By Mike Sunnucks | Rose Law Group Reporter
The city of Phoenix is considering an $80,000 outlay to help Local First Arizona expand its incubator kitchen program at Rio Salado College.
The Phoenix City Council will look at the expenditure at its Jan. 5 meeting. The money would come from the city’s allocation from the American Rescue Plan Act federal pandemic relief program.
The Local First kitchen program is located at incubator kitchens in Phoenix and Mesa. It helps food entrepreneurs and restaurant startups build their businesses by offering licensed kitchen space at low cost.
The program also aims to help food truck operators, caterers and bakers breaking into the business.
The Phoenix money would be used to bring an incubator kitchen to Rio Salado College’s campus at Thomas Road near 35th Avenue.
There is already a kitchen at the site but it needs improvements for the program.
“The City’s sponsorship will fund a new walk-in cooler as part of the renovations that will annually provide approximately 125 entrepreneurs with the physical resources needed to grow their businesses,” according to council documents.
