Stock Pot Malden has been in existence since 2014. Stock Pot Malden can claim major achievements since its creation:
- Stock Pot Malden has become one of the leading providers of prepared meals for schools, childcare centers, senior centers and shelters in Massachusetts. We have delivered more than 4 million prepared meals for school-age kids and seniors in Massachusetts. Our prepared meals program started with the city of Chelsea during the pandemic and has since then moved to 10 other cities (it was known as the Local Lunchbox program during the pandemic).
- Our shared kitchen has nurtured several successful ethnically and culturally diverse businesses that have gone on to great success, such as Chicken and Rice, Stoked Pizza and Farm Girl.
- The company-owned Heritage Food Truck division of Stock Pot Malden offers catering services, mixing the highly creative cuisine of food truck and the big level service of traditional caterers. This newer catering model, mixing highly creative and affordable cuisine with high quality service has proved quite successful for Heritage Food Truck.
1. HISTORY
BIRTH OF STOCK POT MALDEN
Stock Pot Malden was started in 2014 as a shared kitchen incubator founded by a small group of angel investors (Co-Creation Ventures, LLC). The group includes culinary people, social impact entrepreneurs, business consultants and corporate executives.
Co-Creation Ventures’ investment strategy is to develop local kitchens (e.g., outfitting two kitchens in Malden, partnersing with the Cambridge Housing Authority, partially transforming local restaurants into commercial kitchens) to house under-resourced food entrepreneurs (e.g., food trucks, food product companies, struggling restaurants) with whom we partner to start serving fresh, high-quality food to local schools, childcare centers, senior centers and shelters, thereby producing economic value for all parties:
- For the Stock Pot Malden investors who built the kitchen in the first place,
- For the food entrepreneurs that utilize those kitchens,
- For the schools, childcare centers, senior centers and shelters that get access to good food,
- For the community stakeholders participating in the ecosystem we enable, i.e., city administration, citizens and suppliers located where our kitchens generate employment and economic life, and parents and relatives whose family members receive better food.
We started in Malden because of the rich ethnic and culinary tradition of the city and because the city administration was eager to work with us and create a regulatory framework for our shared kitchen incubator. Together, we solved the compliance challenges posed by the newness of the shared kitchen concept, making it possible for us to accommodate multiple companies in a common space, in an innovative approach quite different from the single-owner restaurant model most cities are used to.
STOCK POT MALDEN 1 OPENS UP
In 2013, we signed our first long-term lease for Stock Pot Malden 1, the 7,500 square feet building located at 342, Pearl Street, that had long served as the commissary for the Malden high school. The building was mostly vacant and in need of significant investment to bring it up to code and put it in a position to house food start-ups. The buildout took place over several months in late 2013 and early 2014.
In its first year of operation (2014-2015), Stock Pot Malden 1 was mostly populated by food trucks that were part of the first generation of food trucks serving the city of Boston. The market for food trucks grew considerably since these early days, as there were close to 100 food trucks registered with the city of Boston until the 2020 pandemic.
In 2015, a few food product companies (bakers, ethnic meal caterers, powder drink company) joined the food truck owners and became member-tenants, creating a second pool of companies at Stock Pot. We have since then added bakers, charcuterie companies, barbecue providers, and caterers to our roster of food product companies.
ADDING A VOLUME KITCHEN AT STOCK POT MALDEN 1
The 2015-2019 period was marked by the emergence of a new type of company: the centrally-prepared meal companies. These companies prepare full meals that get distributed to individual homes, to schools, to institutions and corporations that do not have an on-site kitchen, and to food pods and food vending machines. These companies are typically larger than food trucks or food product companies, grow faster, and often have access to venture capital.
In 2015, as centrally-prepared meal companies were becoming increasingly important in the mix of Stock Pot residents, we realized we needed to dedicate some space to their higher-volume needs and invest in some new equipment for them. We applied for a buildout grant from the Mass Development Collaborative Workspace program and were given a $100,000 matching grant that allowed us to convert a little used room into a high-volume production kitchen dedicated to larger centrally-prepared meal companies. This allowed us to reach a new growth plateau.
