4
Above: The cozy Imaginarium at the Green Garage. Top right: Businesses can rent shared tables or largers spaces.
Bottom right: The entry way to the Green Garage.
"We have greatly enjoyed our workspace
and the camaraderie and spirit of
innovation and positive change."
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grand prize, and smaller prizes were
$10 gift certificates to Panera Bread
in the area."
More than 200 students are signed
up at UDM, and more students are
members in Syracuse and Buffalo.
SGF donates 10 percent of profits to
fight childhood obesity.
New Solutions Group
New Solutions Group is a consult-
ing and advocacy business, said
Steve Tobocman, managing partner
and former state representative in
the Michigan House, representing
Michigan's 12th State House district
in Southwest Detroit from 2002 to
2008.
"Originally, I formed the limited
liability company to afford me the
opportunity to work on two critical
issues I had developed expertise on
while in the legislature: foreclosure
and immigration," said Tobocman,
42, of Detroit. "As I started circulat-
ing among my networks of folks who
were making positive change in the
nonprofit field, conversations evolved
and I was offered several exciting and
interesting opportunities.
"By forming New Solutions, it af-
forded me the opportunity to work
with other talented, passionate, cre-
ative and insightful people to tackle
www.redthreadmagazine.com
Steve Tobocman
some of Michigan's
most pressing prob-
lems?'
His earliest clients
included the Detroit
Regional Chamber of
Commerce Foundation
and the Community
Economic Develop-
ment Association of
Michigan.
'Work for the Chamber focused on
some grant funding from the New
Economy Initiative for Southeastern
Michigan (NEI), which is a part-
nership of10 regional and national
foundations that collectively commit-
ted $100 million to help transform
our regional economy. NEI and the
Chamber were interested in how
immigration might be used as an
economic development tool, helping
to grow our economy and create jobs
that would benefit the region."
In 2011, New Solutions really
began to grow, he said. "New projects
emerged, including overseeing a stra-
tegic planning process for the Michi-
gan Earned Income Credit coalition, a
network of the state's free tax assis-
tance providers helping low-income
and working people to file their taxes
and claim the credits due to them."
New Solutions now has five clients
and four full-time staff members and
numerous part time employees.
'We were the Green Garage's first,
and remain its largest tenant. Our
firm's gols of designing creative and
meaningful solutions to our city's,
state's and country's challenges align
well with the sustainability mission
of the Green Garage. We have greatly
enjoyed our workspace and the
camaraderie and spirit of innovation
and positive change. There are always
exciting and thoughtful people mov-
ing through and visiting the Green
Garage."
-
Fresh Corner Cafe
Noam Kimmelman would like to see
healthy, fresh food in every small gro-
cery store, gas station and bodega in
Detroit. Fresh Corner Cafe, the com-
pany he formed through a University
of Michigan course a couple of years
ago, is planning to do just that.
Kimmelman, 25, originally from
Boston, moved to Detroit and started
the business in May 2010. He has
earned a master's degree in health
management and policy from U-M,
and lives a few blocks away from the
Green Garage.
"The idea started out of a U-M
social venture creation course that
teaches students to develop a business
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model to address a social concern," he
said. "I pitched this idea about fresh
food access in Detroit, and a team of
six graduate students from business,
engineering and public health stu-
dents collaborated on this idea, and
we concentrated on the close to 1,000
corner stores in the area."
Fresh Corner Cafe, an L3C, a
low-profit limited liability company,
is currently found in 25 stores in De-
troit, eight in the Midtown area. The
rest are in northwest Detroit. They
also have a catering menu of sand-
wich wraps, salads
and fresh fruit.
"We partner with
a restaurant in
New Center called
Lunchtime Detroit,
and they produce
our food," he said.
Noam
'e tell them what
Kimmelman
we want, what in-
gredients, and they make it and slap
our label on it. We work with Peaches
and Greens, a local nonprofit, and
they cut our fruit for us:'
By year's end, Fresh Corner Cafe
will have its own kitchen, but Kim-
melman said he would maintain
the space at the Green Garage. "The
collaboration possibilities are end-
less?' RT
BPD THUM I May 2012 39