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Hatch recently launched the Consumer Product Goods Bootcamp program, a 12-week crash course in the skills restaurateurs need to make packaged food and get it on store shelves. (Jack Jacobs photo)
Inspired by the pandemic, a new program offered by an offshoot of the Hatch food and beverage incubator aims to help local restaurants get their wares on store shelves.
Hatch’s Consumer Goods Bootcamp Program is a 12-week crash course in the skills restaurateurs need to create a packaged food product inspired by their menus. Products created under the program are expected to be available in local stores in late summer.
The program covers topics such as packaging, testing, regulatory approvals and other specifics required to bring packaged food to market.
“Doing something for restaurant service is different than scaling something for the shelf,” said Hatch President and Co-Founder Austin Green.
It’s the first major program from Hatch Helps, an emerging nonprofit community outreach program under the Hatch banner that also includes the acting kitchen concept Hatch Kitchen in Clopton Siteworks on Southside and the Hatch Local Food Hall opening this summer in becomes Manchester.
The first group of participants in the package goods program consists of the local restaurants Abuelitas, Soul Tacos, Lehja and Saison.
The program is free for participants, with Hatch Helps leading the way. Green said the program cost would depend on the products, although he estimated that each concept would cost $ 5,000 to $ 10,000. Green said he assumed the group would seek sponsors to help fund future cohorts.
Karina Benavides, who co-owns Abuelita’s with her husband Everardo Fonseca, said she thought about jumping into packaged goods before joining Hatch’s program but felt unsure how to steer the process.
Abuelitas owners Karina Benavides and Everardo Fonseca. Abuelitas is one of four restaurants participating in a Hatch program to develop packaged foods from their menus. (BizSense file)
Midlothian restaurant opened in 2018 and has a menu with an emphasis on Spanish stews called guisos. For its packaged product, Benavides said, Abuelita plans to develop a birria paste that home cooks use as a meat-flavored sauce.
“There is very little we can do to grow the business now and this is an easy way to get the brand out there,” said Benavides, referring to the hiring challenges. “We want people to still come to the restaurant, but because Abuelitas is at home, you want people to feel like they can cook the food at home.”
Hatch is still working through exactly where the restaurant’s products are sold. While the Hatch Kitchen facilities are used to manufacture the products during the program, participants can relocate their production upon request after completing the course.
Hatch publicly announced the program on May 24, but it has been running since spring.
The program is designed to help restaurants find new sources of income from their existing groceries after a difficult year of closings and limited operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’ve been thinking about ways to help food business operators in the community for the past year since COVID started affecting food and beverage businesses,” Green said.
The Hatch mentor network is running the classes which have been largely one on one due to the pandemic. Group lessons are possible for future participants.
Hatch Helps was launched as a community feeding program in early 2020. The organization pays for the ingredients and Hatch members donate time to make food that the program distributes.
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