As demand for local food grows and Nevada works to strengthen its food systems, University of Nevada, Reno Extension is giving local food entrepreneurs the opportunity to grow their businesses and also participate in a free 10-week technical assistance training offered by Extension.
The free online training is open to all food entrepreneurs and runs 6-8 p.m., April 24 through June 26. It covers essential business skills, including accounting, business planning, regulatory requirements, business model creation, product development, pricing strategies and more to help entrepreneurs thrive in a competitive market. The training is designed for those in transportation, logistics, harvesting, processing, cold storage, bakeries, millers, commercial canning, food trucks, retail and aggregation.
These efforts are all part of a larger effort that began in 2022, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service allocated $400 million to establish Regional Food Business Centers nationwide to strengthen local and regional food systems after the vulnerabilities exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic. To support the federal initiative, the University and the Nevada Department of Agriculture were subsequently selected as key partners in the Southwest Regional Food Business Center, collaborating with other land-grant and public institutions.
BUILDING CONNECTIONS AND SUPPORT FOR NEVADA FOOD ENTREPRENEURS
Shiva Kittusamy, coordinator with Extension’s Regional Southwest Food Business Center-Nevada, and Kelli Kelly, the agriculture and food systems business advisor for the Nevada Small Business Development Center, developed the technical assistance curriculum, with additional insight and support from several partners of the food business center, including Extension’s Healthy Food Systems Program and the University’s Desert Farming Initiative.
Kittusamy, Kelly and the rest of the technical assistance team have been building a support network for food entrepreneurs in Nevada. They have helped link local farmers with buyers, including restaurants seeking unique ingredients, by leveraging resources such as the Grown in Nevada platform, which is overseen by the Nevada Small Business Development Center, as well as the Nevada Department of Agriculture.
“Our goal is to help food businesses in Nevada increase profitability and diversify their markets so that they remain sustainable even during economic downturns,” Kittusamy said. “Our technical assistance curriculum introduces participants to modern strategies for running a business in today’s rapidly changing industry.”
The team also has been providing business guidance to several local food entrepreneurs, including Alvaro Alvaro, owner of the food truck business El Tacontento. After years of struggling with rising food costs and increasing competition, Alvaro was ready to give up on his family business — until he met Kittusamy’s team.
“After a series of consultations, we helped him develop a list of creative strategies to reduce operational costs and diversify his income streams to stay competitive in a saturated market,” Kittusamy said.
The solutions that helped keep Alvaro’s business running are part of the curriculum that the technical assistance team will present in the free 10-week online training.
Interested participants should register online by April 22 for the 10-week training. For more information on the technical assistance online training, contact Kittusamy at skittusamy@unr.edu.
Extension is a unit of the University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Agriculture, Biotechnology & Natural Resources engaged in Nevada communities, presenting research-based knowledge to address critical community needs. It is a county-state-federal partnership providing practical education to people, businesses and communities. For more information on its programs, visit extension.unr.edu.
The University of Nevada, Reno, is a public research university that is committed to the promise of a future powered by knowledge. As a Nevada land-grant university founded in 1874, the university serves 21,000 students. The university is a comprehensive, doctoral university, classified as an R1 institution with very high research activity by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. Additionally, it has attained the prestigious “Carnegie Engaged” classification, reflecting its student and institutional impact on civic engagement and service, fostered by extensive community and statewide collaborations. More than $800 million in advanced labs, residence halls and facilities has been invested on campus since 2009. It is home to the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine and Wolf Pack Athletics, maintains a statewide outreach mission and presence through programs such as the University of Nevada, Reno Extension, Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, Small Business Development Center, Nevada Seismological Laboratory, and is part of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Through a commitment to world-improving research, student success and outreach benefiting the communities and businesses of Nevada, the University has impact across the state and around the world. For more information, visit unr.edu.
