⁄Spotlight⁄ More Cooks in the Kitchen Oregonians are proud of the state’s array of small, locally produced food. But small- and medium-batch food manufacturers struggle to find spaces to make and package their products, especially when it’s time to scale up. BY CHRISTEN McCURDY WHEN NIKKI GUERRERO MOVED to Portland in the 2000s, she struggled to find food with the flavors that she grew up eating in Arizona. And in 2008, she decided to start making them herself. At first she made Hot Mama Salsa in the kitchen of a North Portland bar, Albina Green, while it was closed during the day. In exchange for use of the bar’s kitchen, she prepped food for the staff to cook on shift. She sold fresh salsa at Cherry Sprout Market, which was adjacent to the bar, and a couple of farmers markets. Once her daughter was in preschool, she was able to scale up, making wholesale deals with grocers like New Seasons. She’s also expanded her product line to include hot sauces, Mexican chili oils and tortilla chips. Scaling up meant moving out of the kitchen of the bar — which by then had changed hands and been renamed the Red Fox — and into a commissary kitchen in North Portland, then into a shared kitchen space in Portland’s Hollywood neighborhood. And when she spoke to Oregon Business in October, Guerrero was in another phase of expanding. Starting in November, she’s due to take over half of the New Seasons Central Kitchen in Southeast Portland, which the grocery chain opened in 2015 but closed in 2019, and which has sat unused ever since. The other half of the facility will be occupied by Community Co-Pack NW, which has also been helping produce Guerrero’s tortilla chips JASON E. KAPLAN Nikki Guerrero in the kitchen space she will begin using in November for the past year and a half. “It’s much more space than I need, and it’s beautiful, state-of-the-art equipment. So I’m thinking, ‘How can we best utilize that space?’” Guerrero says. “There’s a big need for co-packing in the industry all around,” Guerrero says. “But one of the things that is almost nonexistent is small-scale co-packing, where the owners can be involved in the process, where they can do their own sourcing so that they can be able to use more local produce and ingredients.” “There’s a big need for co-packing in the industry all around. But one of the things that is almost nonexistent is small-scale co-packing, where the owners can be involved in the process, where they can do their own sourcing so that they can be able to use more local produce and ingredients.” NIKKI GUERRERO 18
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