>> ... Next Generation ...
Food Academy
To market with Noam Kimelman.
VIVIAN HENOCH I SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
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Noam Kimelman
funny thing happened to Noam Kimelman
on his way to medical school. He started
eating healthy. As a result, he lost
weight and gained perspective on the
way wholesome food can improve lives. Energized in a
new direction, he pursued a master's degree in health
management and policy at the University of Michigan,
then, while still in grad school, co-founded a mission-
driven business to bring fresh, ready-to-go salads and
sandwiches to corner stores in Detroit.
This was the start of Fresh Corner Cafe.
From there, Kimelman launched his second Detroit-
based enterprise — the Detroit Food Academy (DFA), an
after-school leadership development program for young
Detroiters. DFA now holds workshops up to twice a week
in 10 high schools, teaching more than 200 students the
basics of cooking, nutrition, business and new product
development. Additionally, during the summer, 30 of the
top students receive a $1,000 stipend either to deepen
their cooking skills or to grow their ideas from small
batches into businesses of their own.
A
Mangoes On A Stick
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The concept for the academy was first inspired by the
students at Cesar Chavez Academy High School in Detroit.
"I was volunteering in an after-school program — still
in school myself, when the students decided they wanted
to develop a spicy mango-on-a-stick to sell at lunchtime,"
Kimelman says. "It was an ingenious product. They came
in one day with 200 mangoes to sell to their peers for
$1.50 a pop and made $300 in a couple of hours in their
high school cafeteria.
"We think kids only want Cheetos, and there they were,
getting in line for a healthy alternative. And there I was
— a college grad with a startup company — banging
my head trying to figure how to give people access to
healthier food. And here were these kids, totally out-
maneuvering me in every way! It goes to show the power
of peer-to-peer marketing."
Taking his cues from the students, Kimelman took a
marketing class, then an accounting course and started
building a more robust business model for Fresh Corner.
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August 27 • 2015
DeShawn Lindsey
As a result, Fresh Corner Cafe now has a growing brand
with revenues of more than $250,000 a year. In 2014,
Kimelman won the Young Entrepreneur Award from
SCORE, a national organization that aids small businesses.
More recently, he was listed among Crain's Detroit
Business'2015 "20 in their 20s," an elite class of local
up-and-coming business people to watch. Kimelman
also serves on Detroit Wayne County Health Authority's
Population Health Council and Foodlab's Steering
Committee.
Have You Had
A Mitten Bite?
Pursuing both his
business and nonprofit
enterprise with equal
zeal, these days
Kimelman can be found
with regularity shopping
the city's farmers'
markets — particularly where the students of the Detroit
Food Academy have set up shop at the Eastern Market,
the Northwest Market on Scarsdale Street, Wayne State
Market on Cass Avenue and the new Corktown Market on
the grounds of the Detroit Institute of Bagels.
In a prominent position at the Corktown Market on a
recent Thursday evening, we meet DeShawn Lindsey, a
senior at Central Collegiate High School and a chef-in-
the-making at the DFA. Lindsey is personable and poised
— the perfect spokesman for the DFA and its first ready-
to-market product — Mitten Bites — a little scoop of
natural goodness in a soft, no-bake cookie.
"We're just starting to see our marketing materialize
for what we call our Small Batch Detroit product line,"
Kimelman says. "Over the past six months, we've been in
pilot mode with Mitten Bites, generating about $7,000
in revenue. Watching our numbers carefully, we can say
that 25 cents of every dollar in sales goes to support
student wages. Mitten Bites is on Whole Foods' shelves.
We are going with Door-to-Door Organics — home
delivery in five states — and hoping to get Mitten Bites
into grocery stores throughout the region.
Proof positive that the program has the potential to
sustain jobs and transform lives, Lindsey describes the
benefits in a nutshell, "It gets me really thinking about
the foods we eat. Normally, you make what you know or
eat whatever you're used to. The Detroit Food Academy
forces you to try new things — like next Tuesday we're
going to make pulled-chicken (a variation on the usual
pork) with portabella mushrooms sliders, roasted potatoes
with vegetables. And that's just a small taste of things
we're doing at the Detroit Food Academy, making
things like a beet soup, curry, potato latkes (my
favorite). We're also learning to build our own
businesses, how to stretch the value of a dollar,
feeding as many people as possible off of each
little dish."
Next Steps?
"Our kids have been amazing," Kimelman says.
"Like our rock star DeShawn, they are taking
ownership of their work and they love what they
are doing. We hoped this might happen when we started
DFA, but things are actually turning out the way we
dreamed it up, which is really exciting."
What's next for DFA is a fellowship program, something
Kimelman describes as "AmeriCorps meets small-scale
food business, a really cool way to spend a gap year."
He envisions a 10-month fellowship, placing DFA
graduates with local food businesses that could use their
talents and support. "Students would get an amazing
experience, while staying local — a key factor in building
DFA into a model institution in Detroit."
In Detroit, Kimelman sees plenty of room to grow,
leveraging the city's considerable resources. "Rather
than building from scratch and parachuting in with our
own educators, we work with teachers who know the
infrastructure of the schools and know their students. In
10 years' time, our hope is that DFA will be an all-student
run organization, student-led with DFA grads employed
full-time running the show." ❑
Vivian Henoch is a writer for myjewishdetroit.org, where
this story first appeared.