Okanagan Edge introduces a new feature called How to Hack It in Kelowna, an interview series produced by Teng He of REFRAKT.MEDIA. By profiling Kelowna entrepreneurs who have started from the ground up, it reveals how they were able to manifest their dreams in a rapidly transforming city.
He, a Kelowna videographer, digital marketer and content creator, uses the series to take a look at small businesses and what they are doing to grab a piece of the pie in the competitive Okanagan market.
Here is the second instalment of How to Hack It in Kelowna:
It’s a restaurant, a cooking school, a community kitchen, a catering company, too—and it’s all served by its own local farm. When Michael Buffett started teaching cooking classes at the Kelowna Canadian Mental Health Association in 2016, he planted the seeds that would grow into the Start Fresh Project Society.
Start Fresh offers farm-to-table culinary training free of charge to qualified candidates with disadvantaged life circumstances, but anyone can come taste the fare at the Start Fresh Kitchen. They also host weekly events, including boutique cooking classes in collaboration with other businesses in the community, providing a space for local foodies to come mingle and pick up new chops in the kitchen.
It’s an unconventional business model, and Buffett took an unconventional path from chef to educator to social entrepreneur. He had to make several sacrifices and had a few inspirational moments that were pivotal to getting Start Fresh where it is today.
“One of our participants, in a feedback survey, told me that when she signed up it was just about her needing to get a job, but the process of coming to the class every week and being a part of this community, getting out on the farm, and getting her hands in the dirt, and just learning to eat better became such a bigger part of her recovery, that it was what helped her stay sober,” Buffett said. “That was really meaningful to me.”
With a social mandate of helping expand employment opportunities for at-risk people in a tough job market, Start Fresh implements a triple bottom line approach to value creation, emphasizing environmental and social impacts on the community alongside monetary profit.
You can visit the Start Fresh Kitchen in Kelowna’s Landmark Village, where it shares the ground floor lobby of the Landmark 2 building with Third Space Coffee—another local social enterprise with which Start Fresh collaborates closely.
— shot by Teng He, Curtis Allen (www.solidrockvideo.com)
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