Have dreams of launching a food business?

Got $50,000 to $100,000 to spare?

No?

A local effort to establish a community kitchen or kitchen incubator, a place where bakers and jam and jelly makers can jump start their businesses without the steep overhead costs and initial investment often needed, has caught on in Champaign-Urbana.

About eight months after the death of chocolatier Daniel Schreiber, a project that honors his memory and dream of creating a place for food entrepreneurs has raised close to $40,000 from 270 individuals and businesses in the community.

Even though there was no business plan, no company or nonprofit organization structure set up, people gave money. And the formal fundraising program hasn't even begun yet, according to Flatlander Community Kitchen Project volunteer Laura Huth.

In recent weeks, volunteers are preparing to move the project forward. They have been reviewing the results of an online survey conducted over the winter that asked people, for example, if they would use the kitchen, what concerns they may have about the project, what resources they might be able to offer the kitchen. Volunteers also are preparing additional fundraisers and talking to residents and potential users. Soon they also will speak with Spanish-speaking residents to gauge their needs and interests in the kitchen.

"The real early impetus (for the kitchen) flowed from the huge empathy that Dan's death brought about in the community. People who knew him were fired up about it. He affected so many people in a positive way," said Mary Ellen Farrell, volunteer and chair of Flatlander's research and planning committee.

Huth said a total of 92 people so far have offered to be volunteers, to organize events, raise money, spread the word about the project and its goals and connect with would-be users.

Schreiber decided to forego his studies at the University of Illinois to create the bean-to-bar chocolate business called Flatlander Chocolate, and after experimenting in his home kitchen, he chose a space to grow his business in a former restaurant in east Urbana.

"As he went through the process of setting up, he realized he wanted to share the space. He had passion for good food and knew other people could make use of the space too," Huth said.

At the time, many local food entrepreneurs were looking for space to cook. When the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District in 2009 started enforcing state requirements for farmer's market venders to prepare baked goods in certified kitchens with permits from the health department, it sent some vendors scrambling to find certified kitchens.

Not having a certified kitchen available can hold back new or growing food entrepreneurs from pursuing their passions, said Julie Arie, a Bondville resident who has food dreams of her own.

Arie, who works in rights and clearances for television award shows, started a cookie and treats-making business while in Los Angeles about nine years ago. She and her business partner struggled to find a place to bake and often found themselves in the kitchen of a catering company at 1 a.m.

Now that she has made the Champaign-Urbana area home, she envisions a store where she'd sell goodies like the "Velvet Mama," a toffee chocolate chip cookie, and lava brownies.

"It is such a wonderful idea. I really hope the community kitchen comes about," she said. The idea being that someone like her could cook in the kitchen for six months, grow the business, then perhaps apply for a bank loan or approach investors for the next step, she said. And ultimately, "give back to the kitchen and the community," Arie said.

Flatlander volunteers have been working with Illinois Business Consulting, a student group within the UI College of Business that is expected to submit a plan to help the volunteers determine the right structure for the kitchen, be it a for-profit entity, nonprofit or hybrid.

"Research is the name of the game right now," Huth said. They'll be visiting sites, talking with other kitchens out-of-state, talking with potential users and clarifying what the community and consumers need, Farrell added. Also on the to-do list is putting together a business plan and to begin pursuing grants or underwriting opportunities.

Around the U.S., kitchen incubators have adopted different business models. Some have workshops or training centers with them. Some have banquet centers attached to them. Some have retail space, Huth said.

Over the winter Carol Nichols and Jean Beck opened The Cooks' Workshop in downtown Danville at 38 N. Vermilion St., to rent space and equipment to cooks who are just starting out in the business. They decided to structure The Cooks' Workshop as a business rather than a nonprofit organization.

People interested in using the kitchen so far have included someone looking for a place to do the preparation work for a new catering business and who didn't want to go through the initial investment needed to buy the equipment and space rental. They also have held workshops there and monthly chef's nights there.

"We're really just starting to get people into the true co-op concept. We wanted it to be community space," Nichols said.

A community kitchen, added Beck, "is something that is unique and I think unique is what small towns can build upon."

"Food-based operations are a risky venture to get into, but they're also one of fastest growing segments," particularly specialty foods, organic foods and locally-produced foods, Huth said.

"We want the space to be incubator space, a space that launches businesses," she added. That means they also want to offer guidance, such as in marketing, to the new businesses.

Huth sees the kitchen as encouraging "real economic development." It would put people to work and promote small business start-ups, she said.

On the Web

More information about the Flatlander Community Kitchen Project, visit online http://www.flatlanderfund.org