Shared Kitchen Summit Scholarships Available

Are You a Minnesota-based shared kitchen owner or manager looking to add to your management skillset? Are you interested in being part of a leadership cohort, with a goal of supporting effective and sustainable shared kitchen management in Minnesota?

 If so, then you could be a candidate for a scholarship to attend the Shared Kitchen Summit in New Orleans, Louisiana, November 12-15, 2024. The summit is organized by The Food Corridor, a widely respected educational event organizer and management platform used by shared kitchen managers.

 

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture’s (MDA) Make it Minnesota Program is offering scholarships to 12 Minnesota shared kitchen operators to reimburse costs related to the summit, including registration, hotel, and flight (limits apply).

 

Applications are now being accepted through 4 p.m. Central Time on August 30, 2024, and must be submitted through the MDA Grants Portal.  Select “Minnesota Delegation to the Shared Kitchen Summit 2024.”

 

The purpose of this scholarship program is threefold: 1) educate 12 Minnesota kitchen operators on sustainable kitchen operations, 2) begin to establish a cohort of shared kitchen leaders in Minnesota, and 3) bring findings back to all Minnesota kitchen operators. Scholarship recipients will participate at an on-site “Team Minnesota” meeting at the summit and a follow-up virtual meeting after the event to share learnings with a broader audience.

 

Eight scholarship spots are available first-come, first-served. The remaining four spots will also be offered first-come, first-served, unless there are more than 12 total applications, in which case the last four scholarships will be scored and awarded based on answers provided in the application.

 

Applicants will be notified no later than September 9, 2024. Successful applicants will enter into a grant agreement with the MDA to enable participation. Only one application per kitchen will be considered unless we are undersubscribed.

 

Scholarship recipients will attend a virtual briefing meeting on October 3, 2024, from noon-1:30 p.m., and must be available for air travel to New Orleans from November 11-16, 2024. They will also be asked to help present summit learnings to a broader shared kitchen audience as part of a virtual meeting on November 20, 2024, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. If you’re interested in this topic but unable to attend the summit, please “save the date” for that meeting and feel free to reach out to MDA’s Brian Erickson brian.j.erickson@state.mn.us for an invitation or with questions.

 

 

Scholarship funding is provided through the Minnesota Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program, which is funded by a cooperative agreement between the United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Marketing Service (USDA AMS) and the MDA. The contents of this webpage and other program materials are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USDA.