Essential Kitchen Co.

Hi There! My name is Dianna Rose and I am the creator of the Sovereign Markets and Sovereign Night Markets, Jars Of Delight, and CHAE Corp -Community Health & Economic Corporation.

Today, I'm fundraising to build a Commercial Kitchen and Business Suite for our local business community to launch, grow and scale their businesses!

Essential Kitchen is the first Commercial Kitchen and Business Suite to launch in Southeastern Queens, NY.

Throughout 2020, food workers/small businesses have proven to be an "essential" component of the economy and infrastructure within the United States. If we are, to be honest, it shouldn't have taken a Global Pandemic to elevate the hard work, and invaluable role food-service workers played in keeping the world moving forward. City, State and Federal emergency food contracts issued to hundreds of small food businesses helped not only to provide food to the millions of NYC residents affected by the Pandemic but also helped to keep those small businesses afloat.

Unfortunately, in historically denied and underfunded black communities, those issued contracts were few and far in-between, for a plethora of reasons, one, in particular - access to a local commercial kitchen.

In addition to creating a clean, licensed and beautiful space, our goal is to also connect local food entrepreneurs with the right people and resources to get the foundational services or the help they need (or don’t know they need) to launch and grow their food business at each stage of their journey.

The PLAN

Essential Kitchen is a 6,500 sqft space. The commercial kitchen is 5,000 sqft located on the first floor and houses:

Charbroilers

Combi Ovens

Alto Sham cook and hold

Convection ovens

Flat griddle with refrigerator stand

Garland Stoves

5ft Rotisserie Machine

Fryer

Low boys

Flat panini press

Ice Machines and Tub

Computerized Proofers/Retarders

Slicing machine

The Business Suite

The 1,500 sqft Business Suite is located on the second floor and consists of a large conference room, two offices, one shared tech-enabled room, a bathroom, an eatery showcasing food products from our clients, and a lounge.

Project Challenges

Due to the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, the current challenges for this project are the skyrocketed cost of building supplies, construction, and labor. Commercial equipment delivery times have also been greatly extended. There has also been a delay in receiving all the necessary permits due to the various department staff shortages. Nonetheless, we have come a long way, and many of the hurdles that come with launching a project of this caliber have already been overcome.

As Essential Kitchen has been prepared to start this project, we would love your help in ensuring the vision for the first commercial kitchen and Business Suite in South East Queens comes to fruition. The amount you pledge will help us to bring this project to completion.