La Cocina - Nonprofit Kitchen Incubator

La Cocina - Nonprofit Kitchen Incubator

Food and Beverage Services

San Francisco, California 4,902 followers

Cultivating working-class BIPOC & immigrant entrepreneurs as they formalize their food businesses.

About us

La Cocina is a nonprofit working to solve problems of equity in business ownership for women, immigrants and people of color. We provide talented entrepreneurs with affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific mentorship, and access to market opportunities and capital. The result? A kitchen incubator that outperforms any Bay Area restaurant group with 50+ graduating businesses and 32 of these entrepreneurs in their own brick-and-mortar restaurants. Six businesses born out of La Cocina were named in San Francisco Chronicle's Top 100 Restaurants of 2019. Through our new book "We Are La Cocina" and our own storytelling platform, F&B: Voices from the Kitchen, we share the voices from the food industry that are less often heard. In April of 2021, La Cocina opened the nation's first women-led food hall in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco. The La Cocina Municipal Marketplace stands as an innovative model of conscious, community-led development, offering economic opportunity for women entrepreneurs, jobs for Tenderloin residents, and delicious and affordable food for community members and those looking to eat with purpose. While Marketplace construction is complete, we’re activating the space, for now, with La Cocina businesses providing take-out and to prepare meals for local food security programs. We hope to open our doors for dine-in later this year. Learn more and order food here: https://lacocinamarketplace.com/about

Website
http://www.lacocinasf.org
Industry
Food and Beverage Services
Company size
11-50 employees
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Type
Nonprofit
Founded
2005
Specialties
Food business incubation, Catering, Packaged food, Gift Baskets, Economic Development, Business Incubation, Community Nonprofit, and Work force development

Locations

Employees at La Cocina - Nonprofit Kitchen Incubator

Updates

  • La Cocina is looking for a Catering & Event Sales Coordinator! As a Catering & Event Sales Coordinator, you would support 40+ food entrepreneurs with catering opportunities, and deliver hands-on technical assistance to help businesses develop their skills as they grow their businesses. The ideal candidate is skilled in coordinating proposals from start to finish and offering hospitable customer experiences. They are detail-oriented, energetic, resourceful, exceptional at multitasking, and experienced in sales and managing logistics and catering events onsite. The role is responsible for meeting La Cocina’s revenue goals and is committed to the success of La Cocina-born food entrepreneurs. If this sounds interesting to you or this role could be fit for someone you know, consider applying or sharing this with your network. Learn more and apply here: lacocinasf.org/careers.

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  • We’re excited to share that our partners at California Migration Museum have launched their interactive storytelling project “Melting Spots.”🍽️ 🗺️ Consider this map your menu for some of SF’s best cuisine. This map illustrates and tells the story of chefs, restaurant, and dishes that have and continue to shape the way our city eats. Tune into 38 “bite-sized” audio stories of migration in SF - whether that be entrepreneurs who’ve immigrated to the U.S. or Chef Tiffany Carter honoring the Soul Food roots of her grandparents who arrived from the South during the Great Migration. We’re grateful to the California Migration Museum for working with us to include eight La Cocina-born businesses in this project including: Besharam, REEM'S CALIFORNIA, Minnie Bell's Soul Movement, Damansara, D'maize Catering, Estrellita's, BINIS KITCHEN LLC, and Boug Cali. 🙏🏽 Pick up a copy of the map at participating businesses and our listen online at https://lnkd.in/giXd2REb.

  • Thank you KQED for covering this exciting next chapter for La Cocina! We’re excited to share that we have officially transitioned our former food hall, the La Cocina Marketplace, into La Cocina on Hyde – our second shared-use commercial kitchen that will serve as a space for training, workshops and production for our greater entrepreneurial community of 80+ businesses. This second kitchen space will reduce expenses and help us execute our core mission of cultivating food businesses. 🙏🏽 We’ve supported transitioning the businesses previously operating in the space to different locations so they can continue growing their businesses. Please continue supporting them at their new homes! ⭐️ Bini’s Kitchen is at 1001 Howard St. and her kiosk at 1 Post St., as well as the Foodwise Ferry Plaza Farmers Market ⭐️ Boug Cali will be opening at the Ferry Building late spring ⭐️ Estrellita’s Snacks will open in the Tenderloin late spring and will continue serving at the @heartofthecityfm ⭐️ Kayma opened a kiosk at Saluhall on 945 Market St. ⭐️ Los Cilantros reopened their full-service restaurant in Berkeley at La Peña Cultural Center ⭐️ Mi Morena is vending at the UN Skate Plaza and will produce out of La Cocina on Hyde ⭐️ Teranga opened at 4 Embarcadero Center with SF New Deal’s Vacant to Vibrant program. Our staff and entrepreneurs are eager to continue our work together in this space and we’re grateful for our community’s support in embracing this change. To continue supporting the community of La Cocina-born businesses, dine with them, host an event at La Cocina on Hyde St. or cater with us, and become a La Cocina Insider to fuel our work. 🧡 --> lacocinasf.org. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gxypw5iG

    La Cocina Reopens as Commercial Kitchen in the Tenderloin After Food Hall Closure | KQED

