Greater Washington Urban League’s By Our Hands hosted an award ceremony to grant eight culinary talents $10,000 to help sustain their businesses amid a rocky economy on Sept. 21. The event had an overarching message to attendees and business owners: “We are strong together.”The program leader drilled down several times how important it is for businesses to have communal support, translating into societal change.
“When we sustain our food business, we sustain our community in so many ways,” Furard Tate, the executive director of entrepreneurship at the Greater Washington Urban League, told The Washington Informer. “It brings us together and helps us to elevate so that we can change the world.”Besides the encouraging words from the leader, many recipients who received the money did so with tears in their eyes.
Oluwatoyin Pyne, the owner of Power Foods, who provides on-the-go healthy treats, praised the nonprofit for its unwavering support when she needed it the most.
“It takes a village to raise a child, but it also takes a village to start a business. I couldn’t get with it when they kept saying ‘we’re family,’ but as you go through some things, through the class and you have to really find yourself, they encouraged me many times when I was not sure. They helped me to keep the faith,” Pyne said during her acceptance speech.Another recipient of the award was Oluwatobi Osobukola, the owner of Fritters and Roast, a food and drink company that offers Nigerian street food flavors. These items can be found in five Union Kitchen locations, such as Eckington in Washington, D.C., and Dulles Airport in Sterling, Virginia. A complete list is viewable on the website.
Besides Saturday awardees, the nonprofit allowed a previous winner to showcase their food and compete again this year for $10,000. Although she didn’t win the money, Michelle Phipps-Evans, the owner of Vickey’s Trinidad & Tobago Kitchen, won in spirit. She was eager to share how the nonprofit helped her business thrive while building her confidence as a business owner.Furard Tate, executive director of entrepreneurship at the Greater Washington Urban League at the By Our Hands award ceremony on Sept. 21. (Robert R. Roberts/The Washington Informer)“I was one of the lucky ones who received the award last year, and it made a huge difference in my bottom line, so I started working with courage. Having that money showed me that this was really viable, and I shouldn’t be afraid,” she said. “Some of the other things I was able to do were customer acquisitions; I worked on more manufacturing, bought more things in bulk and I got more manufacturing products.”Phipps-Evans reiterated that the program helped her build confidence as a business owner. She is still looking for additional funding to scale her business and says that in 2024, she had four vending opportunities, an increase from the single opportunity in 2023.A Stanford University report on financing Black-owned businesses states: “Entrepreneurship is often viewed as a path for promoting economic growth, wealth and jobs in minority communities, a tool for alleviating these differences.”The report also states that starting a business requires financial support and acknowledges the disadvantages faced by Black entrepreneurs, a challenge Tate is tackling through his program.
Tate said he aims to raise more money to continue transforming the lives of culinary talents like Pyne, Phipps-Evans and Osobukola “because our food services businesses need support.”
Source: Washington Informer
