Youth drumline and dance group Boom Squad Inc., is performing before 350 visitors outside the newly completed Bedford Collab building.
This is the sound of a celebration about five years in the making.
Bedford Collab Co-Founder and Operations Manager DeAndre Wilson said there have been several challenges in just getting to this point.
“A few contractors that we had to chase after to get things going,” he said. “Fundraising has been a challenge. Advocating for the neighborhood has been a challenge, and then educating people on what a shared use kitchen is has also been a challenge.”
This project has been in the works since 2020, delayed by the pandemic. Aside from CEO Merrick Korach, his team includes Jeff Gott, kitchen manager.
He said $1.2 million was fundraised from various sources since 2020.
Inside the bright, brand new kitchen, Wilson is encouraging visitors to use the vertical hydroponic garden system by placing a seed pod. These will become lettuce, scallions, various herbs and more.
He says the ‘foodpreneurs’ will use the fresh produce, and so will the neighborhood.
“One of the reasons why we need fresh produce in the neighborhood is because Tepe Park is a part of the food desert, and so by having a Bedford collab, a shared use kitchen right in the neighborhood, we'll be able to offer that fresh produce for free or very discounted for our neighbors and even foodpreneurs.”
Tepe Park is a historically disinvested neighborhood, and the second lowest income neighborhood in the city.
Dominique Smith- Redding is a kindergarten teacher at Glenwood Leadership Academy, just south of Tepe Park.
Most of her students come from right nearby, and healthy diets are something they discuss often. She said many don’t like vegetables.
“So I honestly think that this opportunity to have a place like this in our community that actually grows vegetables and is able to outsource them to the community and families are able to come and pick them up, I think it's going to be an awesome opportunity for them to embark on some new and healthy choices as far as things that are freshly and naturally grown here.”
The next step is the final inspection which Wilson hopes happens this week, then the nine Bedford Collab members can get started.
He said Bedford Collab offers different rate packages ranging as low as $80 an hour to $800 a month.
“So it's a lot of startups that are going to operate in here immediately,” Wilson said. “We have our nine that we're going to put in here. So we're just excited for everyone to get started.”
He said they are exploring the idea of making their second floor kitchen prep space for specialty food items.
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