East Bay community kitchen providing affordable rates set to close; entrepreneurs ask for help
Local entrepreneurs trying to save community kitchen
A commercial grade community kitchen helping entrepreneurs in the East Bay is shutting down, but the small business owners who rely on it are rallying together and asking for help to keep it open.
CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. - A commercial-grade community kitchen helping entrepreneurs in the East Bay is shutting down, but the small business owners who rely on it are rallying together and asking for help to keep it open.
The community kitchen was opened in January 2020 by a non-profit funded by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office called the Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Activities League.
The kitchen, which sits in an unincorporated area between Castro Valley and San Leandro, is home to about 100 small business owners who use the space to cook and store food for affordable rates.
Food trucks, pop-up restaurants, food delivery services, and food distribution groups use the community kitchen to grow their businesses.
The backstory:
The entrepreneurs who conduct business there received a letter saying that the kitchen is shutting down on July 1, citing "a combination of factors," including "financial restraints, shifting program priorities, and evolving organizational goals."
What they're saying:
"It was gut-wrenching," said Danielle Crespo, who started a pop-up called "Vegan Chula," serving Mexican-inspired vegan comfort food. "Like the rug was being pulled out beneath us because we were given such a short time."
Crespo said thanks to this space, she was able to produce enough food to secure residency for weekend pop-ups at cocktail bar 51 and TEL in Oakland.
Crespo said there are limited options when it comes to commercial-grade kitchens for new entrepreneurs. Without this, she said she might have to shut down operations for a while.
"It’s kind of leaving us all scrambling for what to do next," she said.
Like Crespo, Mikki Bunag, who manages the kitchen for the non-profit and runs his own food delivery service called ALAB SF, said the space helped him scale his business from five to 145 families.
Elias Shatara, who recently joined the community of small business owners, said he owns Another Café in San Francisco’s Lower Nob Hill.
Shatara started a new business venture distributing fresh hummus to boutique grocery stores called Origin Hummus.
He told KTVU he needed a commercial kitchen to run a machine for making the hummus, which required high-power electricity.
"I actually invested $2,000 of my own money to get the electrical run so I could run this machine here," he said.
By the numbers:
Executive Director of DSAL Patrick Eiser told KTVU the organization is dealing with an $800,000 deficit from the mortgage on the property.
"We operate the building at a loss of about $20,000 a month and so that’s eating into our operational costs," said Eiser.
On top of that, the non-profit’s focus is youth activities and recreation.
"This venture was something that we took on during COVID to try and fill a hole that existed in the community and going forward we’re just not the best suited to continue," said Eiser.
What's next:
The entrepreneurs are writing to district leaders, signing a petition, even reaching out to Senator Aisha Wahab, who previously hosted Thanksgiving food drives from the space, in hopes to save it.
"We’re getting our stories out, getting our voice out, hearing what our story is all about and what this place actually means to us," said Bunag.
"Our hope is that through a partnership of country partners, the sheriff’s office, private investors, we can come together to support this building and this operation continues," said Eiser.
Supervisor Nate Miley said his office is looking into ways to support the business owners in the short term during the closure, while the county looks for long-term solutions for the property.