they are supporting. Montgomery County wants to develop non-profit kitchen incubators for the sake of helping people initiate their businesses. So who would benefit from them in Montgomery County? Scaling down the national data taken from the study to Montgomery County’s population, we can get a good idea.
The majority (67%) of kitchen incubators have fewer than 25 users. Montgomery County is trying to develop a larger, more public model that will not require payment (while many users currently pay to use their local kitchens.) Some of the businesses that benefit are bakeries, caterers, food trucks, and those that make pre-prepared meals. They could offer job training, food preparation stations, and technical assistance to users in order to assist the businesses in any way possible. That being said, many people in Montgomery County will benefit from kitchen incubators. Also, the majority of users are women and 28% are low-income. Nearly a third (32%) are minorities. What would the breakdown be in Montgomery County? Hopefully, when developed, the kitchen incubators will be useful resources from people of all backgrounds.
What other features would the Montgomery County model of a kitchen incubator look like? What would come in handy? Please reply with comments and suggestions on how to improve the model, as well as whether or not you would use a kitchen incubator and how.