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Two rural West Virginia cooks, with hopes of owning successful food truck businesses, are about to become the first ever graduates of a new, innovative program that organizers hope has set them up for success.
The Bluefield West Virginia Economic Authority’s (BEDA) new Food Truck Incubator program not only offers free online business training to anyone, it also provides the use of a fully loaded food truck for two months for qualified participants.
“We have two trucks that were funded through the Appalachian Regional Commission,” said Jim Spencer, the organization’s executive director. “Once people meet the requirements with their business plan, they have to go through our entrepreneurial bootcamp, which is an award winning boot camp partnership with Santa Clara University, then they’re eligible for the use of one of our vehicles for 60 days.”
Funded through a grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission as well as through local funders, the program offers the trucks to participants in Fayette, McDowell, Mercer, Monroe, Nicholas, Pocahontas, Raleigh, Summers, Webster, and Wyoming counties.
“They will actually take the food truck out in the field. We will help them get set up and they can actually try it out,” Spencer said.
“We will take some of their live data from their sales so they’ve got a business plan to take and go to a bank or a micro-loan program to help them get started with either their own food truck or trailer and go into business,” he added.
BEDA offers a host of other free business incubator programs. For more information and to apply, visit. mybluefield.org.
