Hyattsville, MD. (Nov. 25, 2022) – The costs associated with kickstarting a food and beverage brand are countless, thereby making the start-up, an unfortunately inaccessible one for many within the industry. Luckily for the culinary creatives of the Prince George’s County region, one innovative entrepreneur by the name of Samia Bingham has generated a creative and cost-effective solution through Flavors, the Culinary Hub for the Culture, a workspace
hub for culinary artisans.

 

Membership to Flavors includes access to a supportive, talented virtual community of like-minded culinary creatives, private event space, contract opportunities, and a state-of-the-art fully equipped commercial kitchen and pop-up restaurant space. This is the ideal set-up for any private chef, pastry chef, dessert artisan, caterer, food truck owner, consumer packaged goods manufacturer, and hospitality educator, who may be looking for a space that will enable them to hone their craft with low overhead fees and eventually scale their business into their very own brick-and-mortar location or e-commerce brand.

 

To support the growth of underserved culinary founders, Flavors applied for and secured a $497k grant from the Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP), awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the development of their technical training incubator & e-learning platform. Specifically targeting food and beverage participants within Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities who have historically experienced
significant barriers to entrepreneurship with the COVID-19 pandemic significantly widening those barriers, Flavors will utilize the LFPP funds to educate BIPOC local growers, farmers, and food business enterprises in the greater Prince George’s County region through a hybrid culinary micro-enterprise program over the next two years.

 

This program will, 1) improve business development knowledge and growth strategies to help grow and scale a profitable agriculture and culinary businesses through weekly workshops led by field experts, 2) provide equitable access to local growers, farmers, and culinary business advisors and funding opportunities through collaborative community partnerships, and 3) develop and launch the Flavors web and app-based virtual education platform forprogram delivery to local growers, farmers, and BIPOC food business enterprises to connect, network, and expand their business opportunities with food and beverage entrepreneurs, industry leaders, capital and investment resources, and service providers nationwide.

 

To be able to celebrate a full year of operations within our shared kitchen and pop-up restaurant space has been a long time coming both for us working on the project and for the Prince George’s County culinary community,” said
founder Samia Bingham when addressing the lessons learned during the past year of the space’s grand opening. “We are proud to bring state-of-the-art culinary workspaces, coupled with business development resources specific
to the food and beverage industry to reignite interest in hospitality careers as well as support the growth of diverse culinary artisans who aspire to operate profitable and scalable hospitality brands.”

 

Flavors currently serves 34+ members and is rapidly growing within their University Town Center (UTC), Hyattsville, MD facility. Flavors is located at 6504 America Boulevard, Suite 105A, Hyattsville, MD 20782 and positioned to serve 150 Prince George’s County-based agriculture, food, and beverage artisans over the next two (2) years. To learn more about Flavors, visit https://flavorsculinaryhub.com/