Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://specialtyfoodmagazine.epubxp.com/i/102355
(continued from p. 17) SUPPLIER NEWS A Helping Hand What makes a successful mentoring relationship? The NASFT's Diversity Council has been delving into this very topic with its member-matchmaking mentor program, with guidance from the Clinton Economic Opportunity Initiative. Read how the program has affected participants, as well as how it will expand in the future. T o be a specialty food manufacturer, coming up with a perfect product is only the beginning. Production, government regulation, distribution contracts and more plague every fledgling business—and often cut those dreams short. Over the years, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade has facilitated many mentor relationships between veterans of the industry and eager entrepreneurs. Three years ago, the Association advanced those efforts with a more formal mentoring program, one it plans to build on in the coming year. The NASFT Diversity Council, which seeks to advance women- and minority-owned businesses, partnered with the Clinton Foundation's Entrepreneur Mentoring Program to launch its initiative. "The Clinton Foundation knows how to do [a mentoring program] and does it in the right way. We knew we wanted to work with them," says Ron Tanner, NASFT's vice president, communications, education, government and industry relations. Here, we take a closer look at this initiative, and two participating companies—veteran producer Sarabeth's Kitchen, and 5-years-young Crepini & The Crepe Team share what this mentormentee relationship has meant for both companies. A Collaborative Effort The Clinton Foundation partners with Inc. magazine on the Entreprenuer Mentoring Program. It acts as a facilitator for the project, establishing guidelines for participating companies. It does not provide funds, nor does the Foundation (or its founder, former President Bill Clinton) endorse any commercial products, services or businesses as part of the program. The goal is to help the country's emerging communities benefit through networking, thereby achieving a better understanding of their businesses and industries. Julie Wang, the director of the Clinton Economic Opportunity Initiative, which oversees the Entrepreneur Mentoring Program, explains how organizations like the NASFT play the role of identifying and nominating potential mentors and mentees. "The success of our program is contingent on finding the right kind of mentor," she says, meaning one with insights to offer on, in this case, the "If you could help some people make a success out of their business, it comes back to you eventually as a reward. You never know what will happen."—Bill Levine, Sarabeth's Kitchen 126 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE ❘ specialtyfood.com specialty food industry. "Chances are they've done it themselves and are familiar with the pathways." "The idea [of the Entrepreneur Mentoring Program] was to find young companies in urban areas, preferably with a diversity aspect," says Marsha Echols, the NASFT's legal advisor and cochair of the Diversity Council. "They had to be solid to begin with and ready to move to another level." The Entrepreneur Mentoring Program has stringent requirements for participants, including that companies must be willing to divulge financials and mentors and mentees must live in the same city. The program currently operates in five markets: Chicago; New York; Newark, N.J.; Oakland, Calif.; and Philadelphia. While the requirements somewhat limited the field of participants, Sarabeth's and Crepini emerged as a promising match. Sarabeth's Kitchen: Paying it Forward Bill Levine, CEO of Sarabeth's Kitchen, signed up to help in 2011. He and his wife, Sarabeth, started their New York business small, opening a retail shop on Manhattan's Upper West Side in 1981. Today they have 11 restaurants stretching from Key West to Tokyo, as well as a thriving specialty food company producing jams, granola, cookies, tarts, beverages and soup. "I thought it was a worthy cause," says Bill Levine of the program. "If you could help some people make a success out of their business, it comes back to you eventually as a reward. You never know what will happen." He recalls an elderly man wandering into their first shop in the early 1980s, who turned out to be George Kinzler, a legendary specialty food consultant and buyer who was instrumental in creating the Cellar Marketplace at Macy's in Herald Square in the 1970s. "He took a liking to us, and we to him, and he gave us pointers on what we needed to do," Levine says. Among other leads, Kinzler introduced the Levines to the people who would lease them their second restaurant space in the city, where they still are today.