Sunday, March 22, 2009

Incubuating small businesses in a Windsor kitchen

Like other local bloggers, I recommend reading Alfie Morgan's Turnaround Plan to Fix City Economy that was printed in yesterday's Windsor Star. I don't agree with everything Morgan proposes in his plan but it contains a world's more sense than some of the schemes that the past Windsor Essex Development Commission dreamed up.

Here's one possible way we could encourage the start of new businesses in Windsor. I figure that the combination of our access to prime agricultural products and the ethnic diversity of our citizens should provide the right conditions to grow food-production businesses in our locale. But starting a small food business is not an easy matter as it is illegal to prepare food for sale in one's one home kitchen. I learned this fact from this post from the Taste T.O. blog which goes on to describe the kitchen incubators available in the city to provide industrial kitchen space to entrepreneurs.

Since St. Clair College offers a culinary skills program, they have industrial kitchen space. I propose that a request be made to St. Clair College to rent the space, when not in use, to create a local kitchen incubator for the Windsor Essex region.

Like the suggestions in Alfie Morgan's plan, this proposal is practical, feasible, and the only thing holding us back is will.

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