Center for Regional Food Systems

Hundreds of packaged food businesses across Michigan get their start in shared-use commercial kitchens. Often called incubator kitchens, these facilities provide affordable, low-barrier access to licensed production space, equipment, and support services for emerging food entrepreneurs. Since 2015, the Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems has coordinated the Michigan Incubator Kitchen Network, a member-driven community that connects and supports kitchen operators throughout the state.

Over the years, one challenge has consistently surfaced among network members: successful food businesses often outgrow the incubator environment before they are able to invest in their own production facility. As sales increase, businesses require more kitchen time, creating scheduling pressures and limiting access for newer entrepreneurs entering the market. This growth bottleneck highlights the need for additional stages within Michigan’s food business ecosystem.

Accelerator kitchens, food business manufacturing spaces, and pop-up retail or food service venues can help bridge this gap. These spaces provide growing businesses with opportunities to increase production, test products and concepts, expand customer reach, and refine operations before making the significant leap to a co–manufacturing or standalone facility.

The opportunity is substantial. With the U.S. packaged food market valued at more than $1 trillion and projected to continue growing (Feb 2024, Grand View Research), Michigan communities have a unique chance to support entrepreneurship, downtown revitalization, and local economic development through investments in food business infrastructure. By incorporating accelerator spaces and flexible retail opportunities into redevelopment and community planning efforts, developers and municipalities can help foster business growth while creating vibrant, food-centered destinations.

Several Michigan organizations are already demonstrating how these solutions can strengthen the state's food entrepreneurship ecosystem. In Muskegon, the Food, Agriculture, Research, and Manufacturing (FARM) Accelerator and Food Hub, operated by the MSU Product Center, provides manufacturing space for consumer packaged goods companies seeking to scale production. In Lansing, the Allen Neighborhood Center extends support beyond its incubator kitchen by offering accelerator space that allows food service entrepreneurs to test and expand their business concepts.

More recently, Growing Hope in Ypsilanti has stepped forward to address this growing need. The nonprofit organization has long operated a shared-use commercial kitchen and has helped numerous entrepreneurs launch successful food businesses, including several that have moved into their own brick-and-mortar locations. Yet demand for affordable production and retail space has continued to outpace availability. In response, Growing Hope will open a new accelerator space in 2026, creating additional opportunities for food entrepreneurs to grow, experiment, and prepare for long-term success.

In June 2026, Jamie Rahrig, Director of Food and Farm Business Assistance at CRFS had a conversation with Julius Buzzard, Executive Director, Growing Hope. A native Michigander rooted in Ypsilanti, Julius brings over a decade of nonprofit and education experience to work that is guided by three principles: relationships matter, food is for everyone, and the land will be our liberator. He co-instructs the Food Literacy for All course at the University of Michigan, serves on the MSU AgBio Research Advisory Council, and is actively involved with the Washtenaw Food Policy Council and the Washtenaw County Black Farmers Fund. Julius believes in the power of storytelling, the necessity of dismantling systems that harm, and the possibility of building something new. Julius shared about their newest accelerator initiative helping to strengthen Michigan’s food business ecosystem and creating new pathways for entrepreneurs to scale their ventures.

Julius, tell us about yourself. What is your background and what do you want people to know about you and your work?

Buzzard: I am a food sovereignty advocate, community organizer, and the Executive Director of Growing Hope, a Ypsilanti-based nonprofit building equitable food systems through urban farming, farmers markets, youth leadership, and food entrepreneurship. Growing Hope is a food sovereignty nonprofit rooted in Ypsilanti, Michigan. We believe that communities, particularly those that have been systematically excluded from economic and food systems, deserve the power to decide what they grow, what they eat, and how they build wealth. We operate an urban demonstration farm, run the Ypsilanti Farmers Market, support home and community gardeners, and run a food entrepreneurship pipeline that takes people from idea to storefront. Everything we do is anchored in the conviction that access to land, food, and economic opportunity is a right.

What is your role at Growing Hope?

