Welcome to Garden State Kitchen’s blog! We’re excited to start utilizing this platform to enhance our connection with the community. This blog will help you get to know us better and provide in depth looks into kitchen happenings. We’ll also be posting feature entrepreneur interviews each month to educate and inspire you.
If you don’t know who we are, Garden State Kitchen (GSK) is a kitchen incubator that recently opened in the Valley Arts District of Orange, NJ. The definition of a kitchen incubator is “a shared use commercial kitchen dedicated to supporting small food-based businesses.” We ring true to this description, with four kitchen spaces for rent and a line- up of education workshops and events. At Garden State Kitchen we know the ins and outs of everything required for food distributors and entrepreneurs to bring something new to the market – and if we cannot give you the answer, we know someone who can. It’s our mission to provide our community with the resources and services that allow them and their products to shine.
Being an active part of our local Orange, and the greater New Jersey community is another aim of Garden State Kitchen. This is not a new goal of ours. As early as five years ago, when we first came up with the idea for GSK, we began curating food and participating in a myriad of events, allowing us to start sharing our mission, spirit, and values with those around us. These efforts enabled us to build an amazing team of cheerleaders, coworkers, and supporters, who continue to grow and change. We could not have gotten to where we are today without all of you, and we are truly grateful.
The past two months have been full of excitement for the GSK team and have proven to us that dreams really do come true! On November 10th & 11th we held our first event at the kitchen. It was an amazing two-day open house, full of celebrations with family and friends, meeting new entrepreneurs and people in the community, and introducing everyone to our new space. And of course, our food was on point; guests enjoyed lunch from B&C Soul Food Catering and The Little Eggplant, as well as snacks from Esters Treats, Karen’s Cookies, The Cake Pound, Simply Delightful Treats, and A Butter Life Bakery.
Our official opening date was Monday, November 12th, and from the first moment we were open (literally), we’ve had makers in the space – it has been truly amazing to see! What is even more incredible is that the impact we are making on the community is already noticeable. In an interview with GSK member Erica, founder of Three Daughters Baking Company, when asked how her business has changed over time, she responded, “The biggest change has been joining Garden State Kitchen and being able to expand our range of products and customers.” This Christmas Eve, Chef Jesse held a toy drive in our event space, sharing his delicious food in exchange for toys to give out to those less fortunate in our community. We are in the midst of planning and collaborating with the city and school district of Orange, the Syrian Supper Club, and many more organizations that work at helping and bettering our neighborhood and our world.
We are looking forward to 2019 and all the possibilities that it brings, and are especially thrilled to have this new platform to share it on with all of you. We hope that you will share your comments, start conversations about what you read, and let us know if there is a specific topic or local entrepreneur you would like us to write about. We look forward to hearing from you!
The GSK Team
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