The Community Foundation of St. Clair County is working to support food entrepreneurs and business owners in Port Huron through the purchase of a local restaurant.  

The community foundation is in the process of buying the Atrium Café in downtown Port Huron and launch a network of community kitchens for entrepreneurs. 

According to an article, “the Atrium Café & Ice Cream Parlour will be transformed into Atrium Kitchen as part of the Thumbcoast Kitchens project, which will allow food truck owners, chefs, caterers, bakers and other food entrepreneurs to rent the space and access bigger markets with their business.”

The community foundation is partnering with CMF members the James C. Acheson Foundation and DTE Energy Foundation, and accessing financial support from the Momentum Fund, to help purchase, run and manage Atrium Kitchen and the future network of kitchens.

They are also working to add a local church’s kitchen to the program with hopes of expanding to other kitchens around the county. 

“Think of it as Airbnb for commercial kitchens,” Randa Jundi-Samman, board chair of the community foundation said. “We will use this anchor site, and hopefully the kitchen at Grace Church, to create a new network of commercial, licensed kitchens that can be rented by the hour or day.”

The space at Atrium Kitchen can be used as a pop-up restaurant and entrepreneurs can hold events there tied to their business. The organization is also acquiring Atrium Café's liquor license. 

Jackie Hanton, vice president of the community foundation, shared in the article that rates are still being finalized but there will be a per-hour cost to rent community kitchen space, and different times and spaces will be available. Kitchens in the network will get a percentage of the profits.

“In addition to continuing to invest locally for economic development, this opportunity will also allow us to bring vibrancy and good use back to a closed restaurant and provide local churches an opportunity to put their underutilized licensed commercial kitchens to use for their community,” Hanton told CMF.

Jennifer Oertel, CMF’s impact investing expert in residence, shared that there are many aspects of this project that exemplify how impact investing can address community needs.

“The community foundation listened to its community members about what needs they perceived; they identified a unique solution to meeting some of those needs that goes beyond simple grantmaking by creating a revenue stream to support the good work; and the community foundation collaborated with other stakeholders for financing,” Oertel said.

The Thumbcoast Kitchen Project, which the Atrium Café is a part of, was a result of a listening tour. 

“I look forward to watching the progress of this project and its positive impact on the greater Port Huron community. I hope that other communities are inspired and challenged to explore ways to put their investment resources to work in their own places,” Oertel said.