She’s gone from hard times to the High Line.
Last winter, Donna Davis had to leave the Crown Heights rental she’d called home for many years. Her lease had expired, and her landlord wanted to renovate and raise the rent.
Like many New Yorkers caught up in the city’s affordable housing crisis, Davis struggled to find a new home, landing briefly in the shelter system. Through it all, Davis, a 2016 graduate of the free Food Business Pathways entrepreneurship program for residents of New York City Housing Authority buildings and Section 8 voucher holders, kept right on cooking her award-winning comfort food in a borrowed kitchen space.
Davis now lives in a Brooklyn housing project she chose over a new Section 8 walk-up because of the elevator — an essential tool for transporting equipment and ingredients for her vegan takes on popcorn fried chicken and mac ’n’ cheese.
Her next stop? Manhattan’s High Line, where she and nearly two dozen other FBP entrepreneurs will cook alongside mentors, including Oceana’s Bill Telepan and Questlove’s personal chef, Ardenia Brown.
Monday’s tasting event is part launch party for these up-and-coming chefs, and part fundraiser to foster growth. It’s also a rare opportunity for these rising stars, most of whom are female and all of whom are people of color, to showcase their work among the industry elite.
Women make over 90 percent of food purchasing decisions, but are vastly under-represented in food-sector leadership, with women of color holding C-suite spots in only 3 percent of the 222 American food-industry companies McKinsey surveyed for a 2017 report. Yet financial returns for companies with greater gender diversity are likely to outpace those of less diverse peers, the study said.
FBP graduates, who are enriching New York City’s food scene with strawberry cheesecake, jerk chicken and tequila-laced cupcakes, are forging their own paths to the top. The program helps them formalize their business plans, as well as obtain free permits and licenses.
Davis employs seven people at her Veggie Grub catering business in a commercial kitchen incubator she found via FBP. A popular Reggae DJ as well as a chef, Donna Davis dreams of running a chain of 24-hour vegan diners complete with a jukebox at every table.
“It is a huge obstacle to take a small hustle and scale it,” Davis (professionally known as Chef Rootsie from a high-school nickname) told The Post.
“I had always wanted to take it to the next level, but I didn’t know how, and I didn’t have the resources. Going through this program is a tremendous blessing.”
More than 200 chefs have graduated since FBP’s 2015 debut, launching 150 companies including Veggie Grub, Tainted Treats, and Big Daddi’s Smokehouse. They join a local food manufacturing boom; the sector’s employment grew 27 percent from 2007 to 2017, to 18,237, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics data for New York City.
Thirty-two more FBP entrepreneurs will graduate this summer. Citi Community Development has spent roughly $500,000 to fund FBP to date. .
Current Oceana chef Bill Telepan, Davis’ mentor for the High Line event, earned a Michelen star for his eponymous Upper West Side restaurant, but shut it down two years ago as costs exceeded revenue. He recommends Davis and other would-be restaurateurs connect with lawyers well-versed in non-glamorous essentials including labor law, health codes and lease negotiations.
Janet Davis of food and hospitality firm Jade Jamaican Grill echoes the need for intensive research and advises flexibility.
“Being a food entrepreneur is the core product, and there are lots of ways to get that product to the customer,” Davis said.
