Tag: Good Food Business Accelerator

Rick Bayless Demo at GFFC

Welcome to Chicago, James Beard Foundation: 10 Delicious Facts About the Windy City

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

by Jim Slama and Bob Benenson, Family Farmed [Note: This article was first published on the Huffington Post news website.] As advocates of the Good Food movement in Chicago, we are honored that the James Beard Foundation Awards are coming to town. The Foundation was created to honor the legacy of chef James Beard. After Read more about Welcome to Chicago, James Beard Foundation: 10 Delicious Facts About the Windy City[…]

SBA visit to Good Food Business Accelerator

U.S. Small Business Administration Partners with Good Food Business Accelerator at 1871 Incubator

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

FamilyFarmed has developed a strong relationship with the federal agency charged with assisting the entrepreneurial sector: the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Its Good Food Business Accelerator was a winner of the SBA’s Growth Accelerator Fund competition last year, earning it $50,000 to help launch the program that is rounding out its first six-month session of mentorship for nine competitively selected entrepreneur Fellows.

Kishr logo

Good Food Accelerator Fellow Hopes Success for Her ‘Superfruit Brew’ is a Kishr Thing

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

Differentiation is an important key to success in the expanding sector of artisan food producers. A number of food entrepreneurs have sought their special niche by reaching into their personal experience and background. This is something that Rowida Assalimy did when she launched Kishr, a traditional hot beverage of her parents’ native country of Yemen that she grew up drinking.

Spark of the Heart soup mix

Spark of the Heart Owners’ Rebound from Recession Was a Powerful Mix

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

One of the very few good things you can say about hard times, such as the recent Great Recession, is that they tend to unleash a lot of entrepreneurial energy. That was certainly the case for the owners of Spark of the Heart, a company that produces dry bean-based soup, salad and sides mixes, who will tell their story at the Good Food Business Accelerator’s Demo Day.

Accelerator Fellow Urban Canopy Goes Upstairs and Outside to Promote Farming in Chicago

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

You would be hard-pressed to find a business that is more local, more community-based, and more dedicated to revitalizing economically challenged neighborhoods than Chicago’s Urban Canopy.

Good Food Business Accelerator panel

Good Food Business Accelerator Fellows to Show Their Skills at April 27 Demo Day

Posted on by FamilyFarmed

By Joel Blechman, FamilyFarmed When I tell people I’m the director of the Good Food Business Accelerator, which FamilyFarmed launched last fall, I’m frequently asked, “What does that mean?” Accelerators — which provide mentorship, networking opportunities, and other assistance to promising entrepreneurial businesses — compose a fast-rising sector that is promoting economic development in the Read more about Good Food Business Accelerator Fellows to Show Their Skills at April 27 Demo Day[…]

Anne Alonzo, USDA AMS adminstrator

First Person: USDA’s Anne Alonzo and Her Chicago Good Food Homecoming

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Anne Alonzo, administrator of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service, says there is a lot of passion for sharing Good Food by supporting strong local and regional food systems — something she experienced firsthand during her trip last week to Chicago, where she spoke at the Good Food Festival & Conference presented by FamilyFarmed.

Good Food Festival & Conference Starts Fast With Accelerator Discussion

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Festival & Conference kicked off a packed three-day schedule Thursday with its Good Food Financing & Innovation Conference. The program featured an introduction to the nonprofit organization’s new Good Food Business Accelerator.

Raj Karmani of Zero Percent (right) and Michael Bashaw of Whole Foods Market

Accelerator Adds Fuel to This Year’s Good Food Financing & Innovation Conference

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The Good Food Financing & Innovation Conference that kicks off FamilyFarmed’s annual three-day Good Food Festival & Conference is well established, as a dynamic event that connects food and farm entrepreneurs with investors and lenders. Businesses participating in the event have raised $11 million over the past three years.

dailyServing's functional food products

Promising Business Are Winding Up to Pitch at Chicago’s Good Food Financing Conference

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Promising businesses in the Midwest’s local and sustainable food sector have raised $11 million from investors over the past three years by participating in FamilyFarmed’s annual Good Food Financing & Innovation Conference. Not surprisingly, this year’s event — coming up on Thursday, March 19 — has another lineup of outstanding entrepreneurs.

