Clovis Culinary Center helping entrepreneurs build foundations for success
Time at the center is paid for by the hour, but requirements include food liability insurance and a food manager certification.
CLOVIS, Calif. (KFSN) -- Unir Dining is one of 86 businesses using the Clovis Culinary Center to build its brand.
"We want to encourage people to get out there and take that leap, they can do it," says Clovis Culinary Center Executive Director Kris Marshall.
Marshall knows firsthand what it's like to build a business. Now, she's helping local entrepreneurs build the foundation for success, something that goes beyond renting out a kitchen, storage and prep space.
"Guiding them through the catering permit process, setting up their LLC," she said. "Just the steps that it takes because you go and you research starting a business, they will throw so much at you."
For nearly six years, the non-profit has helped up-and-coming bakers, chefs, vendors and caterers navigate the food industry.
"When I see other folks that are really trying to do that, I know it's not easy and no business was started by one person," Marshall said.
Time at the center is paid for by the hour, but requirements include food liability insurance and a food manager certification.
The idea for the Clovis Culinary Center started in 2012 after Gov. Brown signed The California Homemade Food Act, allowing select home-based food operations.
Knowing many businesses would outgrow their homes, CFO Shawn Miller says he wanted to create an incubator for businesses to build their brands and expand their reach.
"We thought we came up with this idea on our own," Miller said. "Turns out there's hundreds of these things all over, but none of them exist between lodi and Bakersfield."
The doors first opened in 2018 and have created more than 600 jobs.
It's one of the many reasons the nonprofit is the recipient of the Clovis Chamber of Commerce's Community Impact Award.
"All those jobs that have been created, all of those businesses that have been formed, they change lives, they change families, they change the community," Miller said.
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