Buzzard: I serve as Executive Director, which means I hold the vision while making sure the lights stay on and the people doing the real work have what they need. I came to this role because I believe food systems are justice systems. My job is to hold space for our community's self-determination while building the infrastructure (financial, relational, political) that makes that self-determination durable.

Tell us about the new accelerator space coming to Growing Hope.

Buzzard: The Growing Hope Accelerator Kitchen is under construction right now at our Ypsilanti Farmers MarketPlace campus at 16 S. Washington Street in downtown Ypsilanti. It's a fully licensed, shared commercial kitchen with expanded cold storage, prep space, kitchen equipment, and a collaborative retail storefront where multiple makers can sell directly to the public. We expect it to open in the summer of 2026. It's designed specifically for food businesses that have outgrown our incubator kitchen; entrepreneurs who are ready to enter retail and wholesale markets but face real structural barriers to doing so without incurring unsustainable debt.

Why is having the accelerator space important?

Buzzard: Because the gap between "I have a product people love" and "I can sustain a business" is enormous, and it's not random who falls into that gap. It's disproportionately Black entrepreneurs, immigrant entrepreneurs, women, and people without generational wealth or credit history. Our incubator has supported more than 70 food entrepreneurs and helped launch 17 brick-and-mortar businesses. But we kept watching people hit the ceiling. They needed more production capacity, longer rental windows, cold storage, or a place to sell. The accelerator is a stepping stone, with the goal of promoting success for all inputs on our local food system.

Why should developers, downtown district associations, and economic developers be thinking about offering opportunities like Growing Hope’s accelerator for food manufacturing or food service pop-up spaces?

Buzzard: Because food businesses are anchor businesses. They draw foot traffic, create daily reasons for people to return to a downtown corridor, employ local residents, and circulate food dollars locally in ways that chain retail simply cannot. Right now, Michigan has a serious shortage of licensed, affordable commercial kitchen space, particularly for small producers and food service entrepreneurs who don't have the capital to build their own. This type of infrastructure fosters a larger ecosystem; it’s a placemaking strategy.

How can organizations partner with Growing Hope to help connect more farmers and food businesses?

Buzzard: We're always looking for partners who share our values and want to build something together. Right now, our Shared Kitchen Network is growing; we're connecting underutilized licensed kitchen spaces across Washtenaw County with entrepreneurs who need them. Organizations with kitchen space, cold storage, or aggregation infrastructure can join that network. Farmers markets, food cooperatives, and economic development organizations can help us open new market channels for our entrepreneurs. Funders can invest in this movement work or directly support our entrepreneurship programming. Reach out at getintouch@growinghope.net.

Do you have a favorite success story for Growing Hope?

Buzzard: I have to point you to Eric Kinsler-Holloway and EK's Cheesecakes. Eric came to our incubator kitchen because he'd outgrown his home oven, had real orders coming in, and wanted to do things right. What he found wasn't just a commercial kitchen. He found a community of fellow entrepreneurs, mentorship he didn't know he needed, help getting state-certified and insured, and a sounding board for every decision along the way. He eventually graduated into his own space, a certified commercial kitchen he shares with other food entrepreneurs he met along the way. That's the pipeline working exactly as it should.

You can hear Eric tell it in his own words in the April 2026 WEMU On the Ground Ypsi feature. It's eleven minutes well spent.

Any final thoughts or words?

Buzzard: Michigan has the soil, the water, the talent, and the cultural richness to be a national model for equitable food systems. What we need is the infrastructure to ensure that the people who have always fed this land are the ones who get to thrive on it. Growing Hope is proof that community-centered food infrastructure works.

Reference

Grand View Research. (February 2024). U.S. packaged food market size & share report, 2022–2030. Retrieved June 30, 2026, from https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/us-packaged-food-market

About Michigan Incubator Kitchen Network

The Michigan Incubator Kitchen Network (MIKN) assists shared use commercial kitchens, also known as incubator kitchens or food business accelerators, and their communities of food business entrepreneurs through peer-to-peer learning, business development, and technical support. MIKN was originally conceived of and formed by a program of Eastern Market Partnership in 2015. The Network is currently coordinated by MSU Center for Regional Food Systems staff.

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