Photo by Neonbrand/Unsplash
When you enter area grocers like Union Market, Ellwood Thompson’s or Little House Green Grocery, the shelves and cold cases are laden with local goods, from Mama Saba Pita Chips to Wild Earth Fermentation or AR’s Hot Southern Honey. As consumers, we are faced with decisions every time we enter a store, but we may not think about the road those products have traveled to appear on the shelf, or how each one is competing for space.
In an effort to help local food and beverage businesses launch their products and share their stories, Real Local RVA, Hatch Kitchen and The Apple Cart have teamed up for Help to the Shelf, a pitch competition that will take place on Oct. 7 and 15.
“Between all the markets we have now and everything going on at Hatch, there’s this thriving local food producer community, and it’s really growing — there are new products popping up all the time,” explains Beth Furgurson, executive director of Real Local RVA, a grassroots organization formed to create a network of education and support within the local food community.
“We thought, how can we help these people be successful?” Furgurson says.
Oftentimes the founder of a startup wears every hat, serving as the brand ambassador, marketing and social media guru, financial consultant, and beyond. Every question along the way, such as how to label the product, can be a make-or-break business decision, and each would be better met with guidance.
“I think it’s hard when you’re one of these small businesses starting out and you are trying to grow, get the word out and show who you are — the more avenues they have, the better,” Furgurson says. “There are so many layers when you dive into it.”
The pitch competition is intended to help peel back those layers and provide a foundation for small businesses to take those pivotal first steps, generate excitement around their products and gain consumer recognition.
In order to participate in the competition, the business must be less than 2 years old, its product produced within 100 miles of the University of Richmond and legally certified by Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS). Competitors must be able to attend the events on both Oct. 7 and 15.
During the first event, on Oct. 7 at Real Local RVA’s October meeting, 15 finalists will have the opportunity to offer samples of their products to guests and judges. The goal is to create a setup similar to a farmers market, where the product can be showcased while allowing the owners to interact with guests and make connections.
“It’s all about storytelling, and the more you can get [businesses] into the community, the better they are,” Furgurson says. “People can learn what they are doing, recognize their faces and what they are creating.”
Following the first round, judges will narrow the field to five finalists, who will advance to the second round on Oct. 15. At the second event finalists will have the chance to present a five-minute product pitch to the judges, represented by local media, Virginia Foodshed Capital (formerly Slow Money CVA) and VDACS. They will judge based on execution, appearance and taste, with winners announced that evening.
The first-place winner will be awarded $1,000 from VFC, as well as a booth at the VDACS Food and Beverage Expo in March 2020, a showcase that takes place every two years and features hundreds of Virginia purveyors.
The prize package also includes a one-month satellite membership to Hatch Kitchen, a commissary-style kitchen space and food business incubator. Hatch Kitchen opened last August after founders Austin Green, of Texas Beach Bloody Mary Mix, and Brad Cummings, co-founder of Startup Virginia, saw a bustling local food and beverage startup culture without the space and resources to succeed.
Green and his Texas Beach business partner experienced such hurdles firsthand. When they began to package their bloody mary mix in 2015, the labels shrunk when placed on the glass bottles and their first batch resulted in an unsellable product. They learned the hard way, and Green wanted to pass along such hard-won knowledge to other food and beverage startups.
Hatch Kitchen's membership includes Gourmet Hemp Foods, Crow Cookies, Redemption BBQ, SSUPP Foods, Nightingale Ice Cream and, most recently, Cobra Burger.
Barb Upchurch, co-founder with Stephanie Ganz of The Apple Cart, a 5-year-old consulting agency for food businesses, believes commercial kitchen space has been one of the biggest hurdles for startups. Now, with more of those spaces available, the focus for these businesses is on hitting the next mark.
“Having them all in an area sharing information has been really key to people, and having access to resources,” Upchurch says of Hatch Kitchen.
The Apple Cart — with a client list including Birdie’s Pimento Cheese, Scoop, Richmond Restaurant Week and Hummingbird Gardens — will provide the first-place winner with a strategy session. The duo will assess the growth of the business and explore ways to achieve further growth through pop-ups, social media, marketing, trade shows, and more.
The rest of the prize package, valued at more than $4,000, includes a one-year Real Local RVA membership, a branding package with Creative Marketing Group and a four-hour photo session with Levesque Photography.
“Having that photography done initially is a game changer,” Upchurch says.
In order to ensure a driven and serious pool of candidates, the application asks questions surrounding local sourcing, future goals of the business and why the applicant believes the competition will help their business move forward.
Although Help to the Shelf is a competition, it represents an effort to highlight a growing sector of local business. Richmond has embraced local products, with consumers intent on getting to know and supporting local purveyors.
Furgurson says, “Our goal is also to shift thinking of the way you look at your food and who it came from, whether it’s a farmer or local producer. It’s a shift, and if we can help people take one or two steps toward that shift, that’s what matters.”
Applications for the Help to the Shelf competition must be submitted by Sept. 11, and the initial 15 finalists will be notified by Sept. 27.
