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SAN ANTONIO, TX – The National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) was recently awarded a $1,000,000 grant by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) to create a more equitable and fair environment for low-wealth business owners through policy advocacy and strategic partnerships with nonprofits.

“We are honored to be working the Kellogg Foundation to advance opportunities for several nonprofit partners who are supporting small business growth across the country,” said Noel Poyo, Executive Director of the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders. “We know their impact will create ripple effects across their communities.”

NALCAB has provided subgrants to five nonprofit organizations in pursuit of its grant objectives, including Conexión Américas (Nashville, TN), Franklin Neighborhood Development Corporation (Sacramento, CA), Mandela Partners (Oakland, CA), La Cocina (San Francisco, CA) and Hacienda Community Development Corporation (Portland, OR).

Conexión Américas has been awarded funding to support immigrant and refugee small business owners on Nashville’s Nolensville Pike Commercial Corridor to further implement “Envision Nolensville Pike II: Recommendations for Achieving Inclusive Development.” By providing training to microentrepreneurs and planting the seeds for an alliance to advocate for the interests of small businesses along the corridor, this place-based effort will seek to mitigate involuntary displacement of microenterprises along Nashville’s most ethnically diverse corridor.

Franklin Neighborhood Development Corporation has received funding to support the development of the Sacramento Mercado for low- to moderate-income immigrant food entrepreneurs, who will receive bilingual micro-enterprise training and technical assistance. The Mercado will activate an underutilized area in the district, provide a marketplace for a variety of Latino/Hispanic cuisines, create a needed gathering place for local residents, and offer a unique enticement for residents and tourists to visit the Franklin District and support local businesses.

Mandela Partners has received funding to create a landscape assessment of its business incubation program and develop a “Regenerate Opportunity Toolkit,” which will be disseminated through workforce development partners and organizations. Drawing from Mandela Partners’ experience in Oakland, CA and the Ashland-Cherryland District, the Toolkit will systematize Mandela’s successful business incubation model and provide an adaptable framework with strategies and best practices for developing and sustaining locally-owned food-based businesses and supporting low-wealth entrepreneurs.

La Cocina has received funding to develop the new Municipal Marketplace in San Francisco, the nation’s first women-led food hall providing affordable brick and mortar space to seven La Cocina graduate businesses in an expensive market, the Tenderloin neighborhood. The 7,000-square-foot marketplace will serve as an incubator kitchen, offering paths that lower the barriers to entry, mitigate risks imposed on low-income entrepreneurs, and increase equity in business ownership. The food hall model also enables business owners to share operating and maintenance costs. Those cost savings will allow business owners to pass on lower costs to consumers, and make cities more livable.

Hacienda CDC has received funding to strengthen its Portland Mercado Commercial Kitchen through an 18-month Small Business Development Certificate Program. Participants will receive micro-enterprise training and advice to launch and scale their food business, develop business work plans, and connect with Oregon State University School of Business professors and established successful business owners. Cocina Certificate participants are also able to access Hacienda CDC’s Individual Development Account matched savings program, where they can save two thousand dollars and receive a match of six thousand dollars from the State of Oregon to use toward business start-up or expansion.