Mark Schulman, president of Eli's Cheesecake

Eli’s Cheesecake is Sweet on the Good Food Movement in Chicago

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Eli’s Cheesecake has been serving up its sweet treats in Chicago for decades. As a local artisan producer that uses as many locally produced ingredients as possible, Eli’s has a prominent place at the Good Food movement’s dessert table. But the company’s commitment to expanding economic opportunity and social welfare through food is much broader than that.

Good Food Accelerator

Jenny Yang’s Growing Tofu Business is an Immigrant Food Story With a Modern Twist

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The stories of immigrants achieving success by making the foods of their native lands are parts of the history and social fabric of the United States. But Jenny Yang of Chicago’s Phoenix Bean tofu has an immigrant food story with a modern twist. While millions of people have come to America to escape poverty or oppression, Yang first came to the U.S. from her native Taiwan a quarter-century ago in pursuit of higher education.

Farmer Gene Mealhow of Tiny But Mighty.

Whet Your Appetite for the Upcoming Good Food Festival & Conference

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The schedule for this year’s 11th annual Festival & Conference, which takes place March 19-21 at the UIC Forum on the campus of University of Illinois at Chicago, has been released. We hope the details will whet your appetite for the event and persuade you to join this celebration of the fast-growing Good Food movement.

Farmer Gene Mealhow of Tiny But Mighty.

First Person: How FamilyFarmed and the Good Food Festival Helped Tiny But Mighty Pop

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

FamilyFarmed’s 11th annual Good Food Festival & Conference is coming up in Chicago March 19-21. The organization’s efforts to build the Good Food movement have helped farm and food entrepreneurs raise millions of dollars. Iowa’s Tiny But Mighty Popcorn is one of them.

Michael Bashaw, Whole Foods Market Midwest President

Whole Foods Exec Cites ‘Empowering’ Corporate Culture as Key to Chain’s Success

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

There is hardly a bigger Good Food movement success story than that of Whole Foods Market. So Michael Bashaw — president of Whole Foods Market’s 48-store-and-growing Midwest region — had a very attentive audience when he spoke Monday (Feb. 2) to entrepreneurs, financiers, and others associated with FamilyFarmed’s Good Food Business Accelerator program.

Shane Christensen of dailyServing

dailyServing ‘Functional Food’ Products Aim at a Healthy-Conscious but in a Hurry Society

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

Americans are increasingly health-conscious and concerned about what foods they are putting into their bodies. While there are plenty of nutritious and tasty whole foods out there, it is easy to fall back on the old, less healthy habits of doughnuts or candy bars or chips.
This is an issue that dailyServing, a Chicago-based food startup, aims to address.

Raj Karmani of Zero Percent (right) and Michael Bashaw of Whole Foods Market

FamilyFarmed’s Financing Fair Accepting Entrepreneur Applicants

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

To sustain and expand on that growth, though, entrepreneurs and investors must be able to connect and build businesses that expand the supply of Good Food products in local markets. That is the goal of FamilyFarmed’s annual Financing Fair, which is currently accepting applications from entrepreneurs who want to participate.

Mark Schneider of Living Waters Farms

Illinois’ Living Water Farms Hits Accelerator to Expand Year-Round Local Growing

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

The goal of creating a year-round local food culture in the nation’s northern regions is hindered by relatively short growing seasons. But the increasing number of indoor growing facilities — such as Illinois’ Living Water Farms — is helping to change that.

Good Food Business Accelerator logo

Good Food Business Accelerator Fellows Have Diverse Interests But One Goal: Success

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

There is plenty of diversity among the Fellows in FamilyFarmed’s new Good Food Business Accelerator program. But they share a drive to succeed a commitment to expand the Good Food movement.

Kora Lazarski

First Person: How a Young Survivor Pursues a Natural Life Unmodified in a World of Change

Posted on by FamilyFarmed.org

A mosquito-borne illness picked up during a horseback ride in Haiti turned critical for contributing writer Kora Lazarski. It prompted her to think profoundly about the impact of man on nature, and ultimately led to the career she is pursuing in the natural foods and products industry.