Local First receives $90K grant to help Black and Latino entrepreneurs
Husband and wife business partners, Tajia and Aaron Junior have a knack for creating delicious plant-based food and coming up with great names.
Their vegan soul food truck is called Hot Sauce and Pepper, and their signature dish is called “caulifyah.” It’s a substitute for deep-fried cauliflower chicken that tastes “firey.” So, cauli-FYAH.
But when the couple needed the experience to grow their new food truck into a successful business, they turned to Local First Arizona.
The non-profit organization supports independent businesses and runs a program called We Rise, which provides free business skills training to Black entrepreneurs such as Young.
Tajia Junior said: “He has been instrumental in helping our small business in so many ways.
The Juniors completed the six-month program in July. The training helped them create a business plan, calculate the cost of producing the food they sell, monitor their business finances and create a website and social media accounts, Tajia said. Junior, 36 years old. They also learned how to bring in investors for funding and get a buyable loan. loans to help grow their business.
The couple have since trademarked their name “caulifyah” and have started selling it in bulk. In September, Sugar Jams, a soul restaurant in Scottsdale, became the first restaurant to add “caulifyah” to its menu.
The couple has also started bottling and selling their sweet and sour mambo soup, which Tajia Junior learned first while growing up in Washington, DC Aaron is from Detroit.
The Thunderbirds team donates to support Local First programs
We Rise, along with separate programs aimed at Spanish-speaking entrepreneurs, are getting a boost from a $90,000 grant Local First Arizona recently received from Thunderbirds Charities, which donates millions of dollars annually to groups local non-profits. Proceeds from the WM Phoenix Open golf tournament run by The Thunderbirds organization.
“The program’s goal is to provide high-quality business education to people who would not normally have access to those resources.s,” said Kimber Lanning, CEO of Local First Arizona.
Small businesses owned by blacks and Latinos struggle to get business loans, even when classified as low-risk loans, according to the Federal Reserve Banks’ 2021 Small Business Credit Survey.
Re Rise and two other programs that provide business skills to Latinos, Fuerza Local Business Accelerator and Nivel Ejecutivo, also focus on helping Black and Latino entrepreneurs out of fraudulent loans with high interest rates in conventional banks with affordable interest rates.
“Financial information goes hand in hand with everything we do with these programs,” Lanning said. “We were able to lower their average credit score or their interest rate from 48 to 9%.“
Nearly 100 entrepreneurs have graduated from the We Rise Business Accelerator since 2020, according to Local First Arizona. Ninety percent are women, Lanning said.
Since 2013, Fuerza Local’s Business Accelerator and Nivel Ejecutivo have graduated more than 1,100 entrepreneurs. About 60% are women.
The Business Accelerator of Fuerza Local and Nivel Ejecutivo added more than 24 million in new income to the economy and created more than 1,400 new jobs as of 2021.
Thunderbirds Charities has invested nearly $620,000 in We Rise, Fuerza Local and Nivel Ejecutivo since 2017, according to Local First Arizona.
As for the Juniors, their food truck has been so successful that the couple plans to open a real restaurant.
“That’s the goal for 2025,” Tajia said.
Reach reporter daniel.gonzalez@arizonarepublic.com.
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