SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine — The Fork Food Lab in South Portland has become a lead incubator for food startups in the state and is gaining national attention from folks who help small businesses grow and thrive.
Since its start in 2016, the community kitchen has been able to support hundreds of chefs looking to get their small food businesses off the ground.
Several small business representatives from D.C. recently took a trip to South Portland to see what the nonprofit is all about.
During a guided tour, folks were able to see the nonprofit's success in action and interview several people who working in the space, allowing the visitors to better understand how to develop resources and support budding businesses in the future.
Mark Madrid, associate administrator with the U.S. Small Business Administration, was one of the people who attended the tour. He said being able to better support these entrepreneurs is especially crucial to keep the economy healthy.
"It's revealing about Maine's small businesses and how resilient they are, how innovative they are," Madrid said. "Small businesses are the giants of our economy. They're responsible for over half of America's workforce."
The Fork Food lab may provide the space for entrepreneurs to make their food, but managing a business all by yourself can be a daunting task.
That's why Mark Delisle, state director for the Maine Small Business Development Centers, said a partnership with agencies like theirs could help sustain success. The tour also provided the SBDC a better understanding for how it could offer a helping hand.
"The SBDC provides one-on-one business advising for those entrepreneurs, and we help them with their business plan, financing, marketing tools," Delisle said. "It really is great, and it's interesting to see it being developed and growing."
After creating a successful model to allow unique businesses to thrive, team members said being able to show off the community kitchen's concept as well is an achievement they've been waiting for.
"We've put so much time and energy into this project that it feels nice to be seen for all of the work that we've done," Corinne Tompkins, deputy executive director at the lab, said.