Welcome to the People's Kitchen, Western Mass' only shared commercial kitchen & intentional business community.
OVERVIEW
The People's Kitchen is the only shared use, commercial kitchen in the Holyoke Springfield area; we operate using a subscription model like a coworking space, so that the space is affordable to our members and profitable for us.
Our passion is growing food businesses so that all of us have more good things to eat. With additional capital, we will be able to expand our offering to our member businesses; more specialized equipment means more diverse food offerings. We strive to create community through food.
THE OPPORTUNITY
By investing in The People's Kitchen, you will support a business that exists to create equal food access to all. We are creating a space where food based small businesses can grow and flourish.
- Proven Demand - The closest shared kitchens for a food business is either in Greenfield or Worcester. There are none in the Holyoke - Springfield area.
- Competitive Advantage - We are the only shared commercial kitchen in the area that offers commercial space and equipment for new and existing food businesses to grow and prosper.
- Experienced Founders - Our founders have decades of holistic food experience.
- Matthew Lillibridge - Chef Founder, has been working in the food industry for 30 years, the past 6 years spent running the School Nutrition department of the Southwick-Tolland-Granville school district; managing 3 schools with 3/4s of a million dollar budget has prepared him to succeed.
- Laura Lillibridge - Education Director, retired after over a decade of teaching; she has worked internationally and in multiple states as an elementary teacher as well as teaching English as a Second Language in urban schools. Laura is an avid gardener, mother of two and passionate about food. Laura is certified by the Department of Education as a teacher as well as being licensed as a child care provider by the Department of Early Education and Care.
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
- Average Anticipated Monthly Revenue: $10,675
- Profit Margin: 35% at startup, 53% by month three.
FROM THE FOUNDER
We are very excited for you to be a part of The People's Kitchens next chapter. The community of Holyoke is important to us and we plan to increase food diversity in the area. We are creating Community through food.
—Matthew Lillibridge: Chef Founder
Products & services
- Shared commercial kitchen for food business development
- All the equipment needed for a business to succeed
- Food Truck commissary
- Retail space selling organic coffee alongside our members goods
OUR STORY
The People's Kitchen started when Matthew founded a nonprofit food rescue, at that point he naively assumed it would be easy, only to find there was no commercial kitchens to lease in Springfield or Holyoke to test his idea. Talking to friends and peers it seemed lots of businesses were in the same situation- they had a business, but no kitchen in which to learn and grow.
We HAD to found this kitchen, since none existed. Realizing that if we weren’t able to pursue our dream, perhaps others weren’t either.
Matt was able to test the idea in his work kitchens, but still lacked the capacity of storage and production to pursue the mission full time. It was around this time that a peer told us about Coworking, which works so well for offices, we realized it was the key to operating a shared commercial kitchen successfully.
Our hope it that this Kitchen will be a place where you can pursue your dreams, test your ideas and build your business. Together we are able to do more than we could do individually. Welcome to our kitchen, welcome to the dream.
IN THE community
- We are connected to business accelerators
- Valley Venture Mentors - Springfield’s premier business incubator and startup accelerator; they will forward food entrepreneur leads to us. We will send businesses back into their various programs for business expertise and funding.
- E-Spark Holyoke - a business accelerator in Holyoke, excited to send food businesses to us to help them
- Holyoke Community College Culinary program - as an educational partner we plan to offer internships to their students as well as be an incubator space for their graduates.
- We are partnered with the local business development:
- SCORE -is the nation's largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors. Partnering with them, they can provide help with business plans, mentoring and operational support. They will also provide leads for memberships.
- MSBDC - The Small business development center will act as a gateway for potential members who will start their journey there, get certified and instructed before coming to the kitchen to work on their food.
- Holyoke Business Development - as the only commissary kitchen int the area they will direct trucks and members to us.
- We are mentored by local business icons, giving us unparalleled support and guidance:
- Bob Lowry - Bueno y Sano - Professional Mentor. Bob is mentoring Matthew to help Matt to grow the business in best practices; as an owner of 7+ restaurants in the area, Bob is qualified to really help us grow.
