- Rachel Munson & Lisa Weiskopf
Bemidji Brewing raises funds for Harmony's Community Kitchen
2017 marks the fifth year of perhaps one of Harmony’s most noteworthy contributions to the community: Harmony’s Community Commercial Kitchen.
Many of you know the story of Harmony’s Community Kitchen thanks to the highly successful entrepreneurial team, Bemidji Brewing Company, who became Harmony’s first entrepreneurial Kitchen client in 2012 and a year later opened their own storefront taproom. Now, five years later, Bemidji Brewing Company’s products are sold in over 40 area restaurants and partner businesses. Kind of a model first client to say the least!
The success of Bemidji Brewing is truly a result of the hard work, positive outlook, and cooperative spirit that this team deeply embodies. When you partner these exceptional and innovative qualities with a community committed to investing locally, the results can be amazing.
In October, in celebration of their five-year anniversary, Bemidji Brewing donated $130 dollars to the Community Kitchen Scholarship Fund, which is designated to helping small local entrepreneurs start their business.
"For every unit of our fan-favorite beer releases sold, Bemidji Brewing would like to donate $1 to Harmony's Community Kitchen," said Tina Kaney, Director of Internal Relations at Bemidji Brewing.
In the five years since Bemidji Brewing “graduated” from Harmony’s Kitchen, Harmony has continued to seek new ways to partner with local entrepreneurs and food-innovators to create new products and locally-owned food businesses within our region. One way we’ve done this is by offering Kitchen scholarships to both individual entrepreneurs and non-profit organizations.
In a 2016 interview, Megan Betters Hill of Bemidji Brewing said, "The Harmony Community Kitchen enabled Bemidji Brewing to start as a very small operation, allowing us to prove a market existed for local beer in Bemidji. Without this important launching point it would have been extremely burdensome to advance our business, as it is such a capital intensive industry."
For more information about Harmony’s Community Kitchen Scholarship program, contact Lisa Weiskopf at harmonycoopproduce@gmail.com. Thank you to all of you who keep these local partnerships alive by dreaming big and shopping locally!
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