This Saturday, The Momentary in Bentonville is hosting an afternoon full of local food entrepreneurs. Emerge NWA Food Festival is a production of Cureate Courses, a 10-week educational program designed for farm, food and beverage business owners in the region. Kim Bryden is the CEO of Cureate. She was joined by Reese Roberts, local restaurant owner and co-facilitator for Cureate Courses, in the Bruce and Ann Applegate News Studio earlier this week. Kim says this weekend's event is a version of something they've done multiple times. It's a capstone celebratory event at the end of the coursework to highlight the businesses.
Bryden: We wanted to make sure that the community understood that these were emerging businesses — individuals who are really excited to showcase themselves and these new products they're bringing to market, or reinventing themselves from maybe a brand they had and trying to go through a new identity. Hence the emergence. This is also right after Earth Day, so there's another aspect around what it means to be sustainable. We think shopping local is where sustainability starts. We have a lot of activations that center around sustainability, from Tattoo Your Clothes and Library Vintage, and then also supporting our business owners to make sure that Earth Day and sustainability is looped into this entire theme.
Moore: Reese, for you, what excites you the most about this Saturday's event?
Roberts: I am a really big supporter of the local economy. Shopping local can have a multiplier effect — how important it is to keep our workforce as close to home and their work as close to their homes as we possibly can. And I love the fact that this takes that one circle wider. I know that I personally made a lot of connections through Cureate even before I was a co-facilitator. I was a judge, and before I was a judge I was just invited to events, and the connections I've had going to talk to people who were tabling at Cureate events in the past has provided some really lifelong business connections for us to be able to source from each other. And then as we've hashed out the details, everything's very fun and exciting. I love that you get one bite from each vendor, and then there are additional opportunities to purchase more of whatever item you're a big fan of. Or if you're interested in thrifting or tattooing your clothes, you can do that too. Or just come and dance and have 20 bites.
Moore: Let's talk a little bit about what we can expect the day of that event. Are we expecting people who just want to support local businesses and enjoy some food? Are we thinking about people who are looking for potential collaborations, or people who can look at this not just as a way to invest in their community, but a way to invest in their own business too?
Bryden: I love all of those ideas. Yes. It's $35, and as Reese said, it's one bite from every single business that is featured, and additionally you can purchase goods from those business owners beyond that one bite. So if you're just a general consumer who wants a fun activity on a Saturday, all the way through to someone curious to figure out if any of these businesses are possible collaborators — come one, come all. And what's fun is you'll get a passport where every bite gets marked off. At the bottom of the passport, you get to vote for your favorite bite or business owner — the community vote. That is an additional cash prize we're giving away. We have two $5,000 cash prizes based on judges' scoring, determined in advance. But the day of, the general public has a chance to vote on the community prize winner, which is $1,000 on the table. You get a direct hand in determining who on the sales floor gets that $1,000 cash prize.
Moore: When we think about the legacy of Cureate — 100 businesses who have come through your coursework, who have gone on to do great, meaningful, important work here in the community — what does it mean to you when you think about 100 businesses that you have played a role in moving forward, or helping them launch something that maybe they didn't see themselves being able to do?
Bryden: That's a really cool question and I've been thinking about this a lot. I want someone out there to do a five-year longitudinal study on what this grand trajectory looks like, because someone from five years ago — Stephanie of Bartleby's, as an example — was our first cohort, fall of 2021. She has gone on to not just grow Bartleby's but also open Spring Kitchen. And now she is a platform for other business owners to launch and scale their businesses, including graduates from our last cohort, Margaret's and Margaret Roots. There are so many communities that maybe don't think about how each of them is also a buyer or launch pad to the next business opportunity. I can even see amongst our courses participants these collaborations and new sales emerging because they've done business with one another. One other fun example is our last community prize winner, Beverly of Middle Child Cookies. She has now partnered with a different graduate of ours, Sandy Tan of Chooky, and now sells at the Fayetteville Farmers Market a cookies-on-a-biscuit collaboration. So it's not just incubation of space or being on menu items, but even co-collaboration on product development. All of that is just remarkable to see. And I'm really curious to see where even these businesses take that next step.
Kim Bryden is the CEO of Cureate. Reese Roberts is a local restaurant owner and co-facilitator for Cureate Courses. Emerge NWA Food Festival is this Saturday at The Momentary, noon to 4 p.m. Tickets are selling out fast and are available at theMomentary.org.
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