Jen Faigel News Today

At CommonWealth Kitchen, a Dorchester nonprofit that serves as home base for food entrepreneurs, chef Kevin Doherty is cooking up a new kind of falafel — with no chickpeas in sight.

It is a story repeating itself elsewhere in Massachusetts, and it's clear why: Food has always provided a natural path to entrepreneurship for immigrants.

How a hard-working juice salesman built a suburban real estate empire — and why he’s now focused on giving it away.

We're joined by Corey Thomas, chairman and CEO of Rapid7, Aoife Brennan, president and CEO of Synlogic, and Jen Faigel, executive director of CommonWealth Kitchen.

The typical site visit for higher-ups at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) include muddy boots, rolling fields of wheat in the Midwest, or fruit-filled orchards in California, but this week the USDA came to Dorchester to promote the agency’s interest in an urban agriculture model underway at two sites in our neighborhood.

In Boston, the CommonWealth Kitchen has cooked up a successful model of community economic development by incubating businesses in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Crucially, financial profit was not the main goal but the real rewards might be invaluable.

More than 50 food-focused small businesses can rest easier this week as their shared facility on Quincy Street – Commonwealth Kitchen – announced its $7 million acquisition of the building, while also beginning a $4 million capital campaign for expansion. Jen Faigel, Commonwealth Kitchen’s executive director, told the Reporter the purchase of the former Bornstein and Pearl

In Boston, the average white-owned food business earns $1.1 million per year, while Hispanic-owned businesses earn $243,000 and Black-owned businesses earn $475,681. Can partnerships like this one help close those disparities?

Food incubator CommonWealth Kitchen buys 36,000-square-foot space in Dorchester Amy Sokolow © Provided by Boston Herald BOSTON, MA - July 23: Jen Faigel, Executive Director & Co-Founder of CommonWealth Kitchen gives a tour in Dorchester on July 23, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Staff Photo By Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald) CommonWealth Kitchen, a Dorchester-based nonprofit that helps food startups get off the ground, is settling into its new permanent home in the...