TWO NEW TRENDS in the 2017-2020 period
Two new factors drove the growth of Stock Pot Malden in the 2017-2020 period.
- The advent of corporate food brokers played an important role in our growth during that period by giving our Stock Pot food entrepreneurs access to the corporate market of greater Boston, something that was not accessible to them until then. Corporate food brokers such as Hungry and EZCater build professional relationships with companies and institutions, helping them source high-quality, original meals from our member residents, while allowing their corporate clients to make those meals a part of their retention and human resources policy. These corporate brokers allow our members to focus on what they do best, i.e., make food, as brokers handle some or all other tasks such as selling, invoicing, delivering or on-site serving. They also guarantee a certain level of revenues and minimize waste for the food companies by ordering an exact number of meals ahead of time.
- A second driver of Stock Pot’s growth during that epriod was the “ghost kitchen” phenomenon. Restaurants were finding it increasingly difficult to pay Boston downtown prices per square foot to maintain both the kitchen and the retail area that constitute the traditional restaurant. This created demand for locations (“ghost kitchens”) where food is prepared off-premises, and either home-delivered or made available in small take-out places with only minimal or no kitchen. While the focus of Stock Pot Malden is not to act as outsourced kitchen for established restaurants, we continue to see a new generation of entrepreneurs eager to follow the ghost kitchen model, which also feeds our growth.
OPENING OF STOCK POT MALDEN 2
In 2019, after operating at full capacity at Stock Pot Malden 1 for close to two years, we secured a second lease for an existing commissary situated at 278 Pearl Street in Malden, just up the street from our original location. The investment in the buildout of this second facility was made possible by a $108,000 grant from Mass Development’s Collaborative Workspace program, for which we are very thankful.
This second location was outfitted to house some of the larger member companies we had at Stock Pot 1 that were beginning to outgrow us.
THE NEW HERITAGE FOOD TRUCK CATERING PLATFORM AS AN EXTENSION OF STOCK POT MALDEN
From the beginning, one of our goals for Stock Pot Malden had been to utilize our food platform to build links with local agriculture (upstream), and with local health providers (downstream). We believe we are at a stage where the community of food start-ups present at Stock Pot Malden can play a transformative role in helping local farmers grow their sales and in convincing local healthcare providers to recognize the key role that good, locally sourced and locally produced food can play in improving local population health.
To that effect, Co-Creation Ventures, mother company of Stock Pot Malden, launched in late 2019 a new shared platform business called Heritage Food Truck Catering that promotes locally sourced meals and products that represent the diversity of ethnic cuisines representative of Eastern Massachusetts, while providing health benefits to the people who consume them (see heritagefoodtruck.com).
THE PANDEMIC ERA (2020-2021)
In March 2020, most of our resident entrepreneurs lost their market because of the pandemic, leaving our two shared kitchens empty. We were approached, initially by the city of Chelsea, to provide meals for kids since the city schools’ cafeterias were shut down, and a bit later by the Shah Foundation and (the now departed) Governor Baker to extend our meals service to other gateway cities in Massachusetts. We eventually served Lowell, Lawrence, New Bedford, Fall River, Wareham, Brockton, and Taunton. We made 3 million vended meals during the pandemic between July 2020 and August 2022, at which point the regulatory waiver expired and schools reopened their cafeteria services.
The model we developed out of necessity during the pandemic is largely what remains our operating model today. Stock Pot Malden did not have at the time the know-how or the staff required to make the huge numbers of meals needed for school kids , so we proposed a shared profit partnership model to our idled member-tenants, suggesting that if they were willing to undertake the production side of those meals, we would learn how to meet the complex regulatory and reporting requirements involved and provide the kitchens, the financing and the institutional credibility required.
