When officials leading the Erie County Level Up program sought to find a place where minority-owned restaurant owners could prepare to compete for concessionary opportunities at a new Buffalo Bills stadium, they didn’t have to look far.
Next door to the construction of a $1.7 billion stadium in Orchard Park was a kitchen and cafeteria on the South Campus of SUNY Erie Community College that had been sitting dormant and going unused since at least 2020.
It made for an ideal partnership.
For the first time in several years, that cafeteria saw traffic on Monday from patrons looking to purchase hot foods and beverages. The draw was five Black-owned Buffalo restaurants that have been brought to the campus through January as part of the Erie County- and Buffalo Bills-led initiative Taste of Diversity.
The six-week pilot program that will go through January is to serve as a training ground for Taste of Diversity participants to learn to work in a fast-paced shared kitchen in a stadium-like concession setting. It also helps them build a portfolio and healthy relationship with the Bills early on.
“If it wasn’t for this college opening up this campus cafeteria, which has been essentially non-existent since pre-Covid days, we would not be here today,” said Erie County Legislator Chair April Baskin. “The Taste of Diversity series is allowing these business owners to get the necessary experience to bid on the forthcoming contracts for the stadium and other large-scale projects in our region. They’re gaining practical experience that will help them level up their business and create generational wealth for their families that has been missing in communities of color.”
But it wasn’t easy. Baskin said there were many late nights as the space was being readied again for service.
Richard Rojek, custodian of buildings and grounds at ECC, said it took about three weeks to get the kitchen and cafeteria operational. It started with…
Read the full article here
Leave a Reply