Detroit Kitchen Connect aims to support local food entrepreneurs by providing access to commercial kitchen space and equipment at reduced rates. It offers a business incubation program including workshops, technical assistance, and help connecting entrepreneurs to customers through pop-up shops and retail venues. The program screens applicants to ensure they are ready to start a business and can succeed. It provides subsidized rates to those who qualify to help expand food enterprises and create local jobs.

1. A Network of Kitchen Incubators
Growing Detroit’s Local Food Economy

2. Welcome to Detroit Kitchen Connect!
Good food businesses are a labor of love.
Detroit Kitchen Connect aims to increase entrepreneur-
ial success by providing a supportive, diverse,
inclusive community along with access to commercial,
licensed kitchen facilities and equipment in a
reduced risk environment. Our fully equipped kitchens
are located in the Southwest & Osborn communities in
Detroit, Michigan.
Who We Are?
Detroit Kitchen Connect is a joint project between
Eastern Market Corporation, FoodLab Detroit, and two
kitchen partners to offer low-cost commercial kitchen
space, equipment, and technical assistance to good
food entrepreneurs and community members near
where they live.
Mission Statement:
To provide reliable, accessible space for local
entrepreneurs, community members and organizations
to process high-quality food products in a diverse and
collaborative learning environment.
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3. The Incubation Model
Michigan Business Association defines a business incubator
as a supportive entrepreneurial environment that stimulates
the growth of businesses to ensure economic vitality and
encourage job creation. Incubators share a commitment to
helping their tenants succeed.
In Michigan business incubators have increased the
longevity and diversity of local jobs and economies for
over 30 years.
The vision of Detroit Kitchen Connect is that
entrepreneurs become economically self sufficient,
contribute to a vibrant economy doing what they love
to do, foster collaboration and share knowledge and
ideas that capitalize on both the strengths and crises of
the City of Detroit. The cycle of the incubator model as
applied here looks something like this:
Michigan Business Incubator Association
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1
Application and
Enrollment
Pre-Incubation GraduationIncubation
Qualified
Applicants
Program
participants receive
technical assistance
to establish the
foundations of their
business (assistance
with regulatory
agencies)
Program
participants receive
technical assistance
in the areas of
Marketing,
Finance and
Operations
Program partici-
pants expands their
business out of
DKC kitchen while
remaining part of
the community

4. Big Things Have Small Beginning
Serving as a matchmaker between entrepreneurs and sales venues
In a city like Detroit with more and more young people but a lot
of empty spaces, it’s the pop-up shops that are the perfect oppor-
tunity to test out a business and potentially to help revitalize a
city in dire need of a boost. Detroit has attracted pop-up art
galleries, food and beverage cafes, coffee shops, bakeries,
clothing boutiques, tea houses, vegan restaurants, yoga work-
shops, antique stores, bike stores, and mercantile-type retailers.
Pop-ups are a temporary arrangement, often with a defined start
and end time for business operations. Detroit is the perfect place
for these temporary pop-up businesses and Detroit Kitchen Con-
nect is working to provide our kitchen entrepreneurs access to
these types of retailing opportunities.
Examples of places where our kitchen tenants have opened pop-
up shops or permanent retail locations:
 June on Jefferson pop-up block
 Revolve Detroit East English Village
Restaurant of the Century
 Art + Retail on the Avenue
 Holiday Food Bazaar
 MOCAD Museum Family Day
 Campus Martius Summer Market
 Palmer Park Log Cabin Day

5. Detroit Kitchen Connect’s Kitchen Partner
Facility: Ss. Peter & Paul Orthodox Church (Southwest)
Ss. Peter & Paul is a 634 square foot, shared-use commercial kitchen. There are four stainless steel worktables/ prep stations (3 at 2’6 x 8’ & 1 at 2’6 x 9’), a double-stack
convection oven, a 6 burner stove, a 3-door side-by-side refrigerator, along with a full range of commercial kitchen equipment. Other amenities include a 20qt Hobart, commercial
grade dishwasher, dry storage cases: lockable wire cages, and rolling pan racks. Tenants will have access to hourly rental of the facilities and the equipment once accepted into the program.

6. Detroit Kitchen Connect’s Kitchen Partner
Facility: Matrix Human Services (Osborn)
Matrix Human Services is a 820 square foot, shared-use commercial kitchen. There are two stainless steel worktables/ prep stations ( 9’8 x 2’6”), a convection oven, a 12 burner stove,
a walk-in refrigerator, along with a full range of commercial kitchen equipment. Other amenities include a 20qt Hobart, commercial grade dishwasher, dry storage cases: lockable wire
cages, and rolling pan racks. Tenants will have access to hourly rental of the facilities and the equipment once accepted into the program.