All but one of our member-tenants within our Malden shared kitchen were intimidated by the magnitude of the task, the low price of the meals and the heavily regulated nature of the proposed new business. However, the Farm Girl food truck, run by young Brazilian chef and owner Lorena Lorenzet, volunteered to be that partner. “I did do a very large event for my church once”, Lorena volunteered in semi-reassuring fashion. Together, we learned how to rapidly scale production by building production systems, developing supplier relationships and on-boarding and training staff quickly.
Because of the demand in the Lawrence-Lowell and Brockton-Taunton areas, we also developed two strong partnerships with local food entrepreneurs and restaurants, leading to partnerships that exist to this day with:
El Pez Dorado (the Golden Fish), a Dominican restaurant in Lawrence, run by Yaniry Espinal,
Signature Kitchen, a Haitian restaurant in Brockton, run by Marline Amedee.
CURRENT ERA: FRESH PREPARED MEALS FOR KIDS, SENIORS AND FAMILIES AS THE DOMINANT BUSINESS (2021-2024)
In September 2021, the special regulatory environment that had existed during the pandemic abruptly stopped and the school kids’ market returned to its heavily regulated model, marking the return to cafeteria-served school lunches served by traditional — and often mediocre– school food providers. Contracts signed by schools with vendors are typically 3-5 years long and are managed through periodic requests for proposals (RFP).
In order to transition from the less regulated pandemic environment to the fully regulated, RFP-driven process, Stock Pot Malden and its partners had to learn how to play the new game. Because the pandemic meals we have served for the previous two years had received excellent reviews, we were fortunate enough to attract interest from several charter schools and senior centers who entrusted us with serving their residents for the fall of 2021 and beyond, building the foundation for what is now our dominant business.
in 2024, Stock Pot Malden and its partner Freakin’ Puerto Ricans Fusion Food, run by food entrepreneur Edwin Rivera, will start operating four kitchens of the Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA). The new partnership will make meals for residents of four buildings of the CHA and use two of those kitchens to prepare meals for local schools, childcare centers, senior centers and shelters.
2. GOVERNANCE
Stock Pot Malden is governed by two committees who represent the shareholders of Co-Creation Ventures, LLC. Stock Pot Malden is 100% owned by Co-Creation Ventures, LLC.
The Management Board of Stock Pot Malden is responsible for the Profits component of our triple bottom-line philosophy of People, Profits and Planet. It is comprised of:
- Francis Gouillart, CEO. Francis is a globally recognized business consultant and educator, author of several books and articles on the topic of ecosystem co-creation. He is particularly passionate about re-connecting local agriculture, food and health systems through the power of human engagement and technology.
- Mark Deck is a retired innovation and supply chain consultant who worked with PRTM Consulting and PwC. A mathematician by background, he brings an extraordinary rigor to both strategy development and operational execution at Stock Pot Malden.
- Bernard Quancard was a consultant with the Boston Consulting Group, then became head of the strategic account management program at Schneider Electric before becoming President of the Strategic Account Management Association (SAMA). He is now retired and focuses more specifically on the business development side of Stock Pot Malden.
3. MANAGEMENT TEAM
Stock Pot Malden is managed by a small team of four people:
- Francis Gouillart is the CEO of Stock Pot Malden and handles financing, investor relations, business development, marketing, sales and member-tenant support, consulting services and investment .
- Lorena Lorenzet is the Chief Operating Officer of Stock Pot Malden. She handles all operations aspects of Stock Pot Malden, including facility development, building and equipment repair and maintenance, food and people safety, permitting with local and state authorities, supplier relationships, member-tenant relationships, and identification of member-tenants deserving of investment. In addition, Lorena is also the owner of Farm Girl, LLC, which was the first partner of Stock Pot Malden during the pandemic.
- Gloria Foronda is the controller of Stock Pot Malden. She is responsible for all payroll, supplier relationship, accounting, finance, and bank relationships of the company.
- Carlos Cuilty is the Customer Service Manager and Production Supervisor of Stock Pot Malden. He handles all production scheduling, delivery/logistics and client experience issues for the firm.
STOCK POT MALDEN HEADQUARTERS
(also the HQ of Co-Creation Ventures)
Polka Dot Building
342 Pearl Street
Malden, MA 02148