Success Stories
BOHEMIA FOOD HUB
Business Oregon | Rural Opportunity Initiative | 2023-24 | SEPT 2024
Over the past ten years, Bohemia Food Hub (BFH) has built a thriving food business incubator in Lane County that is a cornerstone of our regional food system. We have supported the growth and development of over 135 new and existing businesses through our coworking commercial kitchen, food truck pod, retail space, bilingual business classes, technical support and micro-grant program. We have supported the launch of 23 businesses and created more than 50 jobs since our inception.
OVER $750K FUNDING SECURED!!! BFH’s journey exemplifies the power of organic growth and community focus. From a single commercial kitchen to a comprehensive food business support system, we’ve consistently listened to and adapted to meet the evolving needs of local food producers. For the past 4-years, we have worked with an architectural team, including USDA’s AMS Architectural Design team, to design and build our dream kitchen and optimized facility. Renovations begin …any minute now!
MICRO-GRANT PROGRAM LAUNCHES!!! Tremendous thanks to funding through Business Oregon’s Economic Equity Investment Program (EEIP), BFH is now able to provide businesses with desperately needed start-up capital to cover initial costs like ingredients, licensing and small equipment purchases. Within this past year, we have helped launch and scale eight food businesses with EEIP funds – FoodSmiths, Grandma Dela’s, Menu Toscano, Buenas Dias, Hot Winter Hot Sauce, Balen’s Bakery, Zoom Out Mycology and Wildfire Elixirs.
YOUTHWORKS PROGRAM LAUNCHES!!! BFH has nurtured new partnerships with Al Kennedy High School (AKHS) and Connected Lane County (CLC) to offer culinary workforce experiences to over 30 rural youth. AKHS’s Culinary & Sustainable Foods class launched “Al Kennedy Foods” with the intent to develop products from foods they are growing on their organic school farm to then sell in the wholesale market. The students use BFH’s commercial bakery twice a month to make Morning Muffins, using carrots grown in their own gardens, and sell to local retailers. Our newest partner, Connected Lane County (CLC), is an established County-wide program supporting underserved youth ages 16-24 in Lane County. Last December, one of our food truck tenants taught a group of eight young adults from CLC how to make a holiday meal on a budget.
SPANISH-LANGUAGE FOOD BUSINESS TRAINING 2.0!!! In partnership with Rural Development Initiatives (RDI), we offered our second 6-week food business training to 25 local Latino residents. We had an interpreter at the trainings for Mam speakers (the language of many of the area’s Guatemalan immigrants) and offered on-site childcare for the families. This collaborative effort is helping aspiring entrepreneurs, and particularly those facing high barriers to entry, with the onramp services and wrap-around support they need to test their business ideas in an environment that sets them up for success. We continue to work with several of the class participants to bring their business ideas to life.
LOCAL SUCCESS STORY
This year, BFH supported family-run business “Foodsmiths” food truck start-up in our incubator food truck (funded by a 2022 ROI award), over 30 hours of technical assistance (funded by BizOR TA award) and a $5000 start-up grant (funded thru BizOR EEIP). The owners completed a 10-week business class with RAIN and more recently placed 3rd in SBDC’s 2024 Cottage Grove Business Plan Challenge and won “Best 30 second pitch.” In just under a year, Foodsmiths outgrew BFH’s incubator truck and moved into a brick and mortar location in Downtown Cottage Grove. This is the 6th business to have launched at BFH and moved on to a downtown brick and mortar.