7. In Partnership with FoodLab Detroit
The vision of Detroit Kitchen Connect is that
entrepreneurs become economically self sufficient,
contribute to a vibrant economy doing what they love
to do, foster collaboration and share knowledge and
ideas that capitalize on both the strengths and crises of
the City of Detroit.
The programming at Detroit Kitchen Connect, designed
by FoodLab Detroit is being developed to provide a
menu of low-cost business development and technical
assistance services.
Workshops/Annual Bootcamp: FoodLab Detroit offers a
annual workshop series, called Building Your Good
Food Business Bootcamp, where around 20 good food
entrepreneurs who care about community and environ-
mental impact connect with one another and with a
broader network of food/business experts and strengthen
their vision and plans for their enterprise.
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8. Devita Davison, the newly hired Community Kitchen
Coordinator at Eastern Market Corp., and Jess Daniel,
Founder of FoodLab Detroit, are helping the next wave
of food entrepreneurs tackle one of the biggest obstacles
to growth in their industry: finding affordable, reliable
commercial kitchen space.
Even though Eastern Market is installing a community
commercial kitchen as part of the redevelopment of
Shed 5 -- for which the Michigan Economic Develop-
ment Corp. recently provided a $1 million grant -- that
project isn't scheduled to open until late 2013. So Dan
Carmody , President of EMC, sought a more immediate
solution. He used part of an existing grant to hire Daniel
and FoodLab Detroit to develop a plan for a kitchen-
connection service.
“Eastern Market is pleased to help launch another
transformative collaboration to increase the number of
businesses making food products in Detroit. We believe
locally and within Michigan we have the opportunity to
create hundreds of new food businesses that can
strengthen the local economy. This project helps us
build the management capacity for kitchens across De-
troit and allows our kitchen to hit the ground running
when Shed 5 opens later in 2013.” - Dan Carmody
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9. Qualification Criteria
Detroit Kitchen Connect carefully screens applicants in
order to find indicators that suggest an entrepreneur’s
business readiness level. A formal assessment process
will look at the following criteria to select its tenants:
Business Stage: Ready-to-Start businesses, that is,
qualified applicants who show evidence that they are
business and personally ready, and whose business
shows potential to succeed will be the highest priority.
Readiness is a personal and business stage where
people have already taken action to advance in their
business venture, have researched and tested a feasible
business, have developed some entrepreneurial skills
and have achieved a threshold of personal circumstance
favorable to successful management of the business.
Skills and Competencies: Detroit Kitchen Connect
assesses the applicant’s professional experience,
entrepreneurial spirit and completion of business
training/mentorship programs.
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10. 8
Application and Enrollment
Process: Access to the Detroit Kitchen Connect
kitchens is limited to businesses that are identified as
qualified after completing the application process.
The application process goes as follows:
1. Fill out an application form and provide all of the
information requested, such as: ServSafe food
certificate, general business license, security deposit
and liability insurance.
2. After turning in the application, qualified applicants
will be invited to attend a orientation with The Detroit
Kitchen Connect team and the kitchen partners.
3. Upon enrollment, the prospective kitchen tenant will
receive a tenant start-up checklist that will include
working with the DKC team to schedule licensing and
application (MDARD or IPH)
4. The formal agreement will begin by signing a Rental
Operating Agreement.
5. After all benchmarks have been reached, the kitchen
tenant will begin official production at the kitchen

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Cost:
Our hourly rates mean you only pay for what you use,
removing the burden of a long-term lease, utilities, ad-
ministration and additional insurance. These rates were
made possible by a generous grant from the McGregor
Fund, in-kind donations from our kitchen partners and
ongoing contributions from our supporters, friends and
allies.
Subsidized Rate: Detroit Kitchen Connect provides its
target population with a subsidized commercial kitchen
rental rate in an effort to expand these endeavors into
viable micro-enterprises. Detroit Kitchen Connect’s
target population can be described as a food entre-
preneur who lives in the City of Detroit and/or a
FoodLab Member and/or a Detroit Community
Markets vendor.
Scholarship opportunities: Detroit Kitchen Connect is
committed to creating paths to entrepreneurship for low
-income individuals. Following Michigan guidelines,
we offer subsidized rates to individuals and families
based on household income before taxes and other crite-
ria. Your scholarship eligibility depends on you receiv-
ing some form of social assistance.

12. If you have questions please contact:
Detroit Eastern Market
Devita Davison at 313-833-9300,
(ddavison@detroiteasternmarket.com )
or Food Lab Detroit
visit Office hours on Fridays 8-10am
at the Green Garage, 4444 Second Ave, Detroit, 48208.
Contact FoodLab Detroit to RSVP at: info@foodlabdetroit.com