    La Cocina Reopens as Commercial Kitchen in the Tenderloin After Food Hall Closure | KQED

    kqed.org

  • Our first dinner pop-up of the year with La Cocina chefs was a success! 👏🏽 Thank you to our community of businesses, La Cocina-loving foodies, donors, our sponsor, CIBC US, staff, and volunteers for showing up for new La Cocina businesses and creating this experience. ❤️🔥 We love seeing our space filled with delicious food, smiles, and laughter. If you’re interested in hosting an event in our space, fill out the form here: lacocinasf.org/cater. We’re excited to continue this programming throughout the year as we accept new cohorts of ambitious food entrepreneurs. Stay updated on our programming and other ways to support La Cocina chefs by signing up for our newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gaURwsXt For those who attended, we’re sure you’re eager to eat more delicious offerings from the newest La Cocina businesses. Visit our Instagram (@lacocinasf) for a variety of ways that you can support each of them. ⭐️ 🙏🏽 📸: Erin Ng

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  • We’re excited to share that we’ve received a $1 million gift from the Yield Giving Open Call! The #YieldGivingOpenCall – managed by Lever for Change – focused on elevating organizations working with people and in places experiencing the greatest need in the United States. We are incredibly grateful for this generous gift that will enable our organization to implement new programming around our 101 Hyde St. kitchen (Municipal Marketplace), make critical upgrades to our curriculum, and strengthen our capacity to support several new cohorts of small food businesses led by women, immigrants and people of color. Learn more: https://lnkd.in/gWNYQb5q #YieldGiving #YieldGivingOpenCall #SocialImpact #OpenCall

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  • La Cocina is looking for a Development Manager and Director of Finance and Operations! As a Development Manager, you'll lead fundraising and philanthropic partnership efforts that allow La Cocina to do our work of incubating talented food entrepreneurs. As Director of Finance and Operations, you will collaborate with executive leadership on the strategy and operations of La Cocina and provide support and guidance to our board. If either of these sounds interesting to you or these roles could be fit for someone you know, consider applying or sharing this with your network! Visit the jobs section of our profile or visit lacocinasf.org/careers to learn more and apply.

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  • Panza Llena, Corazón Contento is back! 😋 Panza Llena, Corazón Contento (full belly, happy heart) is a delicious, ready-to-eat dinner subscription program that delivers globally inspired, family-style meals (4 servings) each week over April & May. Choose a 4 or 8-week plan and an omnivore or vegetarian menu. Don’t miss your delicious chance to support eight working-class La Cocina businesses led by BIPOC, immigrant, and women chefs, creating a more vibrant, and delicious Bay Area. Not to mention, you’ll also support sustainable alternatives for package and food delivery systems — this program has diverted over 8,500 containers and almost 1,100 bags from the waste stream (shout out to our partners, Dispatch Goods & Bentocart)! Let these talented chefs feed you and take your dinner game to the next level! Learn more and subscribe: https://lnkd.in/gwKcCSgk. *Correction: Week 3 is now being taken over by Peaches Patties

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  • La Cocina - Nonprofit Kitchen Incubator reposted this

    View profile for Jaymie Santiago, graphic

    President at New Brunswick Tomorrow

    OoooWeeee... it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything on here, but I promise that I've been cooking up some good stuff. Last month, I sponsored a trip to San Francisco for 5 New Brunswick entrepreneurs, and my New Brunswick Tomorrow team. We were met by the very talented staff from La Cocina - Nonprofit Kitchen Incubator to learn from their nationally recognized food kitchen model. We all came back more inspired than before to see this come to our City and felt truly grateful & blessed to have had this opportunity The truth is, today’s workforce and talent want to live in communities where they can work, afford a great house, send their kids to good schools and limit their commutes. New Brunswick has all this with its rich and vibrant neighborhoods - - the future is bright!

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      +1
  • Gayle Hart, founder of The Geez Freeze, is building a training ground for future young food #entrepreneurs and doing so one delicious frozen treat at a time -- from homemade soft serve and waffle cones to daiquiris and Italian ices made with natural syrups. Growing up in San Francisco's Fillmore neighborhood surrounded by thriving Black businesses inspired Gayle to be an entrepreneur. And her years dedicated to coaching and mentoring kids motivated her to create a mobile business that doubles as a safe space for youth to socialize, learn entrepreneurial skills, and give back to the community. Gayle joined La Cocina's program in fall 2022. Using her food truck, trailer, or pop-up tent, Gayle caters all kinds of events from birthdays to weddings to festivals. Support local, small businesses by checking out The Geez Freeze for your next work event! https://thegeezfreeze.com/

    • Entrepreneur Gayle Hart holding a homemade waffle cone with soft serve ice cream. The Geez Freeze logo. Examples of Gayle's frozen treats.
  • La Cocina - Nonprofit Kitchen Incubator reposted this

    View profile for Brie Mazurek, graphic

    Communications Director at Foodwise

    I hope to see you at the inaugural SF Food Action Summit: The Road to Good Food on March 3-4 at the Southeast Community Center! 🌱 Join FAACTS (Food and Agriculture Action Coalition Toward Sovereignty) for a community-led and centered summit to advance a good food system in San Francisco. The two-day program will bring together diverse stakeholders including rural farmers, local producers, food service workers and unions, healthcare and restaurant leaders, and grassroots organizations for discussions, workshops, food tours, and more. Our goal is to walk away with a concrete action plan for addressing food system inequity with next steps toward a food-sovereign San Francisco. 📌 Details & tickets: https://lnkd.in/dE3V3FDS Cohosted by 18 Reasons, API Council , Booker T. Washington Community Service Center, Farming Hope, Florence Fang Community Farm, Foodwise, Food as Medicine Collaborative, La Cocina - Nonprofit Kitchen Incubator , The Women's Building

    2024 SF Food Action Summit: The Road to Good Food

    2024 SF Food Action Summit: The Road to Good Food

    eventbrite